MMAL undecided, what to call SUV?

The pieces are falling into place for Mitsubishi's tiny crossover SUV. It's just a month away from sale in Japan, where it will be named RVR and a month after that it makes its European debut at the Geneva motor show, wearing the name 'ASX'.

Designed to seat five, the ASX will be progressively introduced to European markets during the northern hemisphere spring, which is around the second quarter of this year.

Whatever the ASX will be called in Australia, it's due to arrive here in the third quarter, says Mitsubishi Australia's Senior Manager Corporate Communications, Lenore Fletcher.

And as for what it will be named locally? "The jury's still out," says Fletcher. "We're going through all of that now... The next couple of months certainly...[we'll know]."

"It's a car we're very keen to get out here," she said, but wouldn't confirm that its launch would fall during the same general period as the anticipated Colt upgrade.

Mitsubishi is expecting the RVR/ASX/whatever will conquest some sales from conventional passenger cars in the VFACTS light-car segment, a segment where the Colt has not acquitted itself as well as rivals from other Japanese and Korean car companies. It was even outsold during 2009 by the European-sourced Ford Fiesta and Nissan Micra.

There's a chance that the new SUV will snatch sales away from Mitsubishi's other compact SUV, the Outlander, but it's more likely to impact on sales of light cars.