We’ve all been on the receiving end of dodgy marketing. For instance, when BMW said the X3 could be driven off-road, it quite clearly couldn’t, which why you quite often see them abandoned in Royal Parks, yummy mummy in tears. Similarly, when Lambrini began a cruel campaign that promised a fun, fruity and sophisticated taste, I found it to be less sophisticated than Prince Philip on a foreign visit and cheaper than a BP share. Mitsubishi however, have kept their pitch with the Shogun pretty simple. It has always been along the lines of, if you need to go off road, not sleeping policeman or the upper tier of Waitrose car park, but through babbling brooks and across fog drenched moors, choose the Shogun.

It’s no secret the Shogun its great on the rough stuff, and I was going to make sure this model for 2010 was no different, but there was another aspect I was almost more interested in – its ability on road. More and more people are looking for that go anywhere, do everything motor, something that will do the school run but happily blast down to the Alps and scale them when it gets there. Range Rover has proved that it can be done and so too has the Land Rover Discovery. Unfortunately, for that privilege you either need be a footballer, or somebody with a penchant for mustard cords.

First impressions are worrying, because the 2010 Shogun has come over all Jay Z, a bit new money if you will. Big shiny allow wheels feature alongside full leather trim, 30GB HDD touch screen navigation and a roof spoiler. I’ve not met a single farmer who wants to choose the temperature of his cabin and has 30GB of music to listen to through an 850 watt sound system. In all honesty, The Archers played through twelve speakers would be somewhat unnerving. Maybe the Shogun is no longer the farmyard workhorse then, maybe it is trying to be a modern jack of all trades.

For me, this was confirmed on a 300 mile trip around the M25 and down to Canterbury, where the Shogun was a pleasure. Recent media nay saying about tyre noise and an unpredictable ride had me worried Mitsubishi had missed a great opportunity, but the Shogun’s 197 BHP 3.2 litre oil burner had plenty of torque from low down and was no slouch off the line. Flex a toe at 60 though and you will have a wait on your hands, a weak link that Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery owners rarely encounter on their travels. For 2010 the diesel unit has 18% more power, 18% more torque, lower Co2 emissions and now comes with lower road tax. This is great news for motorway driving, which the Shogun performs with minimum fuss, but sho it a corner and body roll is a real issue.

We took the Shogun closer to nature for the photo shoot and you could sense it felt at home. Moving from two wheel drive up to four, the Shogun’s engine becomes a tower of power, never losing grip and constantly assessing individual wheel torques to make sure you plough on. Interior space is massive, with a colossal boot of 63 cubic feet on this long wheel base version. Although its engine note can be unrefined when pushing on, I fail to see how others have marked the car down for it. Compared to the Discovery and Range Rover the Shogun doesn’t have the same quality of ride of road presence, but we can’t forget that there is a £20,000 difference in price depending on options and that makes the Shogun a solid investment.

At £35,000 the Shogun isn’t cheap, but considering the interior is a roomy, comfortable place to be, the engine is powerful enough and economic enough to perform well across all driving situations and it presents class-leading ability off road, it could be that complete package I was talking about earlier. It has its negatives, the engine is a bit gruff at times and you can feel every gram of its 2300kg kerb weight in the corners, but I believe Mitsubishi have done well to bring the Shogun out of the farmyard gate and make it suitable for everyday use.

Photography by Jody Coffey