Long shot......anyone had a Shogun Pinin

[Campo Kenny]

I was offered one of the above yesterday. It was a finance repossesion not very old and with only 12000 miles.........too good a price to let go so we bought it.
Seems like an ideal little runabout to replace our current car over there so may drive over next time instead of flying.

Now the question is..........I bought it on the spare of the moment knowing not a lot about these. When I got it home I realised I couldn't find the conventional 4wd shifter I'm used to on other 4x4's and could not find a switch for it either.
On swotting up it transpires it's a permanant 4wd set up.........no probs I thought.

Strange thing is reading reports on this car this morning they say this model is tough and will climb rough terrain for fun..................yet the manual says it's not to be used for rough ground etc., which seemed a strange comment for a 4wd ..........totally confused now by this.
Anyone had or know anybody with this model who can enlighten me.
I won't be going up mountains in it over there but the track does get a bit "dodgy" after rain.............not the end of the world either way with the price I paid for it but would be silly to take it over if it can't do what the current Vitara does.

Cheers,
Kenny

[Wicksey]

Hi Kenny. We bought a new Montero iO Pinin here in 2000 which I think is the same as the Shogun. Is this it (before I rattle on about it) ??

[Campo Kenny]

Wicksey, cheers I'm certain it's the same model....1.8 petrol MPI.

If yours has the normal 2nd stick for 4x4 then you probably won't be able to answer my original question but I'd still like to hear what you think of the car anyway...........at least it will certainly make the Malaga Airport run easier as it does seem to go well on the motorway I've found out today..........just hope it likes tracks

Cheers,

Kenny

[El Cid]

We've got one Kenny.

It's the original 3 door 2 litre GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) made in 2001. Later ones were downgraded to the 1.8 engine and the 2 litre went into the 5 door version.

Ours has the full 4WD capability with a second gear lever which selects 2WD, 4WD, 4WD with locked diff and 4WD with lock and transfer gearbox. Maybe the later 1.8 MPI had a different system. That could be the cause of the confusion.

It's as good off road as any other Mitsubishi and much quicker as it is so light. It's a great shopping car as it's only as long as a renault Clio.

Apparently the parts are made in Japan and assembled in the Pininfarina factory in Italy.

Sid

[Wicksey]

Yes ours was the petrol 1.8 and we found it a bit thirsty (we sold it in 2004 and bought a diesel estate car). We did have the second gear lever and it was really good off road and the low ratio gear was excellent at getting us out of thick mud on a couple of occasions. It was usually in 2WD mode and we tended to switch into 4WD only when we really needed it. A few times I would forget to go back into 2WD before we hit our driveway which was concreted and had a sharp bend in it, and the car would get stuck on the corner and wouldn't move until we went back into 2WD. I don't know if that would happen on a permanently 4WD car, but it did put us off ever buying a car that didn't have the choice of 2/4WD.

We found the ride pretty hard - we test drove it on road to ensure it had enough oomph for us, but then found (after we bought it) it was really bumpy going up our track. Being 3 door the lack of boot space was a problem for us (it was our only car) and always had to have the back seats folded down just to get our shopping in. About the only thing we could fit in the boot space without putting the back seats flat was a gas tank.

It was reliable for the time we owned it although a gasket on the engine blew about 3 weeks after the warranty expired. Mitsubishi in Spain were unsympathetic but as they had said it was unusual for this part to go wrong on such a low mileage car, we wrote to the head office in Japan and they ordered the garage in Malaga to repay us, so quite a good result there! Our garage mechanic we now use is not very complementary about Mitshubishis, but then he only sees them when they break down - perhaps there's plenty that are reliable.

When we first bought ours we found that the tyres were an unusual size and had to be ordered each time they needed replacing. At the time, they were really expensive (for us). When we no longer needed its 4WD capabilities we were quite glad to sell it as we found the petrol and tyre costs high and the space inside too small.

Hope you found this helpful, Kenny ........ hope I haven't put you off

[Campo Kenny]

Thanks for that in depth summary of the car Wicksey, I found it helpful and interesting.......appreciated.
I gave word I'd buy the car over the phone to an ex. trader pal without seeing it so never did any homework on it whatsoever, it does seem to have its quirks though now I'm looking at it.
Just checked the tyres and you're right, 215's are quite an unusual width but they look as new so hopefully I don't have to find out if they're rare or not
It does seem to have a lot more go as you say than I'd thought, it can get to illegal speeds like a hot hatch so will be a welcome change from the Vitara.
Fuel consumption shouldn't be an issue as it will only be used for 3 months of the year.........but I have read that they are thirsty as you say....strange for such a small modern engine.

