Mitsubishi says that it is pulling the plug on its Raider pickup, essentially a rebadged and mildly facelifted Dodge Dakota. The Japanese automaker says it won’t renew its contract with Dodge and that the 2010 model year will be the last for the slow-selling pickup truck. Mitsubishi moved just 2,935 Raiders in 2008, a 64.5 percent drop from the year before.
Mitsubishi i s set to overhaul most, if not all, of its North American lineup in the near future in response to weak sales, but the automaker says it doesn’t plan to introduce another pickup in to the market. Instead, it will focus on smaller cars, including a replacement for the Galant. The Raider was the second pickup Mitsubishi sold in North America – the Mighty Max, which spawned Dodge and Plymouth-badged variants, was sold until 1996.
The Raider name has a long history of rebaging; Dodge sold a Mitsubishi Montero badged as a Raider from 1987 to 1990.
The Raider’s failure raises further questions as to how well Suzuki will do with its new Equator pickup, a very mildly rebadged version of the Nissan Frontier .
