Overall rating:

The big bad Mitsubishi Shogun isn't the most sophisticated car in the world, nor the best to drive, nor very luxurious. But if you could only have one car for the rest of your life this might very well make the list: it has massive space and flexibility, genuine go-anywhere credibility, all the equipment you could need, reasonable running costs and is less likely to break than Bill Gates' laptop.

Key Facts

Model driven: Mitsubishi Shogun 3.2 DI-DC Elegance five-door
Pricing: £36,999 (as at February 2011)
Engine: 3.2-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder
Transmission: five-speed manual, four-wheel drive
Body style: five-door off-roader
Rivals: Jeep Grand Cherokee, Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota Land Cruiser
CO₂ emissions: 216g/km
Combined economy: 34.4mpg
Top speed: 111mph
0-62mph: 11.1 seconds
Power: 197bhp at 3,800rpm
Torque: 325lb.ft at 2,000rpm

Inside & Out:

It's a beast. You don't fully appreciate the relevance of a crossover until you reacquaint yourself with a full-scale 4x4 like the Shogun, in all its seven-seat, spare wheel nailed to the tailgate splendour. Testosterone painted white, it is.

It's not really a case of how intelligently or otherwise the Shogun uses its space - there's just masses of it, in all directions. The rearmost seats are cramped, of course, but they neatly and easily fold flat, leaving a huge boot with a flush floor that's easy to load into. It's not so easy to access, mind - it's a bit of a workout heaving the side-hinged, alloy wheel furnished door open.

The cabin smacks of old school robustness. It's neat and solidly built, but luxurious it's not, and some of the buttons can be a little difficult to fathom at first.

Ride & Handling:

The clodhopping weight transfer that the Shogun suffers during acceleration, braking and cornering are dead giveaways of its off-road leanings - pun intended. Anyone that enjoys the nuances of steering feel, cornering balance and the link between road and bum will find driving a Shogun anathema. There's just so much travel in the suspension. That's despite this version having been dropped an extra centimetre on its springs to improve aerodynamics.

Low-speed manoeuvring is an exercise in timing and arm flailing. There's a tiny 'spooling up' period while the engine shoves 2.2 tonnes of car into action, which leaves some time to wind the steering wheel around a few times. We're exaggerating of course, and actually the visibility is great so it's not that difficult, but this is one big, blunt block of a car around town. In the current epoch, putting one of these in a parent and child space at Tesco is mildly embarrassing, if we're honest. It boasts a good motorway ride though: smooth and unflustered, with only side wind swirl upsetting the relaxation.

Engine & Transmission:

There's only one 3.2-litre diesel engine option in the Shogun in the UK, which puts out upto 197bhp. It's far cleaner than its predecessor, emitting 224g/km and returning 33.2mpg on the combined cycle. While they're impressive stats, the reality is that the Shogun is a heavy old car, and needs a good slug of fuel to feel anything other than slothful. At idle and crawling speed it doesn't clatter too much, but those six cylinders don't half let you know they're compressing and combusting fuel at higher revolutions.

The presence of an extra transmission stick lets you know that this is a proper off-road machine. The car is clearly set up to be so (more of which in a moment), but around town you'll find the five-speed auto acceptably smooth shifting, if a little lethargic.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

While improved over the old car, and impressive for a big 4x4, the Shogun's CO₂ emissions will set you back £550 in first year VED, and £245 thereafter. And as we said, in reality you'll struggle to hit the mid-twenties (mpg) day-to-day; the Shogun is not a parsimonious car to run.

But it is specced to the hilt. Elegance trim, as was our test car, has satnav, a 12-speaker Rockford Fosgate stereo and leather as standard. At around £37,000 it's just below the German price echelon, but the standard equipment list is way above what they'd offer. Plus it's a proper off-road machine.