Mitsubishi Road Tests

The Mitsubishi Outlander continues to go from strength to strength, starting 2010 as it ended 2009, as the country's top-selling SUV.

With extra space, extra safety, a new engine and fresh looks, no-one could accuse Mitsubishi of going about its recent update of the Triton in a half-hearted manner. David Thomson reports after a spell behind the wheel.

Mitsubishi just updated its Triton ute and Outlander SUV, and the changes are more than skin-deep. Richard Bosselman reports.

When Mitsubishi launched the original Lancer Evo in 1992, few would have predicted that a version that changes gear for you could ever outshine the conventional manual variant. Fast forward to 2009, and David Thomson reckons the Evo X TC-SST does just that.

Mitsubishi's new Lancer range is a little bigger, a lot bolder looking and intent on making inroads in the mid-sized sedan field.

Mitsubishi has done a good job in difficult circumstances with the new Pajero.

Seeking to pigeonhole the Mitsubishi Lancer? Not so easy.

I have been sliding sideways this month in a high-revving midengined turbocharged car. Trouble is, as the pictures that accompany this test show all too clearly, the machine in question was no high-performance piece of exotica. Rather, it was one of the smallest, cheapest and least powerful new cars money can buy.

Unmistakable styling and a punchy 3.2 litre turbo diesel engine marked the arrival of the fourth-generation Mitsubishi Triton late last year.

You have to be a real petrol-head with deep pockets to buy a petrol-powered utility these days, with the fuel economy and performance available from the new crop of diesel models.

But the Mitsubishi Triton V6 GLS does show why petrol power still appeals to some people, in spite of the day-to-day running costs.

At least five years of hard yakka goes into bringing a new vehicle to market, so have some sympathy for the Mitsubishi team which was forced to pull the plug when developing the original version of this year's Pajero.

OF ALL the variants in the still relatively new Mitsubishi 380 range, it is the entry-level model - simply badged 380 that is the most likely choice for high-mileage company users.

MITSUBISHI has larger six-cylinder sports utilities in its sights as it moves up half a size with the new Outlander.

In stretching the tail by some 300mm, Mitsubishi has spawned a small urban people-mover from the successful Colt supermini.

The brief issued to Mitsubishi's Australian engineers was an intimidating one: using the left-hand-drive North American Galant as a starting point, produce a vehicle good enough to save your firm's local production line from closure.

It has been a long time coming, but Mitsubishi's replacement for the long-serving Diamante is now just three weeks away from hitting New Zealand's new car showrooms.

The shape remains the same, but a larger, more powerful engine for the petrol variant and new active stability control system set the latest Mitsubishi Pajero apart from its predecessor.

If you fancy a visual mimic of a high-performance Mitsubishi rally car special but do not want the fuel bills and licence-endangering performance that goes with a turbocharged Evo, then the new Lancer VR-X may be just the answer.