On and off road in new L200 pick-up
Sixth generation of iconic pick-up gets new tech
BRITAIN is Europe’s largest pick-up market – a fact not lost on Mitsubishi, where one in three of its cars is an L200.
Striding through its 40th year, a new version has just entered the fray. The sixth-generation L200 gets a bold new look, but it’s not a totally new truck. It carries over elements of the Series 5’s chassis and interior, but receives a new engine, new suspension and a host of new technology and driver-assistance features.
The load bed is the same size: 1,520mm long and 1,470mm wide. Available space is par for the course, beating the cheaper SsangYong Musso but not quite sizing up to the Nissan Navara or Mercedes X-Class. However, there’s only a few centimetres in it. As ever, Mitsubishi offers a broad range of covers, hard-tops and accessories.
A Club Cab version with room for four and an extra-long bed (1,850mm) kick-starts a slightly revised line-up. We’re driving the larger, five-seat Double Cab Barbarian X, the new range-topping model, with a sixspeed auto gearbox and lots of toys.
Among the new features is a blind-spot warning system with lane-change assist, lane-departure warning, hill-start assist, rear cross-traffic alert, forward-collision warning with automatic emergency braking and trailer-stability assist. The tech is all part of Mitsubishi’s effort to make the new L200 as car-like as possible to drive, and in the case of the Barbarian X model, the finish of the cabin reflects this.
The basics of the interior don’t change all that much, and while its design doesn’t dazzle, it feels robust and the switchgear is easy to operate. There’s plenty of room, too.
The touchscreen infotainment system is carried over, and it’s still a rudimentary set-up – although smartphone connectivity apps and a 360-degree camera system are standard. A new colour display is wedged between the dials, though, and Barbarian X trucks feature some more luxurious touches; there’s a heated steering wheel, electric heated seats, and leather and Alcantara upholstery. It’s a comfortable place to sit.
It impresses on the move, too. The mechanicals of pick-up trucks rarely lend themselves to a comfortable ride, but the new L200 seems to avoid the worst of the harshness and bounciness encountered in an over-sprung pick-up with an empty bed. That can be put down to the stronger chassis and the new springs and dampers. The ride is certainly more than acceptable in the context of what the L200 is – and in contrast to the Shogun Sport SUV.
The new 2.3-litre diesel engine makes its presence known, but not overly so – and although there’s only 148bhp to tug the two-tonne L200 along, the 400Nm of torque is easy to access. Getting up to speed is no hassle, and it’s a truck that cruises very nicely and without excessive wind noise.
Mitsubishi claims 32.1mpg for manual cars and 29.1mpg for automatic models – and by and large, those figures are realistic.
The steering is heavy and the rack is quite slow, so it’s not the most manoeuvrable pick-up to drive around town. Its auto box isn’t the smoothest, either, which makes changes feel a little notchy. But trucks like the L200 are hardly designed to be items of high precision, and overall it’s only slightly behind the Ford Ranger for sophistication.
“The L200 seems to avoid the worst of the harshness you get from over-sprung pick-ups”