The replacement for the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport has been spied again, this time with a production-ready body and underpinnings likely borrowed from the latest Triton.
Our spy photography agency snapped this car during hot weather testing in southern Europe recently. With live rear axle, running boards and chunky tyres it looks to be the successor to the Pajero Sport that’s nearing its 10th birthday, and is based on the previous-generation Triton ute.
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Although the Pajero Sport remains in production, Mitsubishi Australia is relying on existing stock as the car can no longer be imported due to autonomous emergency braking regulations.
An earlier prototype spied in September 2024 had the front end of the current sixth-gneration Triton ute, but used the doors and rear body panels of the existing Pajero Sport.
This latest development vehicle, though, is wearing a production-ready body that shares nothing in common with the sixth-generation Triton that made its debut in 2023.
While the current Pajero Sport has a body that’s distinct from the Triton it’s based on, Mitsubishi is going the extra mile this time around to distinguish the SUV from its ute sibling.
Up front the Pajero Sport replacement has a bluff fascia with a tall, wide grille flanked by a ladder of LED driving lights. The main beam unit juts out and connects with the grille.
Around the side the new SUV has squared-off wheel arches, a clamshell bonnet, and a blocky silhouette. Interestingly the doors feature sharper window frames and a more upright-looking windscreen than the Triton.
At the back the current Pajero Sport’s dripping eyeliner tail-lights have given way to more traditional set of tail-lights. The styling here doesn’t seem a world away from the next-generation Nissan Patrol.
It’s unclear what’s powering this SUV, but the sixth-generation Triton uses a 2.4-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel mill making 150kW and 470Nm.
It’s paired to a six-speed manual or automatic transmission, and the choice of rear-wheel drive or full-time four-wheel drive.
With the design now more like a classic off-roader than a ute-based family wagon, a rumour is circulating the new model could adopt the Pajero name without the Sport suffix.
Whether this turns out to be true remains to be seen, as an earlier rumour indicated Mitsubishi was going to revive the Pajero name for a more luxurious model based on the plug-in hybrid Outlander.
If the Pajero does become an Outlander-based model, it will abandon the model’s long history as a true off-roader. However, if the Pajero name is used on the car pictured here, it will see the model return to its body-on-frame roots, which it abandoned when the third-generation car debuted in 1999.