The Pajero is back! No, not that one. That one. If you’re member of our U.S. audience, you might remember it as the Montero. Then again, it was last sold here two decades ago, so you’d be forgiven for not remembering it at all.
Elsewhere in the world, the Pajero has been on Hiatus for several years—axed as part of a broader cost-cutting strategy that also saw Mitsubishi curtail future plans for Europe and North America. Since then, the global Renault-Nissan (and Mitsubishi) Alliance has been hard at work updating its brands’ SUV lineups, and somewhere along the line, a new Pajero was green-lit
Our spies expect the revived Pajero to be sold in several overseas markets as a budget-friendly alternative to some of the Alliance’s more-expensive 4x4s. It is expected to be offered with four-cylinder, hybrid-electric powertrain that may future-proof it somewhat, but could cause it to butt up against European emissions regulations in short order. Whether it’s available as a diesel will also likely be market-dependent.
Absent some unforeseen pivot toward the dystopian, we’re highly unlikely to see the Pajero in the United States. Not that we’re hurting for it, really; we get both the Nissan Armada and the Infiniti QX80, which are far closer to the pinnacle of the Alliance’s 4×4 offerings. We’ll just have to enjoy this one from afar.
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