• Seven seats as standard
• Rear seats are easy to fold down
• Bootspace is reasonable but not class-leading 

There’s enough space in the front of the Shogun Sport for two full-sized adults, yet it’s not quite as much as you’d expect for a car of this size. The seats are placed too high, plus space for your legs and feet is compromised thanks to a large centre console design. It shouldn’t quite be enough to make you feel uncomfortable, but it’s disappointing all the same.

>> We rate the best seven-seater SUVs for 2020

Storage space is adequate, with two large cupholders in the centre console, an area to store you phone forward of the gearlever, decent-sized door pockets and a capacious glovebox and armrest storage area.

Those in the second-row seats should be quite content with plenty of legroom and enough headroom, plus there’s just about space for a smaller adult (or child) in the middle seat.

Time in the third-row is best kept to a minimum, although the Shogun Sport does have more room back there than some rivals. Enough, at least, for running a couple of normal-sized adults down to a local train station, for example.

At almost 4.8 meters long, the Shogun Sport is a big car – and it feels it. Parking in a normal-sized garage will be a struggle even with the standard-fit rear parking sensors and reversing camera. Opt of the Shogun Sport 4 model, however, and you get a 360-degree camera that gives you a better idea of where the car’s extremities are.

In seven seat mode the Shogun Sport’s boot is firmly on the small side, with room only for a couple of soft travel bags only.

Fold them down, and while the luggage capacity increases to a more reasonable 502 litres, it still lags behind key rivals for outright space.

On the plus side, the seats are easy to fold down and up (expanding the loadspace to 1,488 litres) and shouldn’t cause the user any headaches.

Safety

• Decent array of clever safety kit…
• …but only on the Shogun Sport 4 model
• Not yet tested by Euro NCAP

The Mitsubishi Shogun Sport has yet to be tested by Euro NCAP, yet it’s Australasian equivalent (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) gave the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (Australian version of the Shogun Sport) a five-star rating, highlighting side impact protection as being particularly impressive.

In the UK, only the Shogun Sport 4 comes with range of hi-tech safety kit, with the Shogun Sport 3 model featuring the standard driver aids, such as ASTC (Active Stability & Traction Control) and Trailer Stability Assist.

Upgrade to the Shogun Sport 4 and driver aids including adaptive cruise control, Forward Collision Mitigation (automatically applies the brakes if a potential impact is detected ahead) Blindspot warning (alerts the driver to any objects hidden in the vehicle’s blindspot), 360-degree camera and Ultrasonic Misacceleration Mitigation System (automatically cuts the power if the driver accidentally applies the throttle and a vehicle or object is detected in front).