Nuevo Montero?
January 2, 2026
Alex Kierstein"Mitsubishi teases what is most likely a new Pajero. It probably won't be a Montero for America, but there's an outside chance thanks to Nissan."
Some of you might remember the Mitsubishi Montero, a promising Land Cruiser rival that shuffled off into a forced retirement here during a what was then viewed as a particularly bad sales period for Mitsubishi in America, the early 2000s. Since then, Mitsubishi has maintained a small beachhead on our shores, thanks in part to an alliance with Nissan and Renault. The Montero endured elsewhere for a while, with its rest-of-world names; either Pajero or Shogun. If this teaser is what I think it is, Mitsubishi will be bringing the Montero/Pajero/Shogun back, with a little help from Nissan.
The SUV in the teaser video looks a little like the Nissan Patrol, sold here in America as the Nissan Armada. The Nissan-rebadged-as-a-Mitsubishi concept has so far been productive for both companies. As part of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance, Mitsubishi has so far had access to the Frontier/Navara platform (sold as the Mitsubishi Triton pickup) and the Rogue (the Outlander). And Nissan has utilized the Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid for its own stopgap rebadging job until its homebrewed Rogue Hybrid emerges. Mitsubishi may or may not have had the resources to develop a competitive compact SUV, but offloading most of the expenses and building the Outlander on the existing (and decent) Nissan Rogue was objectively smart.
In that vein, if Mitsubishi wants to sell a full-size, off-road-capable SUV, the Y63-generation Patrol/Armada is a good place to start. The shape of the teased SUV sure looks a lot like the current Y63-generation Nissan Patrol, but wearing headlight styling that resembles the Asian-market Mitsubishi Destinator three-row. The running lights appear to be a little taller, which lend credence to the Destinator-but-bigger theory. Mitsubishi doesn’t offer anything like this currently; the Pajero Sport is based on the previous-generation Triton pickup. It’s some white space at the top of Mitsubishi’s range, and plugging in an already developed SUV makes a lot of sense.
Another piece of that puzzle: the Nissan Patrol is going to be sold in Japan again for the first time in years, taking a prestigious spot at the top of the company’s range recently vacated by the GT-R. No doubt Mitsubishi would like to have something similarly range-topping to sell in limited volume in its home market and elsewhere. Mitsubishi could sell some of these in the Middle East and Asia, and Nissan gets to amortize a few thousand more units annually.
And it might keep a nameplate with a long and storied rally raid history alive, too. Mitsubishi restored its Dakar-winning historic Pajero Evolution recently. That’s a smart thing to do if you’re just about to reveal its successor.
If the upcoming Mitsubishi SUV—let’s just call it the Pajero, for simplicity’s sake—comes to market as a Y63-based vehicle, and the Y63-based Nissan Armada is already sold in America … yes, it does make one wonder if the Pajero could yet again become an American-market SUV with the Montero name.
Possible, yes. Likely? I think there are several reasons why this upcoming SUV will remain a Pajero for other markets, and not come to America as a Montero. For one, Mitsubishi’s plans for the US (for now) are limited to an offroad-oriented Outlander variant and a new BEV SUV—don’t hold your breath for the last one. That could change, but if I were on Mitsubishi’s PR team, I’d want to be telegraphing an upcoming new product in halo category as soon as possible.
And even though the Nissan Armada is selling fairly well here—15k or so sales in 2024; more than I would have imagined without looking it up—the absolute numbers are small despite Nissan’s bigger footprint and brand strength. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi sold only 110k vehicles in America last year, about half being the midsize Outlander. Even for a prestige product with a limited market, I’m not sure Americans at this moment want a Mitsubishi SUV at the Armada’s roughly $60k price point in sufficient numbers to justify the rebadging job.
Lastly, while the Montero is remembered fondly by some enthusiasts, and the Pajero worldwide has significant heritage and motorsport history behind it, there can’t be much mainstream value in the Montero name at this point in the American market. It’s been gone since 2006, and had lingered arguably too long by then.
If Mitsubishi is reviving the Pajero, I’d be glad for it, and be glad for Mitsubishi to continue to get some value out of platform sharing with Nissan. But I am not expecting to see an Armada-like SUV at American Mitsubishi dealers anytime soon.
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