Mitsubishi Shogun Sport review

The cabin is better. Which isn’t saying much, because the instrument layout and design is a generation behind, the plastics are cheap and the integration of technology is poor, too – the blind spot assistance kept triggering randomly on country roads.

If you look at the way VW – or any of the big players for that matter – treat the driver and passengers, from seat comfort to driving position to ergonomics, they do it in a more human-centric way.

Here, the floor is too high, making it awkward to step up into the cabin and then giving you a straight-leg seating position. Further back in the cabin the raised floor also causes issues – you have to lift loads high, and those in the back sit with their knees around their ears.

Is it practical? I don’t think the packaging is brilliant for a car that measures 4.8 metres long. The 502-litre boot has good floor space, but the arches intrude and the rearmost row of seats folds in a curious way, the seat base flipping up against the middle row, thus limiting load length. If you stow the middle row it then flips over completely, so it isn’t in the way should you be carrying bikes or step ladders, but the 1488-litre max load space is modest.

Upside: you won’t mind it getting dirty. It feels rugged and tough.