Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV to see a price drop post September 2012 as CKD assembly begins

Post September 2012, the prices of the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV could fall by about 20%, even as Hindustan Motors-Mitsubishi begin assembling the SUV from completely knocked down(CKD) kits imported from Thailand, at its Tiruvallur, Chennai manufacturing plant. Ever since its launch in the Indian market during March 2012, the Pajero Sport SUV has been Mitsubishi’s best selling model in the country with over 650 examples finding homes in India. Over the past five months, the Pajero Sport SUV has managed to sell about 120 units per month on an average.

2012 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV

This sales figure is higher than every other car that Mitsubishi sells with the Pajero Sport outselling every other model that the Japanese brand sells in the country. CKD assembly, at this juncture is expected to do quite a lot to boost sales as prices could drop by almost 20%. Currently, the 2012 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV sells at an ex-showroom price of INR 23.53 lakhs. CKD assembly could bring down the ex-showroom price figure to under 20 lakhs, making the SUV a good buy for folks looking for a luxury SUV. The market leader in the luxury SUV segment is the Toyota Fortuner, with an average months sales of over 1,200 units consistently.

The Fortuner begins for a starting price of close to 20 lakh rupees, for the 2 wheel drive variant with a manual transmission. If the Pajero Sport assembled in India is priced at 20 lakhs or so, the SUV does have a fighting chance to more than double sales clearly exists, if priced below 20 lakhs as a market for luxury SUVs still shows no signs of slackening despite the overall slowdown in car sales. The Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is based on the popular Triton pick up that is sold in many South East Asian markets. The Pajero Sport comes with a 2.5 Liter turbodiesel engine that generates 176 Bhp-400 Nm.

2012 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 SFX

This engine is mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox and also has a shift-on-the-fly 4 wheel drive system. Once Mitsubishi cuts the price of the Pajero Sport, the iconic Pajero SFX SUV could soon be discontinued given that the cut price version could cannibalize the already low sales of the Pajero SFX, which is clearly outdated for this day and age, considering the fact that it is over 2 decades old. So, with the advent of the cut price, CKD assembled Pajero Sport, prepare to say your goodbyes to an icon of the SUV world, the Pajero SFX.