Utes are as popular and ubiquitous amongst Kiwis as a steak and cheese pie. Their widespread popularity means that utes can be found virtually everywhere in New Zealand, whether on the jobsite, at the boat ramp or the school yard.
It’s therefore unlikely to surprise anybody to learn that for the past 7 years, New Zealand’s best-selling new vehicle was the Ford Ranger, with the Toyota Hilux following closely behind most years.
The Mitsubishi Triton is a popular vehicle, having placed 10th overall in new vehicle sales for 2023. Despite its objective popularity, the Triton is a fair margin behind the Ranger and Hilux in overall sales.
So, does the new-generation Mitsubishi Triton have the chops to take a bigger slice of the pie from Toyota and Ford in 2024? More importantly, should it be your next ute of choice?
What We Like and Dislike About The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Enhanced performance Improved engine responsiveness and refinement Better handling Major interior and technology updates 10-year Diamond Advantage warranty Price | Polarising nose design Irritating driver attention warning Ride quality and body control are only okay Heavy tailgate |
What’s In the 2024 Mitsubishi Triton Range?
There are several variants of the Mitsubishi Triton available for New Zealand buyers. I say “several”, because there’s 14 different options available on Mitsubishi New Zealand’s website at the time of writing.
To simplify it, buyers aren’t being offered 14 different trims. Instead, the 14 different types are based on only a few underpinning specs. Those include whether you have the Triton as 2WD or 4WD, whether the body is a single, double or club-cab, and then, trim is the final aspect.
Across the range, there’s three core trim levels: the entry level GLX, the mid-spec GLXR and the top-spec VRX.
All Tritons are powered by a 2.4-litre bi-turbo diesel engine, producing 150kW of power and 470Nm of torque, paired with a 6-speed automatic gearbox. No manual transmissions are offered in the current range.
The cheapest Triton, being the 2WD GLX single-cab can be yours for $38,690. The top-spec and most expensive Triton is the 4WD VRX double-cab (also our test car), which can be yours for $59,990.
There are eight standard colours and one unique model colour available for the Triton:
- Impluse Blue
- Cardrona (white)
- Blade Silver
- Pitch Black
- Graphite Grey
- Inferno Red
- Yamabuki Orange
- White Diamond (VRX trim only)
- Deep Bronze
For more information on Mitsubishi Triton, check out the Mitsubishi New Zealand website.
How Does The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX Compare To Its Competition?
Three of the top five new sold vehicles in New Zealand are utes. Naturally, you’re going to have a few options in this segment. Here’s a list of the usual suspects.
| Make/Model | Engine | Power/Torque (kW/Nm) | Fuel (L/100km) | Towing capacity (Kg) | Price |
| Ford Ranger Wildtrak | 2.0-litre 4-cylinder twin-turbo diesel | 154/500 | 8.3 | 750/3,500 | $76,990 |
| Isuzu D-MAX X-Terrain | 3.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo diesel | 140/450 | 9.2 | 750/3,500 | $67,990 |
| Toyota Hilux SR5 Cruiser | 2.8-litre 4-cylinder turbo diesel mild hybrid | 150/500 | 8.7 | 750/3,500 | $65,490 |
| Nissan Navara Pro-4X | 2.3-litre 4-cylinder twin-turbo diesel | 140/450 | 7.6 | 750/3,500 | $61,990 |
| Mitsubishi Triton VRX | 2.4-litre 4-cylinder twin-turbo diesel | 150/470 | 8.8 | 750/3,500 | $59,990 |
| GWM Cannon-L | 2.4-litre 4-cylinder turbo diesel | 120/400 | 9.4 | 750/3,000 | $41,490 |
First Impressions Of The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX
I can’t say that I’m sold on the new design of the Triton. Admittedly, when I saw the Triton advertised, my reactionary thinking may have started with “oh gosh”, followed-up with “what have they done there?”.
Although, my views have moderated since looking at it parked in the driveway everyday for around a week.
You may need to pass your eyes over it a few times, but then, you’ll probably notice that the design is actually quite similar to the outgoing Triton. Heck, it almost looks as if Mitsubishi just flattened the nose of the old ute.
It still has its hallmark c-shaped facias flanking its squared grille, along with slanted headlights and separate square housings for the indicators and ancillary projector lights.
From the rear three-quarters, the design is much tidier. There’s fresh sculpting down the side of the body, along with an updated set of LED tail lights. The contrasting body flares on our test ute provide it with proper presence, and its rear sports bar is a nice touch.
What’s The Interior Like In The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX?
In the not-so-distant past, utes were considered agricultural vehicles. Built to be basic, bashable brutes for roaming across bovine farms, with your border-collie in the back. The interiors reflected their purposeful nature, with basic trimmings, hard-wearing materials, and maybe A/C and a cupholder, if you were lucky.
