Road Strikers

With its faux-rally flared wheelarches, stubby nose complete with diamond-studded ‘Mount Fuji’ nose and hatch-mounted spare wheel, this new fourth-generation Shogun may look pretty much the same as before. But three-quarters of it is new, apparently. Like the new Outlander , it arrives here next March, and comes as a stretched five-door or short wheelbase three-door, running one engine – Mitsubishi’s familiar 3.2-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel. An opportunity to hike prices? No. There’s the familiar Equippe, Warrior and Elegance derivatives, and Mitsubishi will also introduce a topdog Diamond model, complete with big 20inch alloys, a lot of chrome and a different front grille. Despite these wholesale changes, prices remain unchanged, ranging from £22,949 for the three door entry-level Equippe to £34,999 for the new five-door Diamond. Expect the aggressive-looking long-wheelbase Warrior – the car we drove – to take the bulk of UK sa...

Yet another FQ car from Mitsubishi - aren't these faux-rally cars a bit out of favour at the moment? True, but after ten minutes behind the wheel of the UK-only FQ360, you’ll wonder why. It's an absolute belter. Utterly driver-centric, unfeasibly fast, with incredible body control, excellent damping, and superb steering. To cap it all, it has four-doors-and-a-boot practicality. It may not be the flavour of the day, but there's no denying the Evo's supercar-slaying qualifications. Always the same with an Evo. What makes this one really special? Its sheer drivability, in a nutshell. While the majority of the FQ line-up major in frenetic redline acceleration, the 360's 4G63 2.0-litre engine has been retuned to deliver massive mid-range punch, without sacrificing any of its high-rev potency. A completely reprogrammed engine management system - three months of non-stop key-tapping by the boffins at Ralliart, Mitsubishi's go-even-faster department - as well as incl...

Ah yes, the Outlander, aka the C-Crosser and 4007… Yes indeed. Mitsubishi’s new Outlander, which arrives in the UK next March, is the perfect example of the interwoven intricacies of the current automotive market. It’s a soft-roader built on a platform jointly developed by Mitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler, powered by a Volkswagen-sourced diesel engine and a petrol unit co-developed with Hyundai, and both PSA Citroen and Peugeot will rebadge the Outlander to create their own versions, the C-Crosser and 4007. Expect a start price around the £19,500 mark for the entry-level Equippe, rising to around £25,000 for the top Elegance model. It’s a hell of a lot better looking compared to the outgoing model. True, the Outlander’s predecessor was the wallflower at the soft-roader ball, but the rakish and more aggressive new model should turn more heads. Mitsubishi is hoping for around 5600 sales in the first 12 months – around 10% of the UK’s mi...

While the new Lancer Evo X hoovers up all the headlines, Mitsubishi’s ‘standard’ new Lancers are getting ignored. And it’s a pity because the diesel in particular is worth a closer look – and no we’re not kidding. The Lancer’s new platform, shared with the Outlander and co-developed with the former DaimlerChrysler corporation is well engineered, the standard kit is impressive and the styling has gone from oh dear to oh my! It’s a handsome car – and potential buyers will be seduced by its looks – but the (non-Evo) Lancer has the unenviable job of erasing memories of the previous-generation car, surely the most dreary vehicle since, well, ever. That’s a tough job. Can the new Mitsubishi Lancer really score some new fans? Well, first impressions are good. Out goes the old Lancer’s almost laughably harsh interior plastics and in comes some fine, soft-touch materials. Push and prod the new dash and there’s a pl...

So here it is: the full loony-tune(d) Evo X. We’ve wondered what this car would feel like since we drove the standard model late last year. The new Evo X is a fine car, but its chassis is almost dismissive of the standard engine’s 291bhp. The FQ-360 GSR is the top of the range (official) Evo X. The engine is more powerful, the car is loaded with standard kit and there are a few bodywork additions. The FQ-360 is only available in the UK. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X FQ-360... that's a bit of a mouthful! It is and it points to the fireworks under the bonnet. The Evo’s new die-cast aluminium 4B11 engine was designed to deliver greater torque at lower rpm and more power in standard form than the outgoing 4G63 motor. Combine this with a 12kg weight saving over the old cast-iron version and you’ve got a lower C-of-G and great basic template for some serious tuneability. HKS goodies (ECU remap, induction kit and new fuel pump assembly) result in a power jump from 291 to ...

