One of Mitsubishi’s most significant debuts of the decade is the new Pajero (or Montero, in some markets).
Forty years ago, Mitsubishi established itself as a major player on the rally stage with the first-generation Pajero SUV. We knew it as the Montero in North America, and it (sadly) hasn’t been part of the company’s offering for nearly two decades. The Pajero is about to make its triumphant return on September 2, though, and Mitsubishi’s official website brings a couple updated teasers to the party.
The most iconic feature, and a staple of the early Pajero, is the altimeter, pitch and roll gauges. They have been modernized (and digitized) here, of course. Nevertheless, the Triple Multi Meter, as Mitsubishi calls it here, brings that element of the original SUV’s rally heritage to the new model. In addition to showing elevation and pitch/roll, the meter will also give torque distribution, your compass heading and ambient temperature in real time.
We just have a mock-up of what the gauges look like for the moment, so it’s unclear exactly how Mitsubishi will present the meter to the user. Hopefully, they’ll do it like the old days, where it’s actually a bespoke unit from the infotainment screen. That said…so many other automakers present this kind of information inside the center display (see Jeep’s Off-Road Pages as exhibit A), so depending on how Mitsubishi’s design team is thinking here, it could be one or the other.
As it stands right now, we also don’t know too many specifics about the platform yet. We do get one underbody shot that shows this new Pajero/Montero as a body-on-frame design. We also see a solid rear axle, and the rear driveshaft adjacent to the exhaust. So, it looks like we’re dealing with an expectedly rugged four-wheel drive setup (with some skid plate protection for the fuel tank, to boot).
The new Mitsubishi Pajero will ride on the same platform as the company’s midsize Triton truck, much like the last-generation model — the one we didn’t get in the US — did as well. While the Asian market launch for this new Pajero is imminent following the September 2 premiere, it’ll still be awhile before we see it as a new Montero. The consensus at the moment has a next-gen Montero landing around 2030. Disappointing as that might be, it does track with the return of the Nissan Xterra, and it clears a couple of Mitsubishi’s closer-term launches, including a new Outlander that is supposed to arrive around mid-to-late 2028 with major architectural and powertrain changes.
