SINGAPORE – Although it was technically never away, Mitsubishi has returned to the scene with a spanking new, 3,500 square-foot showroom at Cycle & Carriage’s premises on 239 Alexandra Road.

Cycle & Carriage still holds the distributorship for Mitsubishi cars in Singapore, although it stopped being a Mitsubishi dealer since 2010. The new showroom marks the re-opening of the dealership, as well as commemorating 37 years of co-operation between the two. As C&C puts it, “ the investment in Mitsubishi’s new home is a statement of both parties’ commitment to one another.”

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The new line-up of models here is made up of four cars, each with one engine variant for now. CnC boasts a five-year/unlimited mileage warranty and a 10-year/ 200,000km engine warranty.

ASX 2.0: The mid-sized SUV impressed CarBuyer when we drove it three years back – now the car gets a mid-life facelift with the all-important LED DRLs and improvements to its refinement and ride.

Attrage 1.2: A Mitsubishi newcomer to Singapore, the Attrage is also known as the Mirage G4 in overseas markets, and is a compact sedan that will go up against the likes of the Nissan Almera and Toyota Vios. Check out the global specs here.

Lancer EX:  The perennial, unkillable and ever-present Japanese sedan. It debuted back in 2008 and gets what CarBuyer understands to be a local facelift. Still, it’s cheap to own, cheerful and nigh indestructible.

Outlander 2.4: The big, seven-seat SUV is a clean-sheet, third-gen design and is the range-topper for the line-up here, it has a 2.4-litre inline 4, CVT transmission and all-wheel drive. Check out the local brochure in PDF form here. Or read a review here.

Like the other Japanese car brands here, Mitsubishi fell hard in the past six years. While its ubiquitous Lancer sedans of varying generations still ply the roads in Singapore, the brand fell from a high of 8,751 cars in 2006 to just five cars in the first half of 2014.

Huge Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices, the Japanese recession and hardships and the lack of new models for launch in Singapore meant that, at their worst point last year, sales ground almost to a halt, along with other Japanese brands in the same band like Daihatsu and Suzuki.

But we’re starting to see a return of affordable cars on the market here, such as Suzuki’s Solio, for example, and even the humble Toyota Corolla Altis is back on the best-seller lists again, so it’s no surprise that Mitsubishi has also decided to re-appear in the Alexandra automotive belt at this time.

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