Filed under: Trends (http://www.autoblog.com/category/trends/), Trucks/Pickups (http://www.autoblog.com/category/trucks/), Mitsubishi (http://www.autoblog.com/category/mitsubishi/)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/01/2009-dodge-raider-580.jpg (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/08/raiders-of-the-lost-truck-mitsubishi-killing-forgotten-pickup/)

Don't look now, but the U.S. is quickly losing its supply of small-volume, badge-engineered trucks. Just yesterday, we learned that at month's end, Isuzu plans to s (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/05/isuzu-to-cease-passenger-vehicle-sales-in-america-at-months-end/)hut off the trickling flow that is its passenger vehicle business in the States, taking the Ascender SUV and i-Series pickups along with it. Today, there is word that Mitsubishi will drop the Raider pickup, itself a substantially restyled Dodge Dakota (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/10/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-dodge-dakota-sport/).

According to Automotive News, the slow-selling carryall will tuck into oblivion sometime mid next-year, as Mitsubishi looks to overhaul its product lineup in order to focus more on fuel-efficient small cars. In its present form, the Raider has been around since 2005, and while it it has never been a big seller, last year, the mid-size pickup sold under 3,000 units. Interestingly, an often overlooked and altogether different Raider was marketed as a Dodge-branded rework of the Mitsubishi Montero SUV in the late Nineties.

With America's badge-engineered workadays dropping like flies, how long will it be until the Grim Reaper shows up at the door, lookig for the Mazda B-Series? Who will save the children? Buy them while you can, folks.

[Source: Automotive News (http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090108/ANA05/901089966/1078) - Sub. Req.]
Raiders of the Lost Truck: Mitsubishi killing forgotten pickup (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/08/raiders-of-the-lost-truck-mitsubishi-killing-forgotten-pickup/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).


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