Cannot have yet: Mitsubishi Delica D:5 spied on local soil but..

Announced at the beginning of last year as being under investigation for South Africa, Mitsubishi has upped the chances of making the Delica MPV available following the discovery of images on social media of it on local soil.

It has been here before

Once sold in South Africa in second generation guise throughout the 1980s and 1990s as the Mitsubishi L300 and by Ford as the rebadged Husky, the proceeding fourth generation became the last sold locally, albeit before the turn of the century as the Spacewagon powered by normally aspirated 2.4-litre petrol engine delivering 97 kW.

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Reported in 2019 as being in-line for a future outside Asia, most notably a return to Australia, where previous generations were once sold as well, the current fifth generation Delica D:5 hails from 2007 and rides on the GS platform developed during the DaimlerChrysler era.

“Testing”

Available with either eight or seven seats in Japan, its last extensive update in 2018 saw the 2.4-litre petrol engine and CVT being dropped for a 2.2 DI-D turbodiesel once offered in the ASX and pervious generation Outlander in Europe, hooked to an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Mentioned but not shown at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa’s product planning event last year, the sighting of the Delica D:5 on Instagram over the weekend at a Mitsubishi event ignited speculation that a market debut had been approved for later this year.

Responding to the image posted by user, Dlalakufes though, Mitsubishi told The Citizen the depicted model has been imported for “feasibility studies” as well as “testing and getting customer feedback”.

Base model anything but

Appearing similar to the Japanese market P trim level, which identifies it as the base model, the Delica D:5 still boasts a locking centre differential and a drive mode selector with three four-wheel-drive settings; 2WD, 4WD and Lock.

Despite being the entry-level variant, items listed on Mitsubishi Japan’s website for the P are 18-inch alloy wheels, auto on/off LED headlights, eight or seven seats, dual sliding electric doors, chrome door handles, a heated steering wheel, an electric tailgate and wood inserts.

Also fitted are folding electric mirrors, heated front seats, a surround-view camera system, electrically deploying side-steps, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Blind Spot Monitoring, Lane Change Assist, Radar Cruise Control, Collision Mitigation Braking and a 10.1-inch infotainment system with a four-speaker sound system.

Not this year

Priced from ¥4 601 300 (R576 710) all the way to ¥4 916 670 (R616 238) for the range-topping special edition Chamonix, Mitsubishi has indicated that despite the Delica D:5 being present on local soil, it has no plans to put in on-sale in 2024 at all.

It, however, added, “if we do bring it in, the earliest it will be is in 2025”. As such, should approval be given as mentioned, expect details to only become apparent next year.

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