Why did Mitsubishi revive Ralliart as a sticker pack?

For the past few years, Mitsubishi's Ralliart brand has remained dormant. The in-house tuning division used to produce parts for nearly all of the company's models, but it was most popular with the Lancer Evolution. However, the automaker previously announced that Ralliart would be returning. They didn't reveal much detail about its revival, but it did get a lot of us excited for what's to come.

It seems Mitsubishi has now revived the Ralliart brand in Thailand, but it's far from what we hoped for. Instead of performance goodies, Mitsubishi Ralliart returns to the Land of Smiles as an accessories package for the Pajero Sport/Montero Sport and the Triton/Strada/L200. These accessories packages are all aesthetics too and do not provide any go-fast bits to the SUV and pick-up truck.

Starting with the Montero Sport, the Ralliart accessories package adds red bumper garnishes, black roof, black grille, black tailgate spoiler, black wheels, red mudflaps, and a Ralliart decal on the rear quarter and door. The Strada, both single and double cab versions, receive a similar makeover but ride on a different set of black wheels. In addition, the pick-up truck comes with a Ralliart bedliner.

For the time being, the Ralliart packages are only available on the 4x2 variants of the SUV and pick-up truck. There's no word yet whether it will be offered on the 4x4 models. Colors are also limited to just black and white. The packages do make the Montero Sport and Strada look a lot more aggressive. However, it's far from the upgrades we expected.

The Ralliart name alludes to their rally heritage with the Lancer Evolution and even the older Galant VR4. But with the Evo and the Galant long dead, they've taken a step back from rallying. While they have the Xpander AP4 rally car, it's still far from their WRC cars of the past.

Many do scoff at the idea of a style-only Ralliart package, but here's the thing: rally experience is already factored in with many Mitsubishi models during the development stage. While many Mitsu models do not sport the Ralliart decals, a lot of rallying experience does come in with the inputs of the likes of multiple Dakar champion Hiroshi Masuoka. This is especially true of models like the Montero Sport and Strada. So while it may seem like a design pack only, the decals only highlight what is already factored in. 

There is a silver lining with their comeback as an accessories package, though. Specifically, this could be a gateway for the Ralliart brand to come back even bigger, assuming Mitsubishi revives it globally. With that, we might just see some performance models make a comeback in the future.