Mitsubishi Australia puts Pajero in holding pattern

With Renault Nissan now in control of Mitsubishi, speculation points to the all-new Pajero SUV abandoning the current monocoque construction in favour of a traditional body-on-frame chassis shared with the Patrol.

Officially Mitsubishi Australia is not yet contemplating the Pajero-Patrol scenario, but it remains a possibility for the company’s veteran off-roader.

During the recent launch of the Outlander PHEV, Tony Principe, Mitsubishi Australia’s Executive Director of Marketing, confessed to motoring.com.au he knows little of Mitsubishi’s future plans for the Pajero – and even less of Renault Nissan's plans.

"There's a lot of money being spent on the Pajero and we're continually upgrading it,” Mr Principe said. “The new Euro emissions [Euro 5] – we've just upgraded it. The intention is the Pajero will be maintained for the indefinite [future].

"As far as a new one goes... I think Trevor Mann in Geneva said: 'Look, obviously the Pajero and the Patrol would be a good future joint collaboration'.”

Mann is the Chief Operating Officer of Mitsubishi Australia's parent company, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.

"You need a certain volume, and maybe between the two of us we could come up with the right [sales] volume to justify a successful model,” Mr Principe continued.

"But the reality is the Pajero is... still very competitive, pricing's competitive – and as I said, we'll keep upgrading it. Most of the feedback from all our customers is that it's a great car to drive, it's well priced...”

While sharing a new-generation platform with the Patrol would counter criticism of the current Pajero’s relative lack of interior space, the risk is positioning Mitsubishi’s all-new model directly against the market segment champion, Toyota's LandCruiser. Co-incidentally, the all-new ‘Cruiser will probably launch around the same time as the all-new Pajero.

Despite its much newer design and a major price reduction, Nissan’s Y62 Patrol has not clawed back sales from the 200 Series LandCruiser. Patrol’s lack of any form of diesel engine is an impediment to sales in Australia and, should the all-new Pajero embrace platform sharing with its corporate sibling, Mitsubishi will be hoping rumours of an upcoming diesel engine for Nissan’s large SUV prove to be true.

The other dilemma is the chassis. Either the Pajero would have to return to a traditional body-on-frame (full chassis) construction – axed by Mitsubishi in 2000 – or the Patrol would need to migrate to monocoque.

For Mitsubishi, the switch - with its ramifications for driveability and refinement - presents a challenge with loyal Pajero buyers endorsing the vehicle's proven monocoque configuration in off-road situations.

"Those are all things that I'm sure are occupying their thinking,” says Mr Principe.

"Basically MMC's told us to keep [Pajero] compliant [with Australian Design Rules, and particularly Euro 6 when that's introduced], through the foreseeable future.

"And there's no reason not to, because globally, although volume's shrunk, it's still a substantial volume – and it's probably a reasonably good, proper car to keep producing. And the Pajero brand is a pretty strong global brand.”

Even so, Mr Principe sounds like a bloke who just doesn't know what the future holds for the well-established and highly-regarded Pajero nameplate. In fact, there's a very real sense Pajero/Patrol represent a thorny issue for Renault Nissan and Mitsubishi on a global level.

Mitsubishi Australia spokesman Karl Gehling takes the view that the relationship between the alliance and Mitsubishi is in its “early days”. Gehling, who formerly worked for Nissan Australia, speaks with some authority on this point.

"The alliance has been going for a very long time between Nissan and Renault – and it took quite a while before you saw any shared product between the two of them,” he pointed out.

"Clearly the market's changing, but there are still substantial passenger-car sales. It just happens that they're declining against SUVs...”

The development of smaller SUVs will likely take precedence over a new Patrol/Pajero project, and, on that front, there's already a new Mitsubishi ASX and Eclipse Cross on the way, both using the same architecture.

Renault Nissan is unlikely, we think, to shift its X-TRAIL, Koleos and Qashqai models to a Mitsubishi platform when they are already designed for a modern, modular platform. Bringing Mitsubishi's smaller SUVs into the Renault Nissan engineering fold could be expected to take years, pushing out even further the timeline for Patrol and Pajero to run down the same production line.

"I'm pretty sure they'll be looking at all those things. What they've told us is they're still studying what can and can't be done...” says Mr Principe.

Having the collective SUVs merge on shared platforms is a big task. There's company pride on the line, as well as accounting and logistical efficiencies to consider. Mostly, says Mr Principe, it's just downright expensive.

"Even Nissan… everybody has limited resources,” he says. “You want to spend them where you're going to get your biggest return. SUVs, no matter which way you look at it, they're always going to be a more profitable kind of vehicle. You'll always want to push your resources to do that first...”