Used Mitsubishi Shogun Sport 2018 - present review

The modern sports utility vehicle (SUV) has changed beyond all recognition and now the used market is flooded with road-biased SUVs. Trouble is, there are still people in rural locations who need a proper off-roader, and while most companies have stopped providing such vehicles, Mitsubishi continues to do so.

Taking over from the old Shogun, the Shogun Sport is a large seven-seater with big chunky tyres, a rugged separate chassis and a centre locking differential – important to have when tackling steep inclines, deep mud or crawling over rocks. The beefy chassis also helps the Shogun Sport when towing, because it can pull up to 3100kg behind it. So, if you happen to need a vehicle that’ll drag a horsebox (with the horse inside, of course) to and from a show, then this Mitsubishi could be the car for you.

However, this car is described as being equally at home in the city as it is in the wilderness, which simply isn’t the case. The long travel suspension that works well on uneven surfaces makes the Shogun Sport wallow at an alarming rate in corners. The knobbly tyres may mean that it can claw through a boggy marsh, but they do generate quite a lot of road roar and contribute to the jittery ride. And the slow steering that’s ideal for not breaking your thumbs when the wheels are jostled this way and that when navigating tricky terrain means that you’re never completely confident of what the front end is doing as you enter a bend.

There’s only one engine available: a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine that sounds very agricultural, and with only 178bhp on-tap, has all the urgency of a replacement bus service. The eight-speed automatic that is also the only gearbox on offer doesn’t help matters because it is all too eager to change down when you ask for some acceleration, thus exasperating the unrefined nature of the engine.

As you’d expect, the interior of the Shogun Sport is big and gives seven people quite a lot of space. It’s not very flexible since the second-row seats are fixed, whereas most rivals have a sliding arrangement. The seats in the Mitsubishi are awkward to fold, which will be an issue for younger children. The boot isn’t very accommodating with the third row erected, and the opening is rather narrow compared with the class best.

Prices for a Mitsubishi Shogun Sport at the time of writing start at £28,000 for a 2018 version, but as this is a fairly new model, its prices are still changing relatively rapidly. To keep up to date with used Shogun Sport prices, use our free valuation tool to make sure you are getting the best deal.

Check the value of a used Mitsubishi Shogun Sport with What Car? Valuations

We’ll start with the good news. When you discount the eye-watering £2070 first-year registration fee from the original on-the-road price of even the top spec ‘4’ version, you’ll find that the Shogun Sport is comfortably under the £40,000 luxury car tax threshold. Therefore, you’ll only be paying £140 per year in road tax, no matter which version you go for.

Now for the bad news: with a combined NEDC fuel economy figure of just 32.8mpg, the Shogun Sport is going to cost you a lot in day-to-day running. Insurance is par with others in the class, but the high spec ‘4’ model should be slightly cheaper in this regard because of the additional safety equipment it has.

Servicing is every 12 months or 12,500 miles. It’s worth checking with the dealer if there’s a servicing plan with the car because it covers the first three services, otherwise you’ll have to pay to service the car. No Shogun Sport is old enough yet to take advantage of Mitsubishi’s value fixed price servicing, yet.

With only one engine and a single gearbox choice, there isn’t much to add here. Standard equipment includes dual-zone climate control, a reversing camera, parking sensors and hill descent control. However, we would suggest you go for a top-of-the-range ‘4’ model because a 360deg camera system, adaptive cruise control, blindspot monitoring and automatic emergency braking are all added.

Our favourite Mitsubishi Shogun Sport: 2.4-litre 4WD Auto 4

If you don’t plan on doing any off-roading, simply any other large SUV would be a better buy than a Mitsubishi Shogun Sport. A Peugeot 5008 is much more economical, nicer to drive and still comes with seven decent-sized seats. A Hyundai Santa Fe would have a much longer warranty and a Kia Sorento has a lot more kit for less money.

But, if you’re after a full-blown mud-plugger, then a Toyota Land Cruiser might fit the bill nicely. It has Toyota’s famed reputation for reliability, has a more spacious interior with plenty of oddments storage space and is a fair bit more economical than the Shogun Sport. It doesn’t come with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but that’s really the only thing the Mitsubishi has on it.

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