March 25, according to Nikkei Chinese website, Mitsubishi Motors’ classic model, the Pajero, will be resurrected. The car will be produced in factories in Southeast Asia and will be launched in the Japanese market as early as 2026. According to Japanese media reports, the new generation Pajero will be built on the trapezoidal beam chassis of the Triton, presenting the most authentic off-road style. The car is planned to be mass-produced in Thailand and then transported to the Japanese market.
The envisioned pictures exposed online show that the front face of the new car is decorated with thick strips similar to the Triton, with a new style headlight group, giving a very rough overall vision. The body lines are smooth, giving a stable and powerful feeling. The rear of the car is expected to be matched with a new type of taillight. However, as of the time of publication, the official has not disclosed more details about this model.
The Pajero is an off-road vehicle under Mitsubishi Motors, a Japanese automaker, and is also the first small three-door four-wheel drive off-road vehicle. It was first developed and produced in 1982. Later, due to poor sales, Mitsubishi Motors announced that it would stop producing the Pajero in the Japanese market in 2019, and since then, the car has officially said goodbye to the Japanese market.
Data shows that the first-generation Pajero was first unveiled in 1983. The car has two versions, the three-door and the five-door, also known as the L040. It is powered by in-line four-cylinder and V6 engines and diesel engines. It has been in production until 1991.
In 1992, Mitsubishi Motors launched the second-generation Pajero. Like the first-generation model, this generation provides both three-door and five-door versions, and the power remains unchanged. A new four-wheel drive system has also been introduced. After 1993, models with 2.8-liter and 3.5-liter V6 engines were also introduced. After this generation of models was launched, it participated in various off-road races, including the Paris-Dakar Rally. It was not until 1999 that production was stopped. It is worth mentioning that in 1983, Mitsubishi Motors formed a team to participate in the Dakar Rally, and the main race car was modified from the Pajero. According to statistics, based on this car, the Mitsubishi team participated in the Dakar Rally 26 times and won 12 championships, including seven consecutive championships from 2001 to 2007.
The third-generation Pajero was unveiled in 1999. Compared with the previous two generations, the appearance of this generation of Pajero has undergone obvious changes, and it has a larger body. In terms of power, a 3.8-liter V6 gasoline engine and a new 3.2-liter turbocharged diesel engine are introduced. In 2007, the fourth-generation Pajero was launched. The main change of this generation of models is in the power. The car is equipped with a 3.2-liter in-line four-cylinder direct injection turbocharged engine and a 3.8-liter V6 MIVEC gasoline engine, and it has been sold until it was announced to stop production in 2019.
It is understood that the Pajero has also derived four categories of models, namely the Pajero V series of the original off-road vehicle, the SUV sport vehicle Pajero SPORT, the small SUV sport and leisure vehicle Pajero iO, and the micro SUV sport and leisure vehicle Pajero MINI. Among them, various models of the four categories of Pajero have sold more than 2 million vehicles worldwide in more than 170 countries.
As one of the representatives of Japanese hard-core SUVs, the Pajero also has a domestic version. It should be noted that although the Pajero import and domestic are both medium-sized SUVs, the domestic version is lower than the imported Pajero in terms of model positioning. The domestic Pajero is a medium-sized SUV under GAC Mitsubishi Motors, built on the chassis of Mitsubishi Triton pickup trucks. The price range is 298,000-398,600 yuan. It is powered by a newly tuned 3.0-liter V6 MIVEC all-aluminum alloy engine.
If the above news is true, it means that the Mitsubishi Pajero SUV, which has been out of production for many years, will return to the market. However, the information about this new car is very limited at present, and AutoTimes will continue to pay attention to the follow-up news.
