Pajero Resale Value. What Yours Is Really Worth

Someone will tell you a Pajero is a money pit nobody wants. Someone else will tell you clean Gen 4s are about to go collectible. Both are guessing.

So I pulled every Mitsubishi Pajero listing I could reach on South African classifieds in August 2026. Cars.co.za, MyCars, Gumtree, CarFind and Auto.co.za. Around 150 cars. What follows is Pajero resale value described by the real market, not by a percentage somebody invented.

The headline finding. A Gen 4 3.2 DiD falls hard for eight years and then very nearly stops.

The Gen 4 curve, built from live asking prices

Mileage varies inside each model year, which is why the bands are wide.

Model year	Asking band	Sample listing
2021	R765 000 to R880 000	45 000 km SWB at R879 900
2020	around R650 000	143 546 km at R649 900
2019	R530 000 to R699 000	74 000 km at R699 000
2018	R550 000 to R600 000	79 370 km at R599 900
2017	around R465 000	182 000 km at R464 995
2016	around R500 000	130 000 km at R499 900
2015	R420 000 to R540 000	94 700 km at R539 890
2014	R310 000 to R330 000	280 000 km at R309 990
2013	R250 000 to R385 000	32 425 km at R384 200
2012	R250 000 to R321 000	188 691 km at R321 000
2011	R300 000 to R343 000	49 143 km at R343 400
2010	R250 000 to R315 000	64 253 km at R314 600
2009	R190 000 to R260 000	146 500 km at R230 000
2008	R140 000 to R290 000	306 000 km at R139 999
2007	R147 000 to R230 000	197 793 km at R184 800

Look at the shape rather than the numbers. From 2021 back to 2015 the price drops roughly R60 000 to R80 000 per model year. From 2014 back to 2007 the entire market fits inside one R140 000 to R330 000 pool. Eight model years, one price band.

That flat tail is the most useful thing an owner can know. If your Pajero is a 2012 with 200 000 km on it, another year of ownership costs almost nothing in depreciation. If it is a 2019, another year costs real money.

Asking prices are not selling prices

Everything above is what sellers want. Nobody publishes what South African cars actually change hands for. TransUnion and Lightstone hold that data and sell it to dealers, banks and insurers rather than to you.

Two things push a listings snapshot too high. Overpriced cars sit for months while sensibly priced ones sell in a week, so any snapshot is loaded with the stubborn ones. And dealers price in room to negotiate.

Treat retail asking as the ceiling. What a dealer hands you is trade value, well below it, because the dealer must recondition, warrant, floorplan and still earn. Cars.co.za listed only 72 to 75 Pajeros nationally when I checked, against more than 600 Fortuner 2.8s. Thin markets give noisy prices and slow sales.

Gen 3 and Pajero Sport, briefly

Gen 3 has bottomed. Live asks run from R69 900 for a 2003 with 267 058 km to R179 800 for a 2004 3200 DiD GLS with 300 029 km, most between R95 000 and R175 000. Year barely matters. Condition, rust and paperwork set the number. There is even a tell that the curve has turned, because a 1997 Gen 2 3.0 GLS with 155 788 km asks R120 000, more than several early Gen 3s.

The Pajero Sport is different because it is still in production. A 2020 Pajero Sport 2.4D 4×4 auto listed new at R659 995. A 2020 example with 89 952 km asks R418 900 today, or 63 percent of list after six years. It depreciates like a normal SUV because supply keeps arriving and it fights the Fortuner head on.

Production ended in 2021, and that changes the arithmetic

Mitsubishi stopped building the Pajero in 2021. South Africa got a farewell run of exactly 100 Legend 100 units at R779 995 for the three door and R869 995 for the five door. Supply is now fixed and shrinking. Every Pajero written off, stripped or exported is gone for good, and the enthusiast base is not shrinking at that rate.

Has that lifted clean Gen 4 prices? In nominal rands the top of the market looks extraordinary. A 2015 3.2 GLS SWB listed new at R569 900 in October 2014, and a 2015 SWB with 94 700 km asks R539 890 today. That reads like a 95 percent hold over eleven years.

It is not. South African cumulative inflation from 2014 to 2026 ran about 71.6 percent, so R569 900 in 2014 buys what R977 930 buys now. Against that, R539 890 is roughly 55 percent. The owner still lost about 45 percent in real terms. They just did it slowly.

My read. Clean, low mileage Gen 4 asking prices have flattened and the best cars have firmed. They have not started rising in real terms, and the listings do not support anyone who claims they have. What changed is that the floor stopped moving.

