Why Was The Mitsubishi Montero Discontinued?

Though Mitsubishi can chart its company history to the 1800s, the Japanese automaker didn't start making cars until 1917, and didn't even sell its first car in the U.S. until 1971. Interestingly enough, even that vehicle hit the market badged as the Dodge Colt. However, it wasn't long before Mitsubishis were distributed with the company's three-diamond emblem, which came on the 1982 Montero SUV.

A year later, the Montero made racing history when it won the triple-crown at the Paris-Dakar rally in its first year of competition. Yes, 1983 was also the first year the Montero was sold in the United States, with its impressive showing in Dakar — which is now considered the world's toughest race — helping it become a solid seller for the U.S. market. Mitsubishi would keep the tough, but oft-underrated Montero in circulation in the U.S. for more than two decades, with ensuing generations ditching the original boxy two-door build for sleeker, more family-friendly four-door models over that span.

Though the Montero clearly had fans in the U.S. market, the number of actual buyers began thinning out in the 2000s — so much so that Mitsubishi was eventually forced to reconsider the Montero's place in the fiercely competitive North American sport utility vehicle market. By 2006, the manufacturer had apparently seen enough of a sales dip for the Montero that it saw no other option than to remove it from the market altogether, making the '06 model the last available to consumers in the United States.   

Mitsubishi replaced the Montero stateside with its Outlander SUV, reportedly re-designing the build to hold more passengers and deliver more under-the-hood umph, with the automaker fitting models with reliable Mitsubishi engines like its 6G74. Of course, the U.S. wasn't the only market in which Mitsubishi began selling the Montero in 1982. In Japan and other overseas markets, the vehicle hit the street under a different name: the Mitsubishi Pajero.

While the build was popular in the U.S. throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Pajero was even more beloved in Japan, with the 4WD vehicle selling approximately 3.25 million units during its production run. While the Montero was killed in the United States in 2006, the Pajero remained in production for more than a decade after in Japan. Unfortunately for fans of the build, flagging sales eventually doomed the Pajero to the same fate as its U.S. counterpart, with Mitsubishi ending production of the model completely in 2021. 

Despite the fact that Mitsubishi pulled the plug on the Pajero-Montero line after the '21 model year, the vehicle's legacy in the Japanese automotive arena remains very much intact. In fact,it's a legit legend in the Asian market and was even honored by the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame, who named it a Historic Car in 2023.