| A Week at the Wheel | Bucks, England | Mitsubishi Shogun |
Inside & Out:
At 4,385mm long and 1,875mm wide, it's not easy to make a case for the short wheelbase Shogun being 'small', but it is a useful 515mm shorter than the five-door Shogun and in reality no longer than the average family car. It's just a lot higher and wider and vastly more imposing. Yet surprisingly for a tall vehicle, the driving position itself is low.
At a little over £30,000 on-the-road, the Shogun is not a bargain basement vehicle and it doesn't look like one. Outside, the finish rivals the premium marques such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and the 20-inch alloys (standard on the Diamond level specification) look superb. Inside there is leather everywhere, and everything feels chunky, so in keeping with the size of the Shogun. The only let downs are the over complicated centre storage box and a few flimsy bits on the dashboard.
Engine & Transmission:
All Shoguns now come with the same engine, a massive (for four cylinders) 3.2-litre diesel unit with turbocharger and common-rail direct injection. This engine develops 168bhp at a low 3,800rpm and 275lb.ft. of torque at 2,000rpm. In Diamond spec, there is just the standard fit five-speed automatic gearbox connected to a switchable four-wheel drive system that defaults to rear-wheel drive. The gearbox adapts to the driver's needs, whether rushing around or driving in a more leisurely fashion, and in Sport mode can be driven as a sequential manual.
As befits an off-roader with such a long heritage, the Shogun has three four-wheel drive modes in additional to the normal use rear drive. Full-time four-wheel drive can be selected on the move up to 62mph for added security on the road in slippery conditions. Venture off-road and the centre differential can be locked for better traction in either the standard (high range) or low range set of gears for serious work. Engine Brake Assist Control switches in automatically in the low range gears taking control of the braking function if loss of grip is detected.
Ride & Handling:
The short wheelbase of the three-door model means that the Shogun is more wieldy than you might expect of a big off-road vehicle, but any attempts to throw the Shogun around are tempered by the body roll. The Shogun corners surprisingly well before terminal understeer sets in, but you and your passengers will be feeling nauseous quite quickly if you drive like that for long. Predictably the ride suffers; over bumpy B-roads it is very unsettled. Luckily this is much improved on smooth roads and the Shogun makes an excellent motorway cruiser.
Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:
Let's take equipment first as big 4x4s usually don't do fuel economy. The Shogun Diamond comes with an equipment list as large as the vehicle itself. You get leather, a sunroof, climate control, satnav, reversing camera and those truly massive 20-inch alloy wheels. With a combined cycle figure of 26.9mpg, this is one four-wheel drive that won't actually break the bank on the school run. It's a shame the SWB model only gets a 69-litre fuel tank rather than the 88-litre capacity of the LWB Shogun, but even this gives the SWB Shogun a 350-mile range.
Overall:
If you don't need seven-passenger capacity, it's hard not to find a place on your shortlist for the SWB Mitsubishi Shogun. Buy one and you'll not be disappointed, all the well known Shogun virtues are intact; they've just been updated for the 21st century.