What the Gen 5 does to your Gen 4

The nameplate is coming back. Mitsubishi South Africa has confirmed a successor, with a global reveal expected in the second half of 2026 and a local launch in 2027. Our new Pajero page tracks what is confirmed against what is speculation.

Two honest arguments exist. New metal on the showroom floor gives buyers an alternative and makes old stock look older. A revived nameplate also drags attention back to the back catalogue and pulls in people who never considered a Pajero.

Both happen, to different cars. Current estimates put the Gen 5 around R800 000 to R1 300 000, nowhere near a 2012 Pajero buyer. It competes directly with 2019 to 2021 Gen 4s, and those face a soft patch through 2027 and 2028. Everything from 2015 back is already priced as an old 4×4 and feels the attention bump more than the pressure. If you own a late Gen 4 and planned to sell inside three years, sell before the Gen 5 lands.

How the Pajero compares to a Cruiser or Fortuner

Toyota wins the percentage argument and everyone knows it. Cars.co.za ran the numbers on a Fortuner 2.8 GD-6 4×4 bought at R736 000 and found it shed R190 641 over five years. That is 26 percent, about 6 percent a year. No Pajero does that.

Now the counter argument, with live numbers. Percentages are not what you spend. Rands are. A cheaper car losing a bigger percentage often loses fewer rands, because both land in the same old 4×4 pool at the bottom.

Option A. A 2011 Pajero 3.2 DiD GLS at R299 899 with 246 700 km. Drive it 100 000 km over five years. Cars past 300 000 km currently sit between R140 000 and R230 000 regardless of year. Call it R200 000. Loss of roughly R100 000, or 33 percent.

Option B. A 2014 Fortuner 3.0 D-4D 4×4 at R389 995 with 116 150 km. Same five years, same distance. A 2013 Fortuner 4×4 with 223 000 km asks R299 900 today. Call it R290 000. Loss of roughly R100 000, or 26 percent.

Same rand loss. The Fortuner wins on percentage, and you paid R90 000 more to get in. That R90 000 sat in your account for five years instead of Toyota’s. This is a projection built from named inputs, not a promise, but it shows the shape of the honest answer.

Where Toyota genuinely wins is liquidity. A Fortuner sells in a week. A Pajero can sit for three months.

What actually moves the number on your car

Service history. Your biggest lever. A South African depreciation guide puts a full stamped history at R10 000 to R30 000 of resale value, and trade in guides are blunt that a complete book materially lifts the offer. On a Pajero it matters more than average, because buyers know about the timing chain guides and the crankshaft pulley and want proof. Our Gen 4 buyer’s guide covers what they look for.

Mileage. Under 100 000 km carries a serious premium at any age. A 2013 with 32 425 km asks R384 200 while a 2013 GLX with 292 000 km asks R249 900. Past 300 000 km the price stops responding to model year at all. If you are close to 100 000, 200 000 or 300 000 km, sell before you cross.

Accessories. A heavily built Pajero sells for less to a dealer and more to a private buyer. The dealer cannot warrant your suspension lift, cannot certify your dual battery wiring, and has to price the risk that a bull bar hides a bent chassis rail. Your R120 000 of kit becomes R0 on a trade in sheet. A private buyer who wants that exact build pays for it. Never trade in a modified Pajero. Sell it yourself and photograph every receipt.

Diesel against the 3.8 V6. The widest gap on the whole car. A 2007 3800i with 218 034 km asks R95 900. A 2007 3.2 DiD SWB with 334 285 km asks R229 995. The petrol V6, with 116 000 fewer kilometres, asks less than half. If you own the 3.8, price it against other 3.8s and ignore the diesel numbers.

The rest of it, in short.

Factor	Effect on your number	What the evidence says
Colour	White, silver and grey hold roughly R5 000 to R20 000 better	A local depreciation guide. Too few odd colour Pajeros are listed to prove a model specific figure
Trim	GLS and Exceed ask R40 000 to R65 000 over GLX at the same year and mileage	Live August 2026 listings
Legend 100	Unproven	Not one appeared in any listing I checked. With 100 units in the country, the logic says a premium exists
Rust	Surface rust costs about 10 percent. Structural rust costs 20 percent or more	On a ladder frame 4×4 a rotten sill or chassis rail ends the sale. Get it on a lift before you list
Coastal history	Priced as a rust risk until proven otherwise	A Durban or Cape Town car whose underbody never saw a hose after a beach run will be found
Automatic against manual	No effect	Every Gen 4 in roughly 150 South African listings was automatic. The question does not arise here

Trade in against private sale

Nobody publishes an average South African trade to retail spread by model. What you can see is the channel gap in the listings. The same year at similar mileage moves R100 000 or more between a franchise dealer floor, a private Gumtree ad and a bank repossession auction site.

