Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

So many stories, what to believe?
e.g. CEO Mitsubishi Japan: The Pajero/Montero is dead...
Montero was discontinued in America (never very successful there) in 2006 (no Gen4 in USA?),
Gen4 will continue in other markets (good news if true), etc.
It's been a while since anybody said anything about the all new Pajero (new engines, including a hybrid) Mitsubishi was busy developing. Are they just going to dump this? Hard to believe. Which makes one think, maybe the name Montero is dead and that the new one will reach the market as a completely new SUV, in an effort to revive sales in the USA.
The new Sport looks like something to look forward to (the rear end is not really that bad).

Here is my prediction:
The Sport will "grow" into nearly what the big brother should have grown into.
The "Sport" part of the name will drop away.
The Pajero will continue as an upgraded "Sport".

The Mitsubishi Motor Corporation has been in financial difficulty for years. We all know to change that, you have to change what you do and how you do it. Their first step was to abandon the DAKAR. The DAKAR glory lasted a few years. Even the legend is fading, so far in fact that Toyota brand their bakkies as DAKAR without a single victory.

The only emotion I feel however is "sad".

Agreed. Very sad. And the worst of all, it's all about perceptions. Toyota has the name as the most reliable vehicles on the market, Pajero is regarded as also-ran. All comparisons found the Sport a better car than the Fortuner, never heard of a Sport rolling over, but from the word go the Fortuner out sell the Sport by miles, and always will. All because of the perceptions of the buying public. In the early seventies Datsun was the most sought after car in SA. Some problems with the J an U series caused Datsun to loose favour with the public and Toyota took over. No amount of R&D, quality cars or name changing will cause the public to ever prefer Nissan to Toyota, the perceptions were fixed in the minds of the public.