It's one of the oldest utes in the segment, and it's about to be replaced. But, we wanted to have one more drive of the Isuzu D-Max before it gets knocked off its perch by the brand new model. Is it still worth considering? Paul Maric finds out!
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-isuzu-d-max-ls-t-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:11
Interior: 03:43
Infotainment: 04:48
Features: 06:18
Practicality: 07:53
On the Road: 10:11
Verdict: 15:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
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@isuzuute
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-isuzu-d-max-ls-t-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:11
Interior: 03:43
Infotainment: 04:48
Features: 06:18
Practicality: 07:53
On the Road: 10:11
Verdict: 15:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #isuzu #review #dmax
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
@isuzuute
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:00 Now, let's talk about reliability and utes.
00:02 You never really hear reliability issues
00:04 with the Isuzu D-MAX.
00:06 Kind of hear it about a lot of other brands,
00:07 but the D-MAX is rarely ever mentioned.
00:09 That is because Isuzu makes a lot of trucks.
00:11 Truck engines are kind of like ute engines
00:13 in the sense they need to last forever.
00:14 They run a lot of the time, they're under heavy load.
00:17 So they've kind of got the formula right here.
00:18 It is also partly because the D-MAX is rarely ever updated,
00:21 but there is a brand new version
00:23 of the D-MAX coming this year.
00:24 But we thought we'd jump behind the wheel of this
00:26 because this currently represents good value for money
00:28 with driveway pricing.
00:29 This is $54,800 recommended retail price.
00:33 Competing against cars like the Ford Ranger,
00:34 Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton, Volkswagen Amarok,
00:37 you name it, there are a lot of competitors
00:39 in this segment.
00:39 Today, we're gonna be doing a detailed review,
00:41 but I wanna set the expectation here.
00:43 We're not gonna be going off-road,
00:44 we're not gonna be load lugging or towing.
00:46 I understand that's important to a lot of buyers,
00:48 but a lot of you are going to be just driving this
00:49 around the city and using it as a day-to-day work ute
00:52 or a family ute on weekends.
00:53 We will get to off-roading and stuff later on,
00:55 but today it is all about detail with this.
00:57 So with that in mind, you can skip ahead
00:58 to other parts of this review using the time codes above,
01:01 or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down to the description
01:03 and you'll see the links in there.
01:04 If you haven't done so already,
01:05 I'd love it if you could hit subscribe
01:06 and also press the bell icon that's gonna tell you
01:09 every single time we drive something new.
01:11 Let's talk exterior.
01:13 Not enough, I love the look of this.
01:15 It kinda doesn't really look that tough.
01:17 You know how some of the cars in this segment,
01:18 like the Ford Ranger,
01:19 they kinda have that muscular look to them.
01:21 This is a bit more BT-50, if you know what I mean.
01:25 Okay, so chrome highlights on the front here,
01:27 this helps it kinda stand out
01:28 and gives this model the premium look.
01:30 This blue looks really good as well.
01:32 It's available in seven different colors
01:33 with all but the base white being $500 extra.
01:37 You get LED daytime running lights.
01:39 Let me walk you through some of the off-road specs here.
01:42 235 millimeters of ground clearance.
01:45 So that is the height of an object
01:46 you can pass over with the car.
01:48 And then on top of that,
01:49 you have approach and departure angles
01:50 of 30 and 22.7 degrees, respectively.
01:53 Approach and departure angles are the angle of the face
01:56 you can approach with the front of this car
01:58 and the rear of the car.
01:59 So pretend you had a 30 degree slope here,
02:01 you'd be able to start climbing that
02:02 without hitting any of the front end of this car.
02:05 In terms of competitors,
02:06 that's actually a pretty good number.
02:07 And most of the utes in this segment
02:09 are in a similar category.
02:10 The car is just under 5.3 meters long.
02:13 So these are pretty big when you consider
02:15 you've gotta have a passenger compartment
02:17 and then a tray on the back.
02:18 So if you are buying this for day-to-day driving
02:20 and you wanna park it in a garage,
02:21 just make sure you've got enough room to fit them in.
02:23 By the way, have a look at this.
02:24 Different textures there in that paint finish.
02:27 Not very good.
02:27 The wheels look really good.
02:28 They've really gone for that sort of
02:30 stylish look on this car.
02:32 This is the top spec LST model,
02:33 so it does come with all the bells and whistles,
02:35 so to speak.
