After being an avid driver, for a very long time, I found that I needed to explore more ranges of cars. I was keen in those gorgeous drivingJaguar's, and BMW's, and quite a few Mercedes' down the line, but I still didn't feel settled. I didn't feel relaxed, that click in my head that struck and said "this is the car that I want to spend the rest of my life with". Let me tell you, before you read my review, I still haven't found "that car", that I still dream of, and would love to spend the rest of my time with, with no need ever to change car, in my life! This will doubtfully be found as far as I look at it, so far...
So let me tell you the pre-story before I purchased this car, second hand mind, but in perfectly brilliant condition, I could not fault it at the time with any bit of my might, but I'm blabbing, let me just get on with my review! Anyway, I had a small bit of money on my hands, for the first time in my life mind, I had just upgraded life, from the suburbs of London, to the countryside, and after a good few years of savings, just had a bit more decent money, for me to go out and look, to find "that car", 'the one', which theoretically, may be expensive for me to buy, but would last me to my grave. So imagine your in my shows, you've got a grand new flash house, a beautiful family, spare money in your back pocket, and your staring at your old rusting little Citroen, that just about managed to lug you up from down South. The air is warm, and your feeling happy, whipee, you think, life's perfect, I could never be better. You now think, I've secured myself, a job, a beautiful house and family, and a bit of money, and all I'm lacking is my dream car. So I thought, I'm practically in the middle
of nowhere, I need a 4 wheel drive, that would make me popular with the posh neighbors, wouldn't it? So you do it, doing a bit of light background research, after all, your just trying to enjoy the Summer Sunshine, but you need to find you dream car along the way. I decided on getting a superb Mitsubishi Shogun, wonderful car, I read, great to drive I heard. So I started to scavenge around the local Private Dealers, after all, I've got a bit of cash, and for that touch of perfection, I'd rather have perfection in life rather than a hell life of rusting nuts, so I got out, on my mystery search, to find "this" car. Luckily, just a short walk away from my house, I find a dealer, who's got 1 Mitsubishi Shogun in stock, and its good value he says! "Oh yes, I love the car, my favorite you see, I can't be sure whether I'll let it go, I love it so much", he said, all a load of rubbish I know now! But anyway, I believe him, and from what he poses to be reluctantly, he hands over the keys, in hand for a pretty cheque, which for reasons of financial interest and concern, I preserve from telling you the exact price. Now, he hands me the keys, and says have a nice time, but only to find, I get home, the car sitting in the garage, my kids playing about inside in it, and sleep in it for the night, and I'm just giving the car a once over, quite happy with what I've got, till I open the back wheel cover, and kabam, punctured wheel. Thinking it was a bit of a mistake, I ring up the dealer, who says to me, Oh, I thought we agreed if you wanted the genuine wheel, I need £40 cash for it. I go over to his house, quite a pretty estate mind you, hand over £40, and get the wheel. Go back, sort out everything, get the kids warm and sleeping inside, ready for a next day of exploration in the new, proud to say it, "Shogun".
Actual review below:
The side panels, kept coming off over the next few weeks, something I went back to the dealer about, and he fixed them for me, for half the price he'd usually do it, he said, £79.26 - to be precise. So this is the first fault. The car drives smoothly, lovely purr in the engine, and will gladly rev up quite nicely, if you ask it kindly. The steering is quite good, and the platform the car is made on, is great to see around those high hedges, as well as be able to relax, looking down at the city car next to you, knowing the car has the power to crush it. The engine made a few funny noises, once or twice throughout the due course of its time, which are allowed, but I must say, the battery was not one of the best, and always took me a while to charge, and was difficult to jump-start. It is a 7 seater if you haven't yet realized, and is beautifully spaced out, big enough to host a kids party in the back if you want, with the seats that fold down and then hang up, with some difficulty mind! Plenty of room, for leg space, and to put up your feet and have a nap, and plenty of room, around the back in the back row of 2 seats, although limited shopping space, unless you spend 12 minutes folding each chair up! The safety was quite astounding, taking a few knocks to the gate, and barely a scratch noticeable, but still, great if your conscious with the kids in the back seats! The comfort of the seats was quite nice as well, we didn't have leather seats, but still comfortable either way, and a beautiful cabin space, great if you wanted to stop in the traffic, and have a mini lunch or any meal - which I did many a time. The road handling, as previously mentioned, was great with this car, but when going round sharp bends be warned, it will feel like a bomb is collapsing on your side till the car is stable again. The beautiful steering is one to thank Mitsubishi for, and the great suspension, as well as the speed capabilities for such a large car. The customer service from Mitsubishi, was not great, and could of been much better, they weren't easy folks to get in contact with, and when and if you did, it would be very, and I mean very, expensive, to get anything at all fixed with them. The looks of this car, are brilliant, it looks big, and ferocious, but in the same way, looks small, and cuddly, and is just the perfect combination when cruising around the roads, and is certainly the type of car to go showing off in, not that I'd show off... The different features provided with it, were just about needed to get by, as mine was a very basic model, it could of definitely had more features, but had quite a few nice things to get by, like a compass, and some balancing equipment, that told you when and if you would topple over, I came very close quite a few times :p , so a very hadny tool to have, but mind, I never had Satellite Navigation, as I was always into the good old and traditional version of maps and pulling over to ask people directions, and getting honest answers most of the time, by me having to look 'down' at the people to speak to them, but still a feature that I didn't think was worth having. OOOOOOOH, the worst thing so far, running costs, Insurance, hundreds upon hundreds of bills, which has cut my bank balance, by literally thousands, have been the result of the overpriced insurance costs fort his vehicle, or 'gas guzzler'. If you look at the MOT's and servicing, I was also a very poor man in deed, costing me a bit, as people liked to increase the price if the car was a bigger car. All the other little bits and prices, panel repainting, the occasional valet, all totted up to around £2400, less than the amount I was spending on fuel consumption alone! The fuel consumption, is ABYSMAL, and even worse than that. On a long journey to London, I got around 23.2 miles per gallon, and on most daily run abouts, kids errands and everything, I got from about 17.5 mpg, to maximum 21 mpg. I was topping the car up with around £50 of fuel for every 3 days, as well as the occasional, £5 of fuel here and there, adding to around £45 - £65 per month, just in small amounts. The car was crazy in running costs, definitely the biggest let down of the car, and the fact that I had money in my pocket, this car took me into near debt, and burnt a much bigger hole in my pocket than it took. The depreciation rate, was incredible, it went down like hell, imagine, hypothetically, I won't give you the real figures, I bought this car for £20,000, 2 years afterwards, around say what, £12,450 of running costs later, I sold this car, for 41% of its value, around £8,100 at this. So, essentially, this car has been so expensive, it would of been much better off for me to be renting a car out the whole time.
NEVER BUY THIS CAR, AS MUCH AS IT WAS GOOD, EVEN A MILLIONAIRE WOULD BE AFFECTED BY RUNNING COSTS FOR THIS CAR!!
I hope you like my review, please feel free to comment, ITS ONLY MY SECOND REVIEW, so some feedback would be appreciated, I do try to give adjustments where necessary! Thank you very much for reading my 1615 word review, the longest in my life, nearly :p
Have a good day, and keep on smiling, AND AVOID THIS CAR AT ALL COSTS!
PS - Would not pay more than £11,265 nowadays, for a top notch, 2002/2003 model in good condition, tops £14k, bottom £7.4k
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Dec 6th, 2006
exceptional by (11%):
very helpful by (89%):
