Mitsubishi farewells Triton with Warrior

MITSUBISHI will bid goodbye its current Triton ute with equipment upgrades and a limited-edition Warrior variant that adds extra comfort and technology features to its aging workhorse that is set to be replaced with an all-new model early next year.

The Warrior is based on the GLX-R Double-Cab and comes with a drive-away price of $43,990 when matched with the five-speed manual gearbox or $45,990 drive-away with the five-speed auto.

The regular GLX-R sells for $45,740 excluding on-road costs in manual guise.

New styling flourishes on top of the regular GLX-R include an alloy front nudge bar, a flush-fit soft tonneau cover and Warrior decals on the front doors.

Just 200 Warriors will be made available at local Mitsubishi dealers across the country, and they will be available with a choice of three body colours – charcoal, white, ‘Cool Silver’ and ‘Ironbark’.

Extra features include Mitsubishi’s Multi Communication System with a USB input, Bluetooth connectivity with voice recognition, an eight-speaker audio system with an MPSS amplifier, black leather seats and a six-way power adjustable driver’s seat and while differential lock.

Mitsubishi is taking the opportunity to update the rest of the Triton range by including an upgraded audio system on all variants, while GL and GLX variants gain Bluetooth connectivity with hands-free phone and audio and steering wheel audio controls.

The GLX-R variants feature a new black interior colour scheme and all double-cab Tritons are now available with two ISOFIX child seat anchor points.

The current Triton went on sale mid-way through 2006 making the eight-year-old model one of the oldest utes on the Australian market alongside the Nissan Navara that arrived in late 2005 and Toyota HiLux that landed in early 2005.

A new-generation version of the Triton was previewed with the GR-HEV concept at last year’s Geneva motor show and the production version is set to arrive early next year, with a hybrid-powered variant still on the cards.

Sales of the four-wheel drive Triton range are down by 40.2 per cent for the first two months of 2014 compared with the same period last year with 1761 units shifted, while the two-wheel drive range is up by 34.2 per cent in January and February with sales of 562 units.