02:36 18 inch, and then it's got these all-terrain tires.
02:38 So they are focused on road,
02:39 but you can do a bit of light off-roading if you need to.
02:42 Let's run down the side here.
02:43 You've got those chrome mirrors,
02:45 the side steps there as well.
02:46 Now have a look at this.
02:47 You can get a whole bunch of accessories here for the D-MAX
02:50 and I quite like this one.
02:51 It is a top for the tray.
02:53 You can open and close that.
02:54 It protects all your items in there,
02:56 but don't go storing valuables in here
02:58 because thieves always break into these things.
03:00 The payload of this is pretty impressive.
03:02 It's just over a thousand kilos.
03:03 Isuzu actually adjusted the leaf springs under this car
03:06 to make it a bit more comfortable,
03:08 but also still retain the payload capacity.
03:10 Same story around the back here.
03:11 Three and a half tonne towing capacity,
03:13 and you can have up to 350 kilograms of down ball weight.
03:16 Normally you want to be at that 10% marker.
03:18 So if you have a 2000 kilo towing capacity,
03:20 you want to be able to put 200 kilos on the tow ball.
03:23 So this is going to be able to tow virtually anything.
03:25 When it does come to towing,
03:26 from my experience in the past, it's good, but not amazing.
03:29 So don't go buying this if you're going to stick
03:31 a three and a half tonne caravan on the back of it.
03:33 Let's talk interior.
03:34 It's a bit like stepping back in time.
03:36 Dual cab utes kind of weren't trendy,
03:38 but then became trendy.
03:39 So the newer ones are looking nice inside,
03:42 but these older ones like the D-MAX,
03:43 which has been out for a little while now,
03:45 kind of look a little bit bland.
03:46 It's all hard material.
03:47 I've tried to jazz it up a little bit
03:49 with this soft stuff over here,
03:50 but it just feels completely out of place.
03:52 So it doesn't look that stylish, but is it functional?
03:55 We'll find out in a second,
03:56 but first let's see how hard the hard touch plastics are.
04:00 We have our durometer here.
04:01 This measures hardness from zero to 100,
04:03 where zero is soft, 100 is hard.
04:06 I'm going to give this a little bit of a free kick.
04:08 I'm going to check it up here, which is clearly hard,
04:10 but I'm also going to double check that as well.
04:12 Okay, so let's give this a shot.
04:14 Oh, that has maxed it out almost entirely there.
04:18 Let's see what it's like on this soft section.
04:21 Wow, that is super soft.
04:25 I don't think I've seen a car that soft before.
04:27 And then what about the center console lid?
04:29 That's pretty soft as well.
04:31 So yes, we do know that Isuzu has a new ute coming.
04:34 Hopefully they're addressing all of that
04:36 by actually making it look a little prettier.
04:38 Let's talk infotainment.
04:39 This is a very basic system.
04:40 I think out of all the dual cab utes in this segment,
04:43 this is probably one of the poorest implementations
04:45 of an infotainment system.
04:46 It looks good on the surface.
04:48 It's an eight inch infotainment unit.
04:49 It's all touchscreen,
04:50 and then you have shortcut buttons down the bottom here,
04:53 so you can go home, back.
04:54 There's a map slot in there for the SD card,
04:58 sort of hiding behind there.
05:00 And then you have volume controls
05:01 and then back and forward for the radio.
05:02 There's also a CD player as well.
05:04 Media functions.
05:04 So if I click on this, you've got AM/FM radio,
05:07 no digital radio.
05:08 USB connectivity, which is down here.
05:10 You have a 2.1 amp charging USB port,
05:13 and then a media USB port, plus auxiliary, and also HDMI.
05:18 So you can actually watch video on here if you want.
05:20 You can also stream Bluetooth audio through your phone.
05:23 The phone quality is really bad.
05:25 So if you're talking to someone,
05:26 you can barely hear anything that they're saying.
05:28 So it is disappointing that that isn't better.
05:30 A lot of people are gonna be using this as a work truck.
05:32 So why not have good quality audio?
05:34 If I go back one, you have the navigation.
05:36 This is a third party navigation system.
05:39 I'll go back here.
05:40 The maps are pretty good.
05:41 They're very quick.
05:42 Phone, again, very straightforward phone menu.
05:45 You can dial the number, find a contact.
05:47 There's no voice recognition or anything advanced.