Get three numbers before you decide. A dealer trade in valuation, an offer from a buy your car outfit, and the asking price of the three closest live listings. Your private sale lands under that third number and above the first two.

Private sale pays more on paper. It also costs you weekend viewings, tyre kickers, payment fraud risk and possibly bridging finance if you still owe the bank. If the gap is R25 000, take the trade. If it is R80 000 on a modified car, sell it yourself.

Where to sell, and what each channel costs

Channel	What it costs you	Best for
Franchise dealer trade in	The trade to retail spread. VAT relief on the replacement car partly offsets it	Speed and safety
Buy your car outfits	Offers usually near trade, no listing fee	A high mileage car you want gone today
AutoTrader or Cars.co.za private ad	A listing fee that changes regularly, so check their own site rather than any number in an article, including this one	Best reach for a genuine private sale
Gumtree and Facebook groups	Almost nothing, plus your patience	Built Pajeros, because enthusiast buyers look here
Dealer consignment	A cut of the sale	A modified car you have no time to show

Sell before or after a big service item

Sell before. Always, on an old Pajero.

If a timing chain inspection, a crankshaft pulley or a set of tyres falls due in the next 10 000 km, that money does not come back. Buyers discount unknown future work by less than it costs, because they are optimistic and you are not. Disclose what is due, price accordingly, let them own it.

The exception is anything that makes the car unsellable. Bald tyres, dead aircon or a check engine light cost more in lost buyers than the repair costs. Our parts availability and cost guide tells you what you are facing.

The R5 000 of preparation that returns the most

Costs are estimates. Phone your own suppliers. The ranking matters more than the rand.

A professional valet, engine bay included. Cheapest lever, biggest effect on the first thirty seconds of a viewing.
The second key. A missing key gets deducted at the dealer’s replacement quote, always higher than you can source it for.
A service with a stamp. If the book has a gap you can still close, close it.
Windscreen chip repair and matched wiper blades. Small money, and both sit on every inspection checklist.
Stone chip touch up and a wheel refurb if the rims are kerbed. Removes the buyer’s easiest negotiating point.

Do not repaint a panel, fit new tyres unless the set is illegal, or add a sound system. None return their cost.

How to price it against live listings

Search your exact variant on Cars.co.za and AutoTrader, filtered to your model year plus and minus one. Drop the highest and lowest, take the middle of what remains, then subtract 5 to 8 percent because you are a private seller with no warranty behind you.

Then adjust for mileage. On 2019 stock the spread was about R99 000 between a 74 000 km car and a 148 635 km car, roughly R1 300 per 1 000 km. On older cars that flattens out. Sell in January to March or September to November if you can choose, because one local guide estimates R10 000 to R25 000 more than a July or August sale.

FAQ

What is my Pajero worth right now?

Take the middle of live asking prices for your exact variant and year, then subtract 5 to 8 percent for a private sale. For a trade figure, get a dealer valuation plus one online buyer offer. Published book values sit behind TransUnion and Lightstone and are sold to the trade, not to owners.

Do Pajeros hold value badly?

Worse than a Toyota, better than most European SUVs, and better than people assume past eight years old.

Will my Gen 4 become a collectible?

Some will. Low mileage Legend 100s, tidy Exceeds and honest three door cars have a real chance because supply is fixed. A 300 000 km GLX with a partial book will always be a used 4×4.

Is a Pajero Sport a better financial buy?

Not on depreciation, because it is still in production and supply keeps arriving. On running costs it is easier. Read our cost of ownership breakdown before deciding.

Should I sell now or wait for the Gen 5?

If you own a 2019 to 2021 car, sell before the Gen 5 lands in 2027. If yours is 2015 or older, the timing barely moves your number.

Does a 3.8 V6 Pajero have any resale future?

Very little, and the numbers show it. It works as a cheap way into a Super Select 4×4 if you can stomach the fuel bill. Our best generation to buy guide covers which engine suits which owner.

The short version

A Gen 4 Pajero sheds roughly R60 000 to R80 000 a year from new down to about the 2015 model year, then almost stops. Everything from 2014 back to 2007 lives in one R140 000 to R330 000 pool where mileage and condition beat the year on the licence disc. Production ended in 2021, so supply is fixed, and clean cars have firmed in nominal rands without genuinely rising in real terms. Toyota holds a better percentage, but from a cheaper entry price the five year rand loss lands close to identical. Service history, sub 100 000 km mileage and no rust move your number most, and a modified Pajero should never be traded in.

What did your Pajero actually fetch, and where did you sell it? Post the year, the mileage, the asking price and what you banked.

Pajero Resale Value. What Yours Will Be Worth And Why