Final point/quirk is that I want to service it before I take it across.........the spark plug set up looks very strange and something I've not seen before, seems like a big strip down to get them out and the few cars I've seen for sale today always say "plugs changed" as though it's an issue. I don't suppose your hubby ever changed these did he??.no probs if he didn't, I'll suss it...........I'll have to as Mitsubishi charge £340 for the "plug service" I'm told

Thanks once more for the input.
Cheers,
Kenny

[Wicksey]

No we didn't touch the spark plugs. Knowing how little needs to be done to modern cars now it's doubtful they were changed at all in the first 4 years that we had it. As it was under warranty for the first 3 years we had it serviced at Todo Terreno in Velez where we bought it (we now use an English mechanic in Nerja who we find very good as our present car is out of warranty, and very reasonable hourly rates). It may be cheaper to have it serviced here, if you trust it to get you here without one! I'm sure it will be fine as a holiday car, but just wasn't so good for us as our only car.

[Campo Kenny]

Wicksey, you're right about the plugs........60,000 mile intervals I've just read, cars only done 12k so should be fine for a while.
I know what you mean about interior space but hopefully it will once more be my excuse for not picking visitors up at the airport..first car we had there was a larger 5 door 4x4 and I had no excuses

Kenny

[El Cid]

We were getting misfiring problems and our local one man workshop changed them and sorted the problem for €100.

Mitsu servicing isn't cheap if you go to a main agent but it's still miles cheaper than the UK due to the lower labour rates.

I like the car but as far as I am concerned its a great 2 seater 4x4 with a reasonable boot. As a 5 seater you need a few luggage free dwarfs to sit in the back!

It does use a load of fuel - 25mpg if you are lucky but it's a great second car if you live up a track.

They hold their price well in Spain as they are pretty rare.

Sid

[Campo Kenny]

Cheers Sid, the misfiring you mention seems about the only fault reported with this engine......hence my thoughts of swapping the plugs now. Has yours got the same layout?.......there is an amplifier/transistor bolted on top of plugs 2 and four which connect to the two other plugs...strange set up which I've heard needs a special tool, don't know if thats true.

Sid, is yours permanent 4x4 or changeable?............that's my only worry as I like to switch to 4 wheel low when going downhill on the track when wet and use the engine braking, it doesn't appear I could do that with this set up.

Got to say though after only a short drive I'm well impressed, especially with its torque.............seems to have more guts than the 3 litre TD Trooper I had for work

Fun will come as we set off for the drive over there, OH will be expecting me to fit the whole of her "Spanish pile" that languishes at present in a spare bedroom in it ..........no chance.

Cheers,
Kenny

PS Sid, didn't realise you'd posted earlier on re. the 4WD arrangement on yours

[El Cid]

I think our misfiring was caused by doing so little mileage and always short runs. A good blast down the motorway won't do it much harm. It's only on tickover that we had a problem - big risk of stalling unless your footwork's pretty good!

As I said before, it's a full spec 4x4 with full manual control over the gears/transmission. Call it a 12 speed box with a lockable diff and you're there.

The 2 litre engine gives a 0-62 of 10.2 seconds - you need a V8 to better that! 170kph is top whack but it gets a bit noisy up there and the wing mirrors probably use about 5mpg on their own.! You do need to stir the gears to get it to go - 7000rpm is normal - personally I would prefer a 2 litre diesel but they don't do one.

As I said, a great little car for shopping and climbing up walls! Lousy for the airport run but a good reason for getting guests to hire a car!

Sid

[Campo Kenny]

and the wing mirrors probably use about 5mpg on their own.!

Sid

, they do look as though they belong to a Scania I must admit...........I'd be miffed if they had a blind spot

[Wicksey]

Our mirrors were electric and handy if you had to reverse up or down a steep hill when it was difficult to see where the road went. I could quickly 'point' them in the right direction so I could see the edge of the track. It was very useful and I wish I had them on our current car! I do miss being able to explore all the tracks around here as we are now restricted in our ordinary car, even though it gets us up our current long track it's not really suitable for off-roading .

[Retro P]

Slightly off topic, if anyone is interested in my experience (of cars), I have a nineteen year old Nissan patrol 2.8 diesel turbo which I keep here, fabulous car and perfect for my needs, would I sell it? no way!
To quote a gun loving hero of mine "they'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands"

Sorry about the rambling Kenny but I don't know **** about the Shogun pininfarina, sorry

[Campo Kenny]

Ahhhh, Nissan Patrol.........I was a wet behind the ears baby car salesman for Datsun back in the eighties and after selling the most motors got one of these as a company car, new to the market then..............loved it.

Spanish neighbour has one from this era and although it's falling to bits it just seems to run on and on.

Keep hold of it!!

Kenny

PS Well done re. the Pininfarina bit ...........I didn't know the connection 'till I bought this one.

[Retro P]

My Patrol has done less than 210000 kilometres it's an eighty nine and, apart from a few touch ups (barely discernable) it's totally original, once I've worked out this damn photo thing (another poster is kindly helping me along the way) I wll try to post some pics to you.