2024 Mitsubishi Triton First Impressions Review | Philkotse Philippines

The 2024 Mitsubishi Triton (formerly the Strada) has finally reached the Philippine shores. It is now in its sixth generation eight years after the previous fifth-gen version was launched in 2015.

The all-new 2024 Mitsubishi Triton (Athlete variant pictured)

From its name change to its appearance and its interior, a lot has been switched up resulting in a wholly different-looking truck. Here’s Philkotse’s 2024 Mitsubishi Triton Athlete first impressions review.

In talking about its looks, it is a totally different beast compared to the previous model. It retains a commanding appearance, but it also matured a fair bit.

Starting with the front, it gets a flat but squared-off front fascia dominated by a squared-shaped grille. This is paired with a pair of very thin LED daytime running lamps (DRL) and a pair of compact-looking LED headlamp clusters. Either side of the front also gets a pair of LED fog lamps below the headlamp cluster.

A totally new look that still commands a lot of road presence.

If there’s one word to describe the front end, it’s “horizontal”. Every bit, save for the black trim outlining the headlamps and DRLs, features straight lines running parallel with the elongated grille holes. This gives the truck a neat look, but one can argue that the older outgoing model looked more dramatic and futuristic.

Over to the side, Mitsubishi opted to continue the straight lines theme by making sure the hood now aligns with the bed. Even the top of the hood, especially from the side, looks flat, apart from its beefy fender flares. This is further honed in by the deep horizontal character lines found on the lower portions of the doors and the upper part of the bed. Thanks to those details, the Triton is now one of the head-turning trucks in the market.

Even its sports bar are all straight angles.

As expected, the Triton Athlete that I got to drive received additional black-colored exterior bits which included a cargo bed sports bar, side step boards, and a set of 18-inch black alloy wheels. All of these didn’t go overboard in terms of styling and are suited to the look the brand was aiming for.

The bed for the all-new Triton I observed, does not get much different from the old model but its rear bumper houses new design details that make it more pleasing to the eye. The catch is, the tailgate feels a smidge too heavy for my liking, but it felt solid and durable.

The Triton from the rear.

Size-wise, the Triton retains a big road presence as it is 5,360mm long, 1,930mm wide, and 1,815mm in height. The Athlete version we drove also gets a ground clearance of 222mm so we can imagine that it’ll have no problems with bad roads, bumps, and the like.

In stepping inside the all-new Triton Athlete, I was greeted with a well-arranged interior that’s markedly more modern compared to the old Strada, and maybe even more than other competing pickup trucks in the local market.

The all-new Triton's cockpit.

Within the front cabin, the dashboard continues the well-thought-out design of the exterior with a refined interior that employs straight lines while avoiding the use of curves. This is particularly true for its new rectangular vents and the button arrangement for its dual-zone automatic climate control system. A majority of the interior bits are covered in soft-touch materials. Other bits use a smattering of polished trim pieces or sturdy plastic bits.

Another standout element of the dashboard is the new floating touchscreen. We’ll get more into this infotainment system later, but its new position makes it more legible to the truck’s occupants.

The steering wheel was made more compact while the center console was more elegant than before. I particularly appreciate the new position of the manual hand-operated parking brake which is now nearer to the driver.

Its second row has a decent amount of legroom.

Then again, the space surrounding the Mitsubishi Super-Select II 4x4 control dial and the shifter is surrounded by piano black plastic–a material that could easily get scuffed or scratched with heavy use.

I likewise found looking for my driving position easy thanks to the 10-way electronic adjustability for the driver’s seat. Unfortunately, the front passenger has to do with manual adjustability. Otherwise, both seats had no problems in accommodating my chunky 5-foot 11-inch frame.

Like most trucks, the rear seats don’t get much adjustability, but they are still comfortable for two adults. It can fit three, but two will be optimum. Also, the rear cabin doesn’t have rear aircon vents, but at least it has type A and type C USB charging ports.

A look inside the Triton's bed.

As mentioned above, the all-new Mitsubishi Triton gets a floating-type nine-inch touchscreen infotainment system. This offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and it is linked to a decent-sounding six-piece speaker system.

