ASX seeks ‘spirit of Lancer’
Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited is pitching the new MR and GSR sports variants of the facelifted ASX range for 2020 as spiritual successors to the discontinued Lancer small car, as the company attempts to capitalise on the ongoing and extraordinarily enduring popularity of the ageing small SUV.
On sale from $28,240 driveaway for the 2.0-litre powered MR and $4000 more for the better-specified GSR with the new-to-asx 2.4-litre engine that also debuts in the Exceed range-topper, the aim of both is to lure a broader and younger male demographic.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited, MMAL, product strategy manager Owen Thompson said traditionally there had been three key demographics for ASX – young females, young couples with maybe one child, and older empty nesters.
“But with the 2020 model year, we are trying to pitch it more to younger males who might have bought the Lancer GSR – getting that demographic is what we want to do.”
MMAL chief executive John Signoriello said the MR and GSR were the result of an Australian initiative that came about after the success of the limited-edition ASX Black Line earlier in 2019 – and it’s a strategy that might spread further up the brand’s SUV tree.
“The Black Line did very well for us,” he said.
“The 2000 or so cars we brought in moved quickly. It was something we took the lead on, and so when it came to the facelift, we took the opportunity to expand the Black Line theme with the MR and GSR.
“Now we have the Black Line on the Eclipse Cross and we’ll see how that goes before we make a decision on more sporty models for that.”
The ASX’S status as Australia’s bestselling small SUV despite going on to its 10th birthday with only relatively minor updates has helped MMAL have a stronger voice within Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, MMC, in Japan.
“We do have an influence MMC,” Mr Signoriello said.
“We instigated the MR and GSR and they are very happy to support with them. We are listened to more often nowadays.”
Part of that included the engineering of the 2.4-litre engine for right-handdrive, as it was previously only available in left-hand-drive for the ASX’S largest global consumers, the North American market.
“The big thing for us with this ASX was about putting the 2.4 in,” Mr Thompson said.
“The States already had the 2.4 in their market, and we were able to persuade them to do the same for our car. After that, the re-engineering to do that was relatively easy to do.”
However, MMAL will not go all the way with the USA by also reintroducing all-wheel drive availability on ASX, as that would mean it would step on the toes of the newer but only slightly larger Eclipse Cross range, which was recently expanded with a more affordable AWD variant.
To accommodate the latter when it launched in early 2018, up-spec ASXS switched to Fwd-only and dropped all diesel options.
“They are similarly sized but they are differently pitched into the market,” Mr Thompson said.
“The Eclipse Cross is the more premium offering, with a turbo-charged engine and AWD separating them.”
Unveiled globally in December 2009 and released in Australia as the XA series in July 2010, the ASX started life as a sales sleeper, languishing behind larger rivals such as the Nissan Dualis-qashqai and Hyundai ix35 for its first five years, before the XC facelift of 2015 brought improved styling and specification.
Sales soared towards nearly 20,000 units annually from then on, with the ASX reeling in the leading Mazda CX-3 in 2017 to rule the small SUV segment since.