05:49 You have to do it all manually,
05:51 which means taking your eyes off the road
05:52 if you need to call someone.
05:53 An option to switch the display off.
05:55 And finally, just settings for the infotainment system
05:59 and eco data.
06:00 So this just tells you what your driving history
06:02 has been like in terms of fuel economy.
06:04 It's all very basic stuff
06:05 and nothing to get too excited about
06:07 on the infotainment front.
06:08 Let's talk other features.
06:10 Not really too many to get through.
06:11 Starts down here with a single zone
06:13 automatic climate control.
06:15 This looks like something that was cool in the '90s,
06:17 you know, like those old school CD players or something.
06:20 The design is a little bit funny.
06:21 You activate it just by turning this.
06:24 You can adjust the temperature
06:25 and then you have fan speed
06:26 and then different modes here
06:28 for whether you want it up on the dashboard or your feet.
06:30 Head of the driver is a small LCD display
06:32 with the engine temperature, fuel,
06:33 and also the diesel particulate filter, how full it is.
06:36 Interesting note here with this car,
06:38 the diesel particulate filter is actually fitted
06:40 right up behind the engine next to the turbocharger.
06:42 That makes it really efficient
06:44 because a diesel particulate filter
06:46 works by increasing exhaust temperatures
06:48 to burn off diesel particulates.
06:50 If it's closer to the turbocharger,
06:52 it means it's getting hotter quicker
06:53 and you're not gonna run into some of those issues
06:55 like they have with the Toyota Hilux
06:56 and more recently the Ford Ranger as well.
06:59 Now, if you're expecting to see
07:00 other creature comforts here,
07:02 there's kind of nothing else to talk about.
07:03 In fact, it's missing the most basic features
07:06 such as automatic headlights.
07:07 You don't get that, even though this is the top spec model,
07:09 you have to put them on manually.
07:11 No automatic wiper, no auto dimming mirror.
07:13 This is all stuff that is common
07:15 on a lot of other competitors in this segment.
07:17 And hopefully with the new generation of D-MAX,
07:20 they're going to address all this
07:21 by actually throwing the feature book at it.
07:23 There's no emergency stop function.
07:25 There's no blind spot monitor.
07:26 It is very basic and primitive inside this cabin.
07:29 Okay, maybe it's not totally primitive.
07:30 You do get an eight speaker sound system
07:32 with speakers in the roof that have live surround sound
07:37 and then a decent reverse view camera
07:40 with front and rear parking sensors.
07:42 Okay, moving on to practicality
07:44 and let's start with storage.
07:45 Where are you gonna put your phone?
07:47 It kind of fits there, but, oh, it fits there as well.
07:50 That's not too bad.
07:51 Water bottles fit in there
07:53 and then you have door pocket as well, but check this out.
07:55 You also have a slot next to your air vent.
07:59 Means you can stick the bottle in there
08:00 and if it's a drink you want to keep cold,
08:03 just pop the air vent on it and it'll stay cool.
08:05 There is a litany of other bins around here.
08:08 So behind this soft cover,
08:10 you have storage with a 12 volt outlet.
08:13 There's more storage down here,
08:15 but that is crammed full of a manual.
08:17 You've got this as well.
08:19 It doesn't really do anything.
08:20 You can't open it.
08:21 You kind of have to put your finger in behind there.
08:24 It's just a really poorly designed system.
08:26 Before you ask, this doesn't come with the car.
08:28 It's just a GoPro holder and someone stuck on there
08:30 and then a center console as well.
08:33 Fairly decent storage bin in there too.
08:35 And is it comfortable?
08:36 Yes, it actually is.
08:37 These seats are really comfy.
08:39 I could see myself going for a long drive in this car.
08:42 The steering wheel is a little bit far away
08:44 'cause it has no reach adjustment,
08:46 but I guess that's something you eventually get used to.
08:49 Second row, it's kind of a place
08:51 you never want to be seated in a dual cab ute,
08:53 but it's not terrible here in the D-MAX.
08:55 Tow room is virtually non-existent,
08:57 but there is decent knee room.
08:59 It's comfy as well.
09:01 Bottle storage.
09:02 You've got storage in the doors,
09:04 but not really for anything else.
09:06 And then two cup holders down here,
09:09 a USB port for charging of devices,
09:12 center armrest, no cup holders in there,
09:14 but it's good to lean onto.
09:16 You have map pockets in the back of both seats.
