Road Test: Pajero Sport Shogun 4X4 acts tough

A tough car made tougher, that’s the 2016 Pajero Sport Shogun. Retrofitted with R70 000 worth of off-road necessities suitable for venerable donga-bashers or novice enthusiasts starting out – and they’re all free. Yep Mitsubishi has once again struck a deal with the country’s top accessory outlets and you, the customer, pay nothing on top of the car’s original price.

We ashamedly failed to get our Pajero Sport Shogun test unit dirty beyond a few flecks of rain but could still appreciate its newfound ruggedness that juxtaposed the city life I cruelly subjected it to. From the top there’s a roof rack, a snorkel for increased wading depth and those flimsy running boards have been replaced by rock sliders. A set of all-terrain tyres, underbody protection and shock absorbers that take a pounding, but sadly no bull bar or extra fogs.

While these upgrades imbue the Pajero Sport with a greater off-road sense they have undesirable drawbacks on the tar and magnify some of the car’s existing pains. The knobbly tyres grumble on tar and that roof rack blunts the drag coefficient with detrimental effects on fuel consumption or wind noise. Yet it is the heavy and slow steering that’s maddening around town. Winding on and off lock takes ages and the front wheels don’t respond to movement around centre. Whereas the Toyota Fortuner or Chevrolet Trailblazer can be driven by housewives and school moms, the Pajero Sport will leave them exhausted.

Best then to avoid the city routes and use the Garmin system complete with overland routes supplied by Maps 4 Africa. The rest of the interior is unremarkable and utilitarian but does have Bluetooth, USB and steering controls. Space is aplenty and the Pajero Sport Shogun adds rubber cargo protection to the cabin’s leather upholstery.

The same things we didn’t like about the Pajero Sport persist once more. High levels of exertion are required to manoeuvre around town and that diesel mated to antiquated 5-speed automatic combination can be jerky and noisy. For a very special kind of buyer who spends his long weekends camping under the stars.

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