The Mitsubishi Colt badge is back! Look familiar? Well, that’s because it’s little more than a rebadged Renault Clio hatchback…
The Mitsubishi Colt badge traces its origins all the way back to 1962 and has over the years been applied to both passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles (it was, for instance, used in South Africa between 1992 and 2008 on what the rest of the world knew as the L200 or Triton bakkie). After a bit of a sabbatical, the nameplate is back, though this time it’s affixed to what is merely a Renault Clio clone.
Yes, the new Mitsubishi Colt is little more than a rebadged version of the recently facelifted 5th-generation Clio. Like the 2nd-gen ASX unwrapped in September 2022, the new Colt is a product of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance (under the so-called “leader-follower” strategy).
So, will the Colt make its way to South Africa? Well, according to Jeffrey Allison, General Manager for Marketing at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa, the new Colt “is destined for Europe and not for South Africa”.
Riding on the group’s CMF-B platform and manufactured at Renault’s Bursa factory in Turkey, the Clio-based model will technically serve as the 7th generation of Colt to be offered in Europe (more than 1.2 million units of the earlier-gen models were sold in the region), returning to the Old Continent after a 9-year absence.
Mitsubishi’s designers have pasted the Japanese firm’s so-called “Dynamic Shield” face onto the front of the Clio, while also seemingly handing it a slightly different lighting signature (along with the 3-diamond Mitsubishi logo, of course). Round back, “Mitsubishi” lettering stretches across the tailgate, positioned above a Colt badge.
Inside, there’s virtually nothing to differentiate the new Colt from its Clio sibling (apart from badging, of course). For instance, it’s available with either a 7- or 9.3-inch infotainment display, as well as a Bose premium sound system and a raft of driver-assistance safety features (such as adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, automatic high beam and rear cross traffic alert) offered on the Clio in Europe.
As you’ve no doubt gleaned, the new Mitsubishi Colt uses the same powertrains as the Clio in Europe, which means it’s available in hybrid form (combining a 1.6-litre petrol engine with a pair of electric motors and a 1.2 kWh battery pack). There’s also a turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol motor (an engine that delivers 74 kW and 160 Nm in Clio guise here in SA) mated with a 6-speed manual transmission as well as a naturally aspirated 1.0-litre mill that makes do with a 5-speed manual cog-swapper.
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