Impressive Stuff
by Mike Grundon (17 Mar 06)

It's time to welcome the leisure-orientated pickup truck in from the cold. It used to be that, despite their rufty-tufty appeal, even chrome-tarted double cab trucks were little more than glorified wheelbarrows, all noise, bounce and unpleasantness. But with the new Mitsubishi L200 Warrior all that has changed.

You can buy this vehicle in the knowledge that it's more sophisticated SUV than machine-yard macho. It's got intelligent stability and traction control, ABS and EBD braking system, proper seatbelts all round, airbags across the front, ISOFIX child seat mounting points, crumple zones, side impact bars, sat-nav, and all manner of extras you wouldn't normally expect. Indeed in this form it's less scratch-and-sniff workhorse and more fragrant off-road saloon car with a simply massive boot.

The Warrior is likely to be one of the top sellers of the range, and to my eye it's now one of the most attractive off-roaders on the market. It’s the cheapest entry to the leisure-orientated double cabs, but it doesn't look like a budget car. For £16,999 you get that gorgeous rounded car-like front end that stares out on the world with the mean, take-em-all-on expression of a full-blown Dakar rally desert raider. This test car has the spec-standard chunky steel roll bar set off nicely by the optional lockable metal roll-top cargo protector which turns the back end into an easily accessed, weather-protected load bay.

The engine is a 2477cc common-rail injected diesel unit with an intercooler which turns out 134bhp and 231 lb/ft. of torque. It's fed through a five-speed manual gearbox to haul the 1.8 tonne truck up to 62mph in 14.6 seconds before rumbling on up to a top speed just over 100mph. The official average fuel consumption is almost 33mpg which is reasonable compared to a similarly-sized SUV.

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