One look at the Lancer Sportback and you might think that after styling the athletic and appealing Lancer Saloon, Mitsubishi’s designers suddenly ran short of talent. The hatch is  a bit of an eyesore, but we’d better get accustomed to its awkward lines - because four-door C-segment saloons aren’t exactly popular in Europe, Mitsubishi needed a hatchback version to compete. The company believes the five-door model will account for the vast proportion of Lancers sold in the UK. So how different is it from the saloon? It’s identical up to and including the rear doors. But to incorporate the hatchback, the roof drops away coupe-style at the rear, giving the car a stubby tail that’s out of proportion to the loner bonnet. And the awkwardly tacked-on roof spoiler completes a look that to our eyes bears more than a passing resemblance to the new-look Subaru Impreza. Not a great start then. Is the payoff massive versatility? The boot is 288-litres – n...

Mitsubishi calls the Lancer Sportback Ralliart the ‘missing link’. Which doesn't sound too promising. The missing link is a usually a put-down used to describe someone perhaps not as developed as they could be. What the Japanese maker actually means is that the Sportback – which uses the Ralliart badge in Europe for the first time – bridges the gap between boggo Lancers and its tarmac-melting Evo models. How does it manage that? The Ralliart version uses a detuned version of the Evo X’s die-cast aluminium two-litre turbo engine, underpinned by the basic running gear from the Evo IX. So, you get 240bhp as opposed to the nutty 300bhp and upwards of the Evo models. And instead of the Evo’s Active Yaw Control the Sportback has All-Wheel Control, which uses the active centre differential to split torque equally between limited slip diffs at the front and rear axles. The suspension has also been upgraded with thicker front anti-roll bars, higher spring ra...

Hold on a minute – isn’t that over 200bhp per litre for this Mitsubishi Evo X FQ-400? It certainly is. Mitsubishi UK – just like the 330 and 360, this is a UK-only model – has stuck with the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder 16-valve turbo, but the company has hooked up with well-respected Japanese tuner HKS – a kind of Oriental Cosworth – to unleash even more power. The extra go comes courtesy of high-flow fuel injectors; a new hybrid turbo that’s specially strengthened to deal with the faster turbine speeds and higher temperatures; a more capable intercooler; plus re-mapped engine management. Best of all, you’re still covered by the Mitsubishi three-year/36,000-mile warranty. Come on, though, who needs an even quicker FQ? Speed alone isn’t the point of the FQ-400 – it’s the way that power is delivered. You’d expect a small capacity turbo nutter to be laggy down low, yet it’s daily-driver tractable from very l...

Excuse me while I flick through the handbook. Let me see now – ah, yes, here we are: ‘off-road performance’. ‘The Shogun can tackle the most arduous off-road work with confidence,’ it says. Yes, that’s what I thought. ‘Every facet of the Shogun’s development is geared towards superior off-road performance.’ Pause for vigorous nodding. ‘It’s all but unstoppable!’ That’s right! So, why am I stuck? Let’s rewind. I’m off on a trip to a modestly slippery Welsh hillside and I need a proper, grown-up off-roader – a car whose toughness transcends the frippery of the term SUV. The Shogun! Although the Mk4 has been outside your school since 2006, they’ve fettled it for 2010, and this is our first taste: the long wheelbase, seven-seat, five-door Elegance model. The new car has lower CO2 emissions than any other car in its class (bar the X5), its 3.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel ultimately pu...

Should you even care about the new Mitsubishi Outlander? The new Outlander is based on the old model but has a revised diesel powerplant and new transmission that offers superb stats, while there’s loads more room and tech to go with it. It’s four-wheel drive and comes with a six-speed auto and seven seats. This is the top-of-the-line GX5, which costs £33,999 to make a slightly more than the flagship five-seat Honda CR-V and seven-seat Hyundai Santa Fe. Can it muster a genuine fight to its more popular rivals? So is just the old car with a new shell? That’d be selling it short. The slightly odd styling, which is a mix of curves and a slightly bulbous, almost Peugeot-like nose, is at odds against competition that’s tossed out the French Curves and relied on setsquares instead. It’s lost that jacked-up Lancer look of the previous model, with a stronger identity of its own, but underneath our test car is the old car’s platform meaning it has the ...

So the Mitsubishi ASX is one of those jumped-up supermini crossover jobs? Bang on. Its dimensions conform to the compact norm for this class and it’s priced from £14,999 to £23,899 (£22,499 for the 1.8-litre diesel with a manual gearbox as tested). Given the most divisive-looking machine in this segment, the Nissan Juke, starts much lower down the price ladder, at £13,195, the dull-looking ASX is already on the back foot. For the same outlay as your test car, you could bag a new Nissan Qashqai 1.6 DCI, albeit without our ASX’s all-wheel drive. It’s far from the funkiest little car in its class. Cars like these, if the popular Juke and Clio-overshadowing Captur are anything to go buy, sell on trendy looks. Small wonder Vauxhall predicts its Mokka crossover will be its third-best-selling model in 2014. These family-friendly fashion accessories need to stand out in a crowded marketplace – and the ASX doesn’t. Forget turning around to stu...