- Mitsubishi Motors released a teaser video last week, showing what could be a new Montero.
- The ad is in Japanese, but the company recently renewed its U.S. trademark on the Montero name and announced plans for a raft of new models.
Car enthusiasts love some surprising things. Just show one a brown, manual-transmission-equipped station wagon if you doubt it.
Among our quirky loves is the late Mitsubishi Montero. It still exists overseas, sold in many countries as the Pajero. But Mitsubishi’s boxy off-roader left our shores after the 2006 model year, out-competed by more family-friendly SUVs from brands with bigger sales networks.
Sold in the U.S. from 1983 to 2006, it was a 2-door and later 4-door SUV. Built body-on-frame like an old-school pickup for off-road flexibility, Montero SUVs were true 4-wheel-drive (4WD) machines with solid rear axles and no-nonsense attitudes.
They have a core of dedicated fans, though, who maintain vintage Montero models as dirt toys and daily drivers.
This news is for them.
There’s an outside chance the Montero could return.
Just Deniable Hints for Now
- Mitsubishi hasn’t announced a plan, and it may not be firm
We’re piecing together a few clues to arrive at this point, and we may be wrong.
Mitsubishi released a video on YouTube last week that appears to end with a new Montero. The minute-long ad is narrated in Japanese, which isn’t what you’d do if you were confirming an SUV for the U.S. Market. But it includes English text.
It emphasizes the brand’s off-road history, including a rich rally racing heritage through its Ralliart brand. And it ends with a camouflaged, boxy 4-door SUV driving in the dark.
Mitsubishi dealers have a thin lineup at the moment – just the Outlander, its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) equivalent, the Outlander Sport, and the Eclipse Cross. But the brand last year teased a plan to grow its lineup by releasing a new or significantly redesigned model every year until 2030. Both the Outlander and Outlander PHEV are too new to need a refresh.
And the company renewed interest in the Ralliart brand with a soft relaunch in 2022.
If you ran a brand that needed new models and had one name with a cult following, you’d do the obvious, wouldn’t you?
Car and Driver reports that, last year, the company renewed its Montero trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
We’ll bring more information as we find it.
