2026 Mitsubishi L200 Review: Beloved Pickup is Back, and on Strong Form

Having ended new car sales in the UK in 2021, Mitsubishi is back, and if you weren’t paying attention, it’d be easy to believe it never left. Back under the auspices of original importer International Motors, which also handles UK sales of Subaru, Isuzu and Chinese brands Xpeng and GWM, the company is coming in strong with around 50 dealers, plenty of which are picking Mitsubishi sales right back up after a five-year break.

It’s a familiar lineup too. Most of the Mitsubishi models introduced to mainland Europe over the last few years are simply rebadged Renaults, but we’re not getting any of them in Britain for now. Instead, the company’s focusing on the two models Brits used to buy in proper numbers – the L200 pickup and Outlander PHEV crossover.

Both have moved on a generation since Mitsubishi was last in Britain, though. This new seventh-gen L200, launched in other markets back in 2023, gets a bluff, boxy new look in contrast to the swoopy aesthetic the truck had during the 2000s and 2010s.

It’s a nice, simple range over here. There’s only one configuration, a four-door crew cab, and while rivals like the Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max now offer EV versions, here it’s a diesel or nowt. It’s new 2.4-litre biturbo four-cylinder producing 201bhp and a meaty 347lb ft of torque. For all the relevance raw performance numbers have here, the L200 takes 12.6 seconds to hit 62mph and tops out at 111mph. Efficiency is rated at 33mpg on the combined cycle.

A six-speed auto ’box is standard, as is four-wheel drive, although the system differs depending on which of the two trim levels you go for. The base mode Titan gets ‘Easy Select’ four-wheel drive, a traditional system that can be switched between rear-wheel drive and high- and low-range four-wheel drive for off-roading. Opt for the top-spec Barbarian model, though, and you get the latest version of Mitsubishi’s Super Select 4WD system.

This also runs in rear-wheel drive as default, but you get the option of a road-biased 4WD setting with an open centre diff, geared towards slippery tarmac or towing. Then, there are high- and low-range settings that lock the centre diff, the latter naturally for the most hardcore off-roading. Super Select also brings a suite of drive modes – both Normal and Eco settings for on-road use, and Gravel, Snow, Mud, Sand and Rock settings for the rough stuff.

As for the important pickup stuff, the L200 has a braked towing capacity of up to 3,500kg, and a bed payload capacity of 1,092kg for the workhorse Titan and 1,025kg for the Barbarian. The 3.5-tonne trailer rating is pretty much industry standard for a diesel truck, and those payloads are right on the money too, ever so slightly eclipsing Toyota’s shiny new Hilux.

It’s the Barbarian version we’ve been driving, first on the road where – surprise, surprise – it drives like a body-on-frame pickup truck. That means you get the usual shudders and shakes through the chassis when hitting potholes and speed bumps at lower speeds, but that’s to be expected.

Things improve markedly at the national speed limit, too, where the L200 is impressively refined for a big workhorse truck. Despite that entirely vertical nose, wind noise is kept to a minimum, and the engine, although noisy and gruff under acceleration, quiets down at a cruise. It feels planted at motorway speeds too, with fewer of the little micro-corrections you often have to make in big body-on-frame 4x4s like this to keep them on the straight and narrow.

It hauls like you’d expect a big, torque-rich diesel to. Acceleration is strong, smooth and effortless, even when towing a trailer containing another L200, which barely made the truck break a sweat, at least on the low speed course we negotiated.

And as for handling? Well, let’s reiterate – it’s a body-on-frame pickup. The steering is light and ultra-assisted, which makes threading the L200 around town easy but comes at the expense of effectively any feedback. You may need to get your priorities straight if that’s what you’re after here. At speed, meanwhile, it’s dependably accurate and responsive, which is all you can really ask for in a vehicle like this.

Inside, the L200 is hardly the last word in luxury, but both visually and in terms of quality it’s a big leap forward over the previous-gen truck, and still feels like it’ll withstand the hard life plenty of L200s will likely be subjected to. The seats are comfy and supportive too, and it’s seriously spacious – four adults can sit comfortably, even with a tall driver (although there’s not much room for feet under seats), and the extra cabin width means nobody’s jostling for shoulder space.

Mitsubishi was keen to emphasise that proper physical buttons and controls are very much present and correct, and indeed, the L200 strikes a perfect balance here, leaving all the key functions easily accessible without making the dash too cluttered. The native infotainment lives in a 9-inch dash-mounted touchscreen which is a little slow to respond and has dated graphics, but standard wireless CarPlay and Android Auto means that the latter grumble is basically a non-issue.

As impressively well-rounded as the L200 is on the road, though, it’s perhaps even more in its element in the rough. Again, we’ve only tried the top-spec Barbarian with its tricksy Super Select II 4WD system, but even on road-biased tyres, it made short work of Thruxton Circuit’s mud-mired off-road course.

It’s hardly an industry-first bit of tech, but the 360-degree overhead camera is a real boon here, allowing you to see over big drops that would be tricky to judge through the windscreen alone. It’s just a shame it cuts out at an irritatingly low speed.

The return of the L200 to the UK market has apparently already been welcomed with enthusiasm by plenty of previous owners, and so it should be, especially when it represents good value too. Starting at £36,295 and rising to £39,995 for the Barbarian (prices ex. VAT), it undercuts the Isuzu D-Max, a key rival, by at least a few hundred quid spec-for-spec. UK pricing hasn’t been confirmed for the new Hilux yet, but we expect that to come in more expensive too.

That puts the L200 towards the lower end of the market price-wise, but it really doesn’t feel like it sits there in any other regard. It’s a seriously capable, well-made and grown-up truck, and one that, on first impression, doesn’t represent much of a compromise whether you’re buying it as a workhorse or an outdoorsy lifestyle accessory. We have little doubt it’ll be as popular here as its predecessors, and really, it makes you wonder why Mitsubishi ever left Britain in the first place.