The first thing I said when I saw photos of the newly unveiled Mitsubishi Xpander compact MPV crossover thingamajig over in Indonesia recently was 'Okaayyyyyyyyyyy......'. Then I thought that this MPV isn't so bad looking after all. It could just be horrible.
I know this is something like a concept car that has straight away come to life without much tweaking for production. It is also Mitsubishi trying very hard to impress people after their recent emissions control results fiasco. It has an opinion dividing front end which has their 'Dynamic Shield' front end styling but with the volume turned up to Kanye West bitchin' levels . BUT, that being said, this is all up front only.
You can see that the Expander is actually all scary up front but slowly becomes tamer once your eyes start moving further back. And once you end up at the rear, it looks decent. So the only actual worry is that overly schizophrenic styled front end with its squinty headlights and humongous bumper section.
In fact, the squinty headlights aren't the headlights in the first place. Those are just the DRL lights and the main headlights are in those large angular pods to the left and right of the number plate section. In other words, the headlights are located in the bumper. Mitsubishi has decided to think outside the box here...
..but maybe a little too much thought was put here. You also have to note that there are also two small tiny round shaped driving lights placed right at the lower edge of the bumper too. This is one front end with circles, sharp angular lines, boxes and whatever geometric shape you can think of up front.
So let's try and see if some black paint can help the looks of the Expander. This is what I'd do if I got one. The photo above is the original photo of the Xpander...
...Now, after some blackout on the bumper I think it now looks okay. Some black paint and blacked out the parts beside the headlights make it look a tad better than before. Pardon the amateur use of photoshop here.
No idea if Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia is going to bring this in. But I think they will as there is a vacant slot in their current line-up for a compact people carrier in the mould of the Toyota Avanza, Proton/Suzuki Ertiga and the Perodua Alza. It has a 1.5liter engine inside by the way.
But heck, the Xpander has a front end a mother, or in the case, an owner would love. Something like a Fiat Multipla. Which was a MPV that was either hated, or hated. I mean loved. So with me stating so, I hope that Mitsubishi will bring this in so that we can have some love-hate relationship going on here.
Anyway, say hello to the new, spiritual successor of the Fiat Multipla. The Mitsubishi Xpander.
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