When a mixed farmer told The Farming Forum in March that he wanted to stop running a pickup and tow his 16ft tri axle trailer with a 4×4 car instead, he was after buying advice. What he got, over five months, reads more like a market audit: the affordable working 4×4 that farms used to buy without thinking has quietly disappeared.
By TFF News | 25 October 2026 | Machinery
The conversation drew 126 visible contributions between 7 March and 29 August 2026 and has been viewed 5,288 times, collecting 170 reactions at an average of 1.35 per contribution. Just over half of contributions were neutral in tone, with 31 negative and 24 positive. These figures describe one conversation among the farmers who chose to join it. They are not a representative survey of the sector.
A shortlist that crosses itself out
The opening contribution set the brief: “I’m considering not having a pickup, and running more of a 4×4 car instead.” Another contributor described the same search: “wanting an affordable, reliable 4×4 with 3.5t towing, but not a pickup”.
Then the conversation crossed every candidate off. Land Rover products fell on cost and trust, the Toyota Land Cruiser on used chassis rust and a 3 tonne towing plate, the Volkswagen Touareg on being too much car for farm work, and the Mitsubishi Shogun, the vehicle the conversation was named for, is no longer made. One contributor summed it up: “Tbh I think you may be looking for something that doesn’t exist. I have a similar dilemma and have realised all the good 4×4 options are now approaching 30 year old so am having to compromise with vehicle plans going forwards.”
Another put the blame on the supply side: “It’s almost like manufacturers in this region are not building what the ag industry wants.” And remembered what the market used to offer: “Cripes we didn’t know how lucky we had it back in the day, buy a Pajero for 2k. A Trooper for a grand, give it nothing but work and abuse for two years and go get another one…”
The gap is real. Autocar reported the Shogun’s withdrawal after 37 years and 114,164 UK registrations, and Mitsubishi left the UK altogether in 2021. There is a twist: CarGurus reported in April that Mitsubishi has returned to the UK with the Outlander PHEV and L200, and that an all new ladder frame Shogun with plug in hybrid power is expected on sale in late 2026, though UK availability is not confirmed. On this conversation’s evidence, a queue is already forming.
The Shogun ledger
Owners gave the discontinued Shogun a fond but honest reference. “Only thing I didn’t like was its inability to pass a petrol station.” said one who otherwise liked it. Another put numbers on the thirst: “Biggest fault was fuel consumption… 25 mpg whether towing or not.”
Scarcity has done the rest. One shopper found “I soon found that any lwb shogun for 2015 onwards was going to cost between 16-20 thousand pounds, and cost 700 pound plus to tax.” The tax point was still being explained to a new buyer in August: “Watch the tax… 2016 could be around £700 a yr. go to a 2017 at about £200!” The official rate tables bear both figures out: a car registered before April 2017 in the top emissions bands pays £760 to £790 a year, while anything registered after that date pays a flat £200.
Rust decides
Chassis corrosion ran through the conversation as the quiet dealbreaker. The opener ruled out the obvious Shogun alternative on the public record alone: “Landcruiser appears from a Toyota reliabilty pov but when you look up MOT history on anything 5-6yo, virtually all of them have a comment about chassis rust.” A new Land Cruiser sidesteps the problem at a price: Toyota’s UK pricing starts at £74,995.
One contributor reported that “My brother has a 2yo Hilux waiting for Toyota to give it’s free waxoiling. They want it for 10days!” Another, who says he used to test and develop prototypes for a manufacturer, bought a rust free used Land Cruiser and sent it straight for professional treatment: “First trip it did with me was to a specialist underseal company for a clean up and coating of Dinitrol”. The specialist underseal trade may be the one clear winner here, because the suspicion behind the spend, opinion rather than fact, is not going away: “Anybody would think its deliberate to sell more vehicles”
Three and a half tonnes or a ticket
The number that kept killing otherwise good options was the towing plate. A standard car licence has allowed a trailer of up to 3,500kg since the December 2021 rule change, but the vehicle’s own plated capacity still governs what is legal behind it, and farm kit gets heavy quickly. As the opener put it: “3.5t on the plate is the difference between a ticket and not” He also asked a question several manufacturers might struggle to answer: “Why is a Hilux 3.5t and a Landcruiser only 3t? Makes no sense”
Several contributions acknowledged that real loads behind farm vehicles can run past the plate. The conversation treated that as a risk enforcement decides, which is why a full 3.5 tonne rating stayed a hard requirement.
Stability is set up, not badge
The plated figure is not the whole story anyway. The contributor with the prototype testing background warned that “Just because the homologation paper boxes have been ticked to say the handbrake holds on a hill, the radiator doesn’t boil, or the brakes don’t fade, it doesn’t mean they’re stable at gross train weight!”
Others landed on the same conclusion from farm experience: “I’m convinced tow bar height and nose weight along with how a trailer is loaded has more to do with stability than anything”. And one contributor who moves cattle reported his pickup outperforming the specialist badge: “the Ranger has been a revelation for pulling cattle about.”
Where the money went instead
The conversation’s sharpest commercial signal is what the frustrated buyers actually did. Two ended up in used Range Rovers, not out of brand loyalty but because the discontinued workhorse now costs more than the luxury flagship. One laid out the arithmetic after walking away from the Shogun search: “It was cheaper to buy than a shogun, same age, similar miles (70k) same price to insure, half the price to tax and 100x the vehicle in every regard as far as I’m concerned.” Another was blunter about the depreciation: “Range Rover , cheap as chips , almost disposable”
The opener was unmoved by that route for a reason the trade should note, because it is about identity as much as money: “I’m a mucky boots practical farmer, rather than an office based agri business operator.” He closed the active phase of the conversation still without a vehicle.
That is the unresolved question this conversation leaves for the trade. There is visible, patient demand for a simple, properly rustproofed, 3.5 tonne rated working 4×4 at used car money, and nothing current meets it. Whoever fills that gap first, a returning Shogun, a challenger brand or a dealer selling undersealed used stock, will find buyers who have been waiting since spring.
Read the source conversation and analysis
Read the full conversation on The Farming Forum here.
Agri Web Media’s nine slide analysis of the conversation, with engagement, sentiment and theme charts, is available as a PDF: download the conversation analysis deck.
This conversation had been viewed 5,288 times on The Farming Forum when counted on 25 October 2026. Want your brand in the room when farmers talk machinery?
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