Mitsubishi L200 review

Barbarian trim is decked out in the idiom of a modern lifestyle truck. Contrast orange stitching on the leather seats. Padded dash and doors. Deco in various places of fake carbonfibre, fake aluminium and fake piano lacquer.

The Barbarian's heated electric seats cradle you nicely, giving a driving position that bestows a panoramic outward vista. It's comfy enough in the rear too, with a good seat angle and power sockets, cupholders and vents. But unless the front seats are raised a bit, foot room back there is tight.

The instruments are clear round dials, which is a refreshing change these days, as is the presence of hardware buttons and switches for pretty well all significant driving and comfort functions.

This leaves the centre screen's main role as the display for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. It's not very big but the resolution is high enough for that not to matter.

If it weren't for the ride, this would be a fine place to spend hours on the road. At motorway speed the engine dies down, there's not too much wind and tyre noise and the stereo overcomes it well.