It’s a far shot from today’s modern dual-cab ute, which is more multi-purpose than before. The modern ute is everything from a work truck, to a leisure vehicle and a mall crawler. Because of this, they’re being festooned with more luxury, tech, and creature comforts than before. Naturally, if your reference point for an interior is a late 1980’s Mitsubishi L200, the new Mitsubishi Triton will be almost unrecognisable, to a point that you may even allege that Mitsubishi has stolen the interior from one of its latest crossovers.
Inside, there’s plenty of swanky materials, soft materials lining the dashboard and door cards, and leather upholstery with orange-stitch finishes. The seats are heated, as is the steering wheel, and the switch-gear and vents feel nicely damped.
There are also some good liveability features, including a wireless phone charger, USB-A and USB-C inputs, a split glove-box and additional cupholders that pop-out from the dashboard. Of course, the Triton’s swish interior doesn’t mean that it’s gone all soft. Many of its trims still feel reasonably durable, but I wouldn’t have the same laxity as you might in your buddies old-beater of an L200.
There are also a few not-so-good cabin finishes, such as piano black plastic surrounding the centre console (which scratches easily), and some faux carbon fibre surrounding the window switches (tacky, in my view). Also, I found the placement of the ignition start/stop button below the climate controls felt a little awkward to me.
The Triton’s 9-inch infotainment unit comes with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Bluetooth and Sat-Nav. Its user interface is tile-based and appears to be an adapted version of Nissan’s previous generation interface. If you weren’t aware, Nissan has 34% shareholding in Mitsubishi.
The infotainment is slightly dated compared to some of the latest systems on the market, but at least its responsive and easy-to-use. Compared with rivals, the unit is better than those found in the Hilux and Isuzu D-Max, but it’s not as good as the Ranger’s infotainment unit.
Similar can be said of the front, rear and top-down camera displays. The resolution and brightness of these cameras are good, and are considerably better than those found in the Hilux and D-Max. Again, not quite as good as the Ranger, but up to standard for 2024.
The infotainment unit is paired with an unbranded 6-speaker audio system, which is of middling quality. If anything, it’s quite heavy on the bass and treble by default and I found myself actually needing to lift to mid-range to get the best from it.
The instrument cluster is a combination display, with traditional analogue dials and a central digital display canvassing the middle. The digital display has reasonably good resolution and has several different outputs, including tyre pressure monitoring, a compass and digital speedo, along with different safety support screens.
The back seats of a ute are seldom going to be first choice for any passenger, unless that passenger has four legs. If adults do need to occupy the rear, they’ll appreciate the seats which have plenty of give and having enough head and legroom to be comfortable.
The rear tray measures 1,555mm, 1,545mm, 1,135mm between the wheel arches, meaning there’s enough room for a standard Euro pallet. The tailgate is quite heavy, so this is definitely one you drop as opposed to trying to ease it down.
Tray liners are an add-on accessory from Mitsubishi. Our press vehicle also has an aftermarket, electronically retractable hard lid from Mountain Top (not a Mitsubishi accessory, and they don’t yet offer one). This will set you back north of $3,000.
What’s The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX Like To Drive?
Many of us will have seen Mitsubishi’s advertising campaign – “the new Triton is king of the beasts”.
Although, these days it might be more accurate to say “king of the well-mannered beasts”. After all, the Triton is competing in a class of increasingly sophisticated, multi-purpose utes, which are everywhere from the shops to the sheep shed.
Anyway, I wouldn’t dissect the marketing too much. Instead, know that the new Triton is more powerful, more refined, and more capable than its predecessor.
Underneath the bonnet, the Triton features a ‘new’ engine for 2024. Well, it’s not quite ‘new’ from the ground-up, but Mitsubishi has essentially re-engineered the previous architecture, using new parts for the majority of it.
More notably, the new powerplant features twin-turbos versus the single-turbo arrangement on the previous-gen Triton. This, and all of the engine re-tooling has increased the Triton’s performance, with its engine outputting 150kW of power and 470Nm of torque, up 16kW and 30Nm.
These changes mightn’t sound like much on paper, particularly given the effort Mitsubishi put into reengineering the Triton’s powerplant. Although, the performance gains aren’t going to be appreciated by staring at a piece of paper.
From behind the wheel, you’ll notice that the engine is more responsive, with peak torque developing at 1,500rpm. The new twin-turbo arrangement produces boost more consistently across the entire rev-range, resulting in meatier mid-range performance and improved throttle response.
The engine is paired with a newly-developed 6-speed automatic gearbox, which shifts smoothly and has well programmed shift logic. I didn’t catch it hunting for gears, unlike some new utes. Although it’s a 6-speed, the improved responsiveness of the turbos, they begin spooling up and feeding through boost before the downshift blending over the ‘cut’ in performance. Furthermore, Mitsi chose the 6-speed for its relative simplicity, instead of opting for the 8-speed that was once used in the Pajero Sport. Simple usually means more reliable.
