Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I just started looking at Delicas and I'm not too sure about getting a standard or auto. Any input would be great. I read some where that the auto might be better on the hwy. But I want to do some backroad touring as well. Pros and cons?

Thx dt

Hi,

My 1991 hi-roof is standard and it is fantastic on rough terrain/ in 4wd. It took all of an hour to get used to it. I would recommend standard if that's what you are used to.

jen

dtemple wrote:I just started looking at Delicas and I'm not too sure about getting a standard or auto. Any input would be great. I read some where that the auto might be better on the hwy. But I want to do some backroad touring as well. Pros and cons?

Stick shift Delicas are rare. You will pay a premium for one, and it may take a while to even get one.

The automatic's not that bad.

...laura, automatic Delica owner

one important thing to note is the maximum speed of the manual is significantly lower than that of the automatic, the auto is officially 105km/h and the manual is officially 85km/h (my auto does 120 comfortably though, so I'm not sure how accurate those numbers are, what I can say is that the manual is known to have trouble maintaining highway cruising speeds)

In my auto I can do about 110km/h at around 3000rpm. Warmland89's manual does around 95km/h at the same rpm.

My opinion:

If you are planning on being in hills and offroad all of the time the manual would be better. If you are in flatter areas most of the time the auto would be waaay better. I drive from Duncan to Victoria about 4 days a week and the couple steep hills on the Malahat would be nicer with a manual but for the rest of the time the auto is much nicer. I have driven both my auto and warmland89's manual and I feel the auto is better about 95% of the time.

-Mark

I drive a auto chamonix from blacktusk to whistler every day and down to the city once and a while,if its a huge hills its alittle slow but not to bad.Iv also taken mine on little offroading adventures nothing to the max extreme but it works fine.i got in some pretty sluggy situations and the 4 H got out of it fine,iv still never used 4 L.also i would say my max spead just below 3000 RPM is 115.I got her up to 145 once but that was pretty intence(we were driving to williams lake and the semi drivers on that highway do not like below 120 drivers.

Mines a 5 speed, cruising at 110 km/h it rev’s a little high and the fuel efficiency isn’t so great. It shifts nice though and I like the feel of the clutch. If you ever have a dead battery or problems with your starter, if you can get your van rolling, you can pop the clutch to start it. I’m not too worried about replacing the clutch when it wears out, but having an automatic transmission rebuilt will cost ya. From what it sounds like the auto transmissions are pretty reliable though.

I’m a shifter, I’m diggin’ the 5 speed.

This is on alevel hwy with a bit of a tailwind ,auto 91

This is on alevel hwy with a bit of a tailwind ,auto 91

speed and revs look right, but oh my is your temp gauge high! you might want to look in to that...

Green1 wrote:

This is on alevel hwy with a bit of a tailwind ,auto 91

speed and revs look right, but oh my is your temp gauge high! you might want to look in to that...

I was just thinking the same thing re temp.... Have you flushed the coolant lately?

Another option is if you wind up the torsion bars and fit a set of 31's the overall gearing is quite drastically changed, we recommend this to customers who do alot of open road driving, takes the revs down to 3000rpm at 125-130km in an auto, quite a big difference.

Another option is if you wind up the torsion bars and fit a set of 31's the overall gearing is quite drastically changed, we recommend this to customers who do alot of open road driving, takes the revs down to 3000rpm at 125-130km in an auto, quite a big difference.

You've apparently learned much since my vehicle... you actually fitted tires on mine that are SMALLER than stock... (though I do plan to get some 30's at some point soon (or however large I can cram on there without grinding or removing anything)

Green1 wrote:

Another option is if you wind up the torsion bars and fit a set of 31's the overall gearing is quite drastically changed, we recommend this to customers who do alot of open road driving, takes the revs down to 3000rpm at 125-130km in an auto, quite a big difference.

You've apparently learned much since my vehicle... you actually fitted tires on mine that are SMALLER than stock... (though I do plan to get some 30's at some point soon (or however large I can cram on there without grinding or removing anything)

We used to fit under size tires/less aggressive pattern to quiet down the road noise as we had complaints early on, however we now just explain to people it's better to put up with road noise!!

Removing the front steps and bracket and winding the front torsion bars up, will accept a 31in BFG A/T they also really improve the look of the truck.

speed and revs look right, but oh my is your temp gauge high! you might want to look in to that...

That pic is after two or three hours of pedal to the metal crossing Manitoba/Saskatchewan
If I let off the pedal the gauge drops down in 1 or 2 km's, I have flushed rad and a new water pump installed. I don't see a problem.

Removing the front steps and bracket and winding the front torsion bars up, will accept a 31in BFG A/T they also really improve the look of the truck.

what do you generally do about rims? the factory ones won't support 31in tires.

yeah iv only ever had my temp gauge get that high climbing the duffy lake road up from lilloet lake(big ass hill)