09:18 There isn't any ISOFIX here,
09:20 but there is top tether behind.
09:22 Now, speaking of behind,
09:24 let me show you a little party trick here.
09:26 So, using this little cord here,
09:31 this pops up,
09:32 you have a little hidey hole here for the jack
09:34 plus any other valuables you've got,
09:37 but then this drops as well.
09:39 So you're not really gonna store anything behind there,
09:41 but this is where your top tether is
09:43 if you do need to get baby seats into the car.
09:46 And let's talk about cargo capacity.
09:47 So we've mentioned the payload there
09:49 is a little over one ton,
09:50 but you also have plenty of room there
09:51 for storing cargo in the tray itself.
09:54 It's around 1.5 meters deep
09:56 and 1.1 meters between the wheel arches.
09:58 So that's big enough to get a lot of goods in there.
10:01 So we are behind the wheel of the D-MAX now.
10:04 I just wanna give you a friendly reminder.
10:05 I know you were listening at the start,
10:07 but we're not gonna be doing any off-roading
10:08 or towing with this car.
10:10 This is just a detailed day-to-day review.
10:12 All of that stuff will come a little bit later on.
10:14 So under the bonnet of the D-MAX
10:16 is a pretty trusty and reliable
10:18 three-liter four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine.
10:21 Put that in for durability,
10:23 and that means it can make 130 kilowatts of power,
10:25 430 newton meters of torque,
10:28 and that's about right for this segment.
10:30 You're gonna get up to around the 500 newton meter mark
10:33 when you go to stuff like the twin turbocharged Ranger,
10:36 but that is gonna give you enough torque
10:37 for things like getting in and out of the city
10:39 overtaking, and eventually when you do
10:41 stick a load on the back.
10:42 It's all mated to a six-speed automatic Aisin transmission.
10:46 You can get a six-speed manual as well,
10:47 but this auto is really good.
10:49 It holds gears when it needs to.
10:51 So if you're towing and going up hills,
10:53 it won't start shuffling through the gears,
10:55 which can get a little bit frustrating in some other cars.
10:57 It's quite smooth as well.
10:58 So when you are getting about in the morning
11:00 on the way to work,
11:01 it's not gonna throw you about too much.
11:03 Let's talk noise for a second.
11:05 On the highway, you're getting a little bit of tire noise,
11:07 but predominantly the noise that's coming into this cabin
11:11 is the engine.
11:12 My goodness, it's loud.
11:13 As you step on it,
11:14 holy Moses, you could hear this thing coming
11:18 from a mile away, and that's not a good thing.
11:21 It is a really noisy engine.
11:22 Just on the topic of the engine there
11:24 in terms of throttle response,
11:25 the 430 newton meters has more than enough punch.
11:29 Can be a little bit slow if you're stuck in a gear
11:32 and it won't kick down,
11:34 but you just stay in the throttle
11:36 and it just winds along nicely.
11:37 It is a really good engine.
11:39 Fuel consumption comes in at 7.9 liters per 100 kilometers.
11:42 And we're getting around that.
11:44 These are really efficient
11:45 because there's not a great deal going on in them.
11:47 Yes, they do weigh a little bit.
11:48 They're around the 2000 kilo mark,
11:50 but they're such small engines
11:52 that rarely ever get exercised.
11:53 So you will find that they don't use much fuel at all.
11:56 In addition to a 76 liter fuel tank,
11:58 you've got a three and a half ton towing capacity,
12:00 like I mentioned before, but keep in mind,
12:01 that's for a braked trailer,
12:03 which means you're gonna have to install a brake controller
12:05 like they've put here,
12:06 and they've got the perfect slot for it
12:07 just off to the left-hand side of the steering wheel.
12:09 That means you're not gonna have
12:10 some aftermarket looking switch somewhere.
12:12 It integrates nicely and allows you to modify
12:14 the level of brake sensitivity on the trailer on the fly.
12:18 Going from two-wheel drive to four-wheel drive
12:19 happens using this center dial here.
12:22 You can do that up to 100 kilometers an hour.
12:24 Keep in mind though,
12:24 you don't wanna be using four-wheel drive high range
12:27 or low range on a sealed surface
12:29 because you're gonna wind up that differential
12:31 and that's not good for the car.
12:33 You really wanna be doing that
12:34 just on gravel or loose surfaces
12:36 because when you do lock it into four high,
12:38 you're asking all of the wheels to turn at the same speed
12:41 and the second you put some lock on the steering,
12:43 you're changing the turning radius
12:45 and that upsets the transmission.