The Triton’s newly discovered performance is complemented with an increase in overall refinement. The twin-turbo diesel is much smoother compared with the outgoing powertrain, and the combination of increased power and refinement also makes for a more relaxed drive, because you needn’t squeeze the engine for its performance.
You’re also going to experience less stress piloting the new Triton through urban areas and twistier sections of tarmac. For this generation, Mitsubishi invested considerable time and effort tuning the Triton’s suspension for Australasian conditions, resulting in better overall road manners and body control.
The spring rate feels quite soft over the front-end, and the rear leaf springs have been reduced to three larger layered ‘leafs’, compared with the five (or sometimes six) on the outgoing ute. As a result, these changes provide the Triton with better ride quality in urban areas and over patchier tarmac.
Although the ride quality has been generally improved, there’s still no avoiding the stiffness which arises from a leaf sprung rear end. This means that the ride can still be somewhat bouncy over rough and poorly graded tarmac. Compared to rivals, the Triton’s ride quality isn’t as good as the Nissan Navara or the Ford Ranger.
While it is natural to expect some body roll from a tall and heavy ute, the Triton demonstrates fairly good body control when the roads get windier and the speed limit increases. This can be partially credited to Mitsubishi’s Active Yaw Control (AYC) software, which manages the torque flow to individual sides of the vehicle from its differentials.
Anyway, even though improved on-road manners are appreciated, off-roading capability is arguably more important for a new ute. Fortunately, Mitsubishi doesn’t appear to have compromised on the Triton’s offroading capability in the pursuits of making it comfier to live with. The Triton uses an updated version of its own Super Select II on-demand four-wheel drive system. Super Select II uses a Torsen style limited-slip differential in the centre, which can allow for four-wheel drive on-road and also can be fully locked in low-range.
For 2024, Mitsubishi had a particular focus on improving the Triton’s capability on sand, which also partially motivated the Triton’s softer suspension tune. It also motivated the development of several new off-roading terrain modes (including a “Sand” mode). Each individual terrain mode makes subtle adjustments to the traction control, gearbox, throttle response and braking, optimising themselves for different terrain types.
As tempting as it was to test this, Mitsubishi New Zealand probably wouldn’t have been too appreciative of having their ute returned with a cabin full of sand. So, we’ll need to test this out another time.
On the matter of software, the new Triton possesses all the relevant safety software (and acronyms) for 2024. Many of them are well-calibrated, including the Forward Collison warning system which had once been a touch too sensitive on other Mitsubishi models.
The Triton doesn’t have lane centring assistance, despite it becoming more common across most vehicle classes. However, most of the competition doesn’t either.
However, there is one crucial exception to the “well-calibrated” software, being the Driver Attention Monitoring system.
Driver Attention Monitors are becoming more common for many manufacturers, and they’re necessary for a manufacturer to achieve top marks in crash safety tests. These systems are usually designed to chime when they detect that you’re looking away from the road – that’s the theory, anyway.
In practice, I’ve found many of these systems to be a nuisance. The Triton’s Driver Attention Monitor, however, is particularly bad. It triggered when I checked my blind-spot, again I was scanning at a busy intersection, and even freaked out when I was wearing sunglasses.
You can turn it off from within the instrument cluster, although it turns itself back on every time you start the car.
Fortunately, Mitsubishi has claimed to have developed a software update which is intended to dial back the sensitivity, making it trigger every 9 seconds instead of 2 seconds. If you’ve brought a Triton, I’d suggest getting in touch with your dealer – assuming you’ve not already taken a hammer to it.
2024 Mitsubishi Triton VRX – Specifications
| Vehicle Type | 4-door dual-cab ute |
| Starting Price | $59,990 |
| Price as Tested | $59,990 |
| Engine | 2.4-litre 4-cylinder twin-turbo diesel |
| Power/Torque (kW/Nm) | 150/470 |
| Transmission | 6-speed automatic |
| Spare Wheel | Full size |
| Kerb Weight (Kg) | 2,125 |
| Length x Width x Height (mm) | 5320 x 1930 x 1815 |
| Tray Payload (Kg) | 1,075 |
| Fuel tank capacity (litres) | 75 |
| Fuel Economy (L/100km) | Advertised Spec – Combined – 8.8 Real-World Test – Combined – 9.4 Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+ |
| Towing Capacity (Kg, unbraked/braked) | 750/3,500 |
| Turning circle (metres) | 12.4 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+ |
| Warranty | 5-year/130,000-km new vehicle warranty 10-year/160,000-kms powertrain warranty |
| Safety information | ANCAP Rating – 5 stars Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – QMF440 |
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