I agree with cnidaria!
I have a friend driving a Nativa. If you understand desert driving as "going to inland sea and on the way riding some duens" you'll be fine with it. Of course you can't climb a 35m dune straight with both cars, therefore you need a V8 and good driving skills. I observed so far that the Pajero with the 3.8 is a really strong car, especially as 3-door version. If you ask me for the resale value...the Nativa is a much hotter product on the market, so the resale value should be higher than the Sorento! The garage prices Joan mentioned...I drove a Pajero for a couple of weeks and had to bring it to the garage doing a minor inspection, which also kost me 425 QRS, so my experience is that its about the same!

Wipe out the thoughts for the blazer. Freakin' crappy car for the desert! Big american bullcrap!