After more than three decades on the line spanning four generations, Mitsubishi is cutting back production of its Pajero SUV, which was sold as the Montero -- and the Dodge Raider -- in the U.S. during its tenure here. Known in most global markets as the Pajero, and as the Shogun in the U.K., the body-on-frame model was Mitsubishi's answer to the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Nissan Patrol.
But the latest, fourth-gen model that debuted in 2006 and was produced only in Sakahogi, Japan, will no longer be offered in Japan or the U.K., as sales in the last few years for the domestic market have shrunk to a bare minimum. Earlier this spring Mitsubishi said it would produce the last 700 Japanese-market examples in Final Edition guise.
Built since 1982 in a number of bodystyles, including two-door hardtop and soft-top models and a four-door, the Pajero paired a relatively narrow and tall body with genuine off-road ability and a very rugged architecture. The first-gen model stayed in production for almost a decade, but the second-gen Pajero that debuted in 1991 never quite went away: It has been in production under license elsewhere in the world, mostly in China.
The Montero's height of popularity here in the States arguably came in the 1990s when family SUVs were still rugged, body-on-frame vehicles rather than the on-road biased unibody vehicles that they evolved into the 2000s. But the U.S.-market Montero was offered in the U.S. only through 2006.
This isn't the end of the Pajero -- Mitsubishi will still keep making them for a number of markets such as Australia. But this development does not obscure the fact that the Pajero is on its way out, predicted to stay in production for just a couple more years.
But will the Pajero be replaced once production really ends in another two or three years?
Following the debut of the fourth-gen model in 2006, Mitsubishi never quite had the will (and, more importantly, the funds) to design a fifth-gen model, as Outlander and Outlander Sport sales came to dominate the lineup in various markets. The company now finds itself in a precarious position following Nissan's gain of a controlling stake two years ago in the wake of the fuel-economy testing crisis: Rumors of a new Pajero paired with the next-gen Nissan Patrol have circulated for the past two years, but Nissan's own lineup is in a state of flux right now as the automaker seeks to greatly reduce its model range after a decade of expansion.
If a new Pajero model emerges at all, it will almost certainly be developed in a partnership with Nissan. But Mitsubishi itself appears more focused on creating small crossovers, in addition to developing hybrid tech.
Jay Ramey grew up around very strange European cars, and instead of seeking out something reliable and comfortable for his own personal use he has been drawn to the more adventurous side of the dependability spectrum. Despite being followed around by French cars for the past decade, he has somehow been able to avoid Citroën ownership, judging them too commonplace, and is currently looking at cars from the former Czechoslovakia. Jay has been with Autoweek since 2013.
