The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[EdwardAbbey]

I recognize this is not an American site, but I imagine that there's a lot of expertise here. Like the title says, I'm an American who's got my eyes on a '97 NL SWB V25W ZX with a GDI 3.5 DOHC and a 5 speed auto. Timing belt, water pump, and oil were just done stateside, everything else's condition is totally unknown. If I decide to take this a little more serious I'll get a pre-purchase inspection. It appears extremely clean, inside and out and underneath, and only has ~55,000 miles. I know enough about cars to ask a million questions, but I don't know quite enough to actually wrench very much, but I'm working on that.

Taking into account the fact that it's a clean but 25 year old car (never sold in the US) and I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, but not actually experienced working on cars, how bad of an idea is it if I purchase one of these? I'm not planning on destroying it on trails. It would get off road on some fire roads and unmaintained country highways and mountain trail heads, but no rock crawling. Mostly just around town and to work though.

I'm relatively new to Mitsubishis in general, so I'm still learning all the lingo and where to look. I'm not actually having the easiest time finding resources and specs and parts info. But, I do know that mitsubishi.epc-data. com/pajero/v25w/gyuc/ is a great site. So, I have a few other questions:

The DOHC 3.5 was never sold in America, is that correct? Generally, how reliable are these engines? From my minimal readings, they're pretty good if taken care of?
The 5 speed auto doesn't seem to have been sold in the US either, is that correct? I believe it's the same auto that ended up in a few Delicas? I can't find much about them, are they known for being reliable?
Is there anywhere handy that I can read up on what parts are shared with other models that were sold here? In general, what parts are shared? Suspension? Exhaust?
Is there anything else I should be aware of?
I'm planning on doing more reading in the coming days, but was just hoping some with more knowledge than me could put me down the right path.

Thanks in advance.

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