During our short time with the truck, we found that its wireless Apple CarPlay feature worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try out the connectivity function for its Android Auto.

Higher-spec trims get a nine-inch touchscreen display.

That said, the wireless smartphone connectivity pairs well with the model’s wireless charging pad. This enables its users to do away with pesky wires that tangle all the time. But if one prefers, the front cabin also has several USB charging ports and a 12-volt accessory socket.

Another great point of the display is its video feed for the Triton’s 360-degree view camera. We didn’t get to test it at night, but the image it provides is one of the clearest we’ve seen yet on a pickup truck. For that matter, the screen itself is quite legible and sharp. In fiddling with the thing, it didn’t show any lag or slowdowns.

The same qualities extend to the vehicle’s digital driver’s display that’s nestled between its analog speedometer and tachometer. This screen is easy to manipulate and easy to read as well.

The Triton's steering wheel, digital driver's display, and analog gauge clusters.

For safety, the next-gen Triton gets plenty of advanced safety driver-assist features. We didn’t get to test these out extensively, but available on the truck is forward collision mitigation with pedestrian detection, emergency assist for pedal misapplication, blind-spot monitoring with rear-cross traffic alert, lane change assist, and lane departure warning, among others.

Standard equipment present on the truck is what you’d expect from a modern vehicle. It has anti-lock braking, stability control, hill-start assist, hill-descent control, ISOFIX child seat anchors, parking sensors, automatic high beams, and many others.

Under the hood, the next-gen Triton Athlete uses a 2.4-liter turbodiesel engine that puts out 201 horsepower and 470 Nm of torque. To put things in perspective, that’s 23 hp and 40 Nm more compared to the old Strada Athlete.

To better put down traction on slippery terrain, the Triton gets a locking differential, seven drive modes, and four 4x4 modes.

The Triton Athlete has 222mm of ground clearance.

For the drive modes, it has normal, eco, gravel, mud, snow, sand, and rock. Obviously, we do not have snow locally, but the Japanese brand opted to keep it in.

The 4x4 modes, meanwhile, are comprised of a 2-H or 4x2 mode for driving on paved roads, 4-H or 4x4 high for wet or rough roads, 4HLc which is 4x4 high with a locked differential intended for sand and mud. Last but not least is the 4LLc or 4x4 low with a locked differential for hardcore off-roading like rock-crawling or sticky situations in deep sand or mud.

In driving the all-new model, the power increase is quite apparent as I found that it was able to get up to speed from a standstill rather quickly. Of note, we tested the Triton at normal speeds on the private road, so we didn’t have the chance to see more of its performance. Regardless, it feels faster and more athletic than the outgoing fifth-gen Strada.

The top-spec variant uses a 2.4-liter 4N16 two-stage turbocharged diesel engine.

On top of that, the handling seemed on-point as it can take corners with no dramatic body rolls. Its front wishbone and rear leaf spring suspension systems were also great at giving a good mix of comfort and stability when taking on speed bumps.

At around 40 km/h to 60 km/h, the cabin was likewise effective in staving away road noise, engine noise, and tire noise. Some amount of turbodiesel grunt can be heard in the engine if one revs it hard enough, but we barely felt any vibrations within the cabin at all.

Unfortunately, the short drive didn’t allow us to get it to highway speeds. We also didn’t get the chance to test its Super Select II and off-road capabilities. Hopefully, we can cover these in a full review.

Triton's center console. Note the piano black plastic around the shifter boot.

Overall, the next-generation Mitsubishi Triton carries over the truck-ness of the old Strada while being enhanced with more performance and a nifty new exterior and interior look.

Added performance is always welcome for enthusiasts. But combined with its refined and well-equipped interior, the Triton can definitely bank on the trend of using pickup trucks as comfortable daily drivers.

Regardless of its hefty size, it can fit the bill as a comfy daily driver.

As to how it looks though, that might be subjective, but its commanding appearance does make it stand out among the other muscular-looking trucks in the Philippine market right now.

With all that said, we can see that the all-new Triton has what it takes to be a potent contender in the highly contested Philippine pick-up truck segment.