The name can be taken all too literally. It’s all value too.

Price: $46,990
Powertrain and economy: 2.4-litre MIVEC turbocharged and intercooled in-line four cylinder diesel, 135kW, 437Nm. Six-speed automatic transmission. Super Select II 4WD with Off-road Mode. Combined fuel consumption 8.6L/100km.
Vital statistics: Length 5305mm, height 1795mm, width 1815mm, wheelbase 3000mm, ground clearance 220mm. Wheels 18-inch black alloys.
We like: Diesel performance is over a broad revs range; Super Select 4WD among the best around.
We don’t like: Black-on-black may not appeal to some; air conditioning seems hard to get warm; hard lid restricts use of wellside.

WOULD you own a vehicle in the olour most notorious for showing off dirt the quickest?

A lot of people do.

Latest worldwide statistics show that while white was by far the most popular colour – or non-colour – in 2020 for a massive 38 percent of all vehicles built, black ran next with a 19 percent share.

A large proportion of those were luxury cars, because everybody knows that black looks really classy with that genre. But black is of course also offered as a choice of body hue with every other style of motor vehicle, from the smallest hatch to the largest ute.

I mention all of this having just been driving what is perhaps the blackest vehicle on the market.

It’s the Mitsubishi Triton Black Edition, a limited-edition ute that is based on the GLS, a model line that isn’t now a part of the Triton lineup here, having being replaced by the VXR as the top Triton on offer.

To make it a Black Edition model, MMNZ has added a black ‘dynamic shield’ front end and grille, black LED headlight surrounds, black 18-inch alloys, and black alloy side steps.

Black Edition Triton is available with a choice of paint hues including blue, orange, white and grey, but the version we had for road test was – naturally – painted a colour called Pitch Black. And on top of that, our ute also had a black deck liner, black sports bars, black two-piece hard lid, and even a black towbar.

So the black version of the Triton Black Edition is black – spectacularly black. It is also spectacularly priced, on the market for $46,990 which is well below the $62,990 RRP for the VRX. That’s good buying, because the only things the VRX has which the Black Edition doesn’t are leather seats, seat heaters, paddle shifters and a rear roll bar.

Granted, in typical Mitsubishi fashion the VRX is currently being offered with a special retail price of $51,990, but even so that offer for the Black Edition model is highly competitive.

Mind you, these days nobody buys a new ute in New Zealand without spending a few thousand extra accessorising it. In the case of our Black Edition test vehicle the accessory spend was at least $6100, which took the total price to more than $53,000 – more than the SRP for the VRX. But then again, a VRX buyer would almost certainly accessorise that ute, and so the process goes on and on….

Triton is the third most popular ute and the fourth most popular vehicle in New Zealand, with sales last year running at around 10 a day. It’s easily the most popular Mitsubishi, well ahead of the ASX and Outlander SUVs.

The replacement of the GSX with the VRX as the top model happened a couple of years ago when the massively facelifted ‘Beast Mode’ model was launched here.

All the utes in the Triton range are powered by the same 2.4-litre MIVEC turbo diesel, which is part of a Mitsubishi family of petrol and diesel engines with variable valve timing technology, and which have been installed into everything from the smallest Mirage up to the largest SUV.

In this case the engine develops 135kW of power and 437Nm of torque, figures which on the face of things look a bit modest when compared against the likes of Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. But that variable timing of the intake and exhaust camshafts works efficiently in supplying the power and especially the torque over a broad revolutions range, so overall performance is sound.

Adding to the attraction of this ute, big-time, is that it carries Mitsubishi’s Super Select II, which is one of the few 4WD systems that allow a vehicle to operate on seal in 4WD without voiding the manufacturer warranty – and of course not destroy the diff.

It’s a very good system, which in the latest models is controlled using a twist dial on the centre console. It offers 2H and 4H - 2WD High and 4WD High – which can be selected at speeds of up to 100kmh and are able to be used on seal. Then there is 4HLc, which is 4WD High with the centre differential locked to provide a 50:50 torque split for best performance off the seal, and finally there is 4LLc which is a crawl gear for the really tough off-road work.

On top of all that there an Offroad Mode selector which offers the choice of gravel, mud/snow, sand and rock drive modes for improved performance through various ground conditions.

Super Select is one of the things that sets Triton apart, easily compensating for the fact it doesn’t offer quite the same power as the Ranger and Hilux, or the brand-new models Mazda BT-50 and Isuzu D-Max. The Mitsi ute also isn’t quite as large as the Ford and Toyota, but it is a bit bigger in most dimensions than the Mazda and Isuzu.

During our time with the jet-black Black Edition we used it for a summer camping trip in the wilds of Bay of Plenty – well, Papamoa, which these days is so populated it feels about as ‘wild’ as the Auckland CBD. But there’s a great beach there, the weather was nice and the water warm, so we weren’t complaining.

For us, a camping trip usually involves loading a vehicle to the gunwales, and the trip with the Triton was no exception. It didn’t unduly affect the ute’s performance – in fact being fully laden meant its ride and handling felt rather secure. The only downside was that fuel consumption rose from the official stated average of 8.6 L/100km to around 9.2 L/100km.

That was still acceptable though, with very little difference in consumption between the times the Triton was run in 2WD in dry conditions, and in 4WD High when we opted for extra safety in the wet. Actually, the bigger annoyance was the massive differences in diesel prices at various service stations around Papamoa and the Bay in general. How can the fuel companies justify 35c differences in diesel prices at sites mere kilometres apart?

Talking about fully loading a ute, I have to say that those hard lids installed over the wellside deck are a pain. They seriously compromise the ability of the load area to carry cargoes of any size. If I had to fit anything in the interests of rear load security, I’d much rather opt for a removeable tonneau cover (which is a lot cheaper) or go the whole hog and install a canopy.

But at least the hard lid, which was lockable, did provide secure storage. And it has to be said it helped make the Triton Black Edition something of a looker – which is important in the current ute-crazy motoring environment in which highly-accessorised ‘hero’ utes are all the rage.

Equally important is the Black Edition’s price, which is very attractive. Little wonder then that this limited-edition model is contributing solidly to Triton’s good sales performance.