Japanese brand returns after five years with fresh diesel pick-up truck
In an era when the UK new car market seems to be filling rapidly with unfamiliar cars sporting funny names, it’s enjoyable, even reassuring, to welcome back an old friend, the Mitsubishi L200.This pick-up returns to the UK in its seventh iteration, slightly bigger than the sixth that left us in 2021. It has fresh interior and exterior designs plus a brand-new twin-turbocharged diesel four, but it still comes with a look and a character its devotees will instantly recognise.Although Mitsubishi’s importer is now Midlands-based International Motors, known for its associations with Subaru, Isuzu and Xpeng, its UK boss is still Toby Marshall, well known to the clientele because he has worked with the Japanese marque for decades.When sales stopped in 2021, Marshall continued his Mitsubishi association by running a 106-strong network of service centres, kept healthy by the large car parc. More recently, he has been assembling a 60-strong network of retailers, most of which also have Mitsubishi or IM associations.Marshall expects strong take-up for the new L200 from previous owners: “Buyers have always been very loyal. In Mitsubishi’s peak years, 2001 to 2007, pick-up sales really boomed. The company had up to 11 models to sell but L200 sales accounted for a third of the total, around 31,000 units a year. We’re now hearing from customers interested in the new model. This is no relaunch, it’s continuity.”To stress this, Marshall and IM are launching another new but familiar model, the plug-in hybrid Outlander SUV, also available now.