12:46 Let's talk suspension.
12:47 Often suspension in dual cab utes
12:49 when they're unladen is pretty terrible.
12:51 Here in the D-MAX, it's really reasonable
12:52 because they've gone for a comfort leaf spring setup.
12:55 In addition to the leaf springs on the rear,
12:56 you also have a damper,
12:58 so that evens out some of those bumps.
12:59 Some of the utes in this segment
13:01 are really jiggly as you hit bumps at speed.
13:04 This doesn't really have that effect,
13:05 so they've rounded it out nicely
13:07 and you're getting a smooth drive,
13:08 regardless of whether you're driving on a smooth surface
13:10 or a corrugated gravel road.
13:12 It's always consistent and then it gets better
13:14 as you put load in it
13:15 and put some load on those leaf springs.
13:17 The steering is old school.
13:18 It's a hydraulic steering system.
13:21 It's pretty heavy at times,
13:22 so at low speeds as you're parking,
13:24 you're gonna wrangle it around a bit to make it work.
13:26 Other utes are going towards
13:28 an electrically-assisted steering rack.
13:29 That allows them to do things like automatic parking
13:32 and other features like that.
13:33 So it'll be interesting to see
13:35 whether Isuzu goes down that path
13:36 with the next generation of the D-MAX.
13:39 There are a couple of utes now
13:40 that are moving towards disc brakes at the rear.
13:42 The D-MAX still uses drum brakes.
13:44 Disc brakes are now, I've heard, really cheap.
13:47 So the old argument of just using drum brakes
13:50 because they were cheaper,
13:51 it's kind of gone out the window now.
13:52 So I would like to see more utes in this segment
13:54 going down the path of disc brakes instead of drums.
13:58 You're gonna get better braking performance
14:00 and also better heat rigidity as well
14:01 if you're driving down hills and riding the brakes,
14:03 speaking of hills, with the gearbox,
14:05 you can range through the gears.
14:07 So if you are towing or doing a long distance downhill cruise
14:10 you don't have to be pushing the brakes too hard.
14:12 All works fairly well.
14:13 You flick this across up-down gears and pops your ankle.
14:16 How's visibility?
14:17 Well, it's pretty good.
14:18 I can see pretty clearly out the front there,
14:20 big wing mirrors as well.
14:21 Only thing I'm not loving,
14:23 especially with this sort of steering
14:24 and the seating position is just getting comfortable.
14:26 There's no reach adjustment on the steering
14:28 and the seat feels like it's sitting quite high.
14:30 There's no ability to bring it down any lower.
14:33 So you kind of feel like you're sitting on top of the car
14:35 as opposed to inside it.
14:36 Finally, let's chat turning circle, 12.6 metres.
14:40 It's pretty big because when it comes to all-wheel drive
14:42 there's extra gear under the front end
14:44 and that increases your turning circle
14:46 and means you've got to have a fair bit of room
14:47 to get this thing around.
14:49 So the Isuzu D-MAX,
14:51 should you be spending your hard-earned bucks on it?
14:53 Tell you what, it is a really good ute
14:55 but it is expensive at the recommended retail price.
14:58 I would not be paying 54 grand for this
15:00 when you look at the competitors that are available.
15:02 When the new one comes out
15:03 you're gonna be able to get this for cheap
15:04 and generally Isuzu does a lot of deals.
15:06 So if you put that to one side,
15:07 it doesn't have the features or the gadgets
15:09 of some of the competitors in this segment.
15:11 If that's not an issue to you,
15:12 the rest of the ute actually makes up for it
15:14 'cause you've got stacks of payload
15:15 and it's a good ute to live with day to day.
15:17 The engine's punchy enough, the gearbox is good
15:19 and it has enough civilities inside it
15:21 to get you through the work week
15:23 and then also for the family on the weekend.
15:25 Let me know in the comments below
15:26 if you bought one of these and if you've had any issues
15:28 or are we simply getting this whole reliability thing wrong?
15:31 We never hear about reliability issues
15:33 but there is a chance there is stuff out there
15:34 that we don't know about.
15:35 Or alternatively, if you bought one
15:36 and you've never had any dramas, let us know as well.
15:38 I'm always keen to get people's feedback
15:40 on the cars that we're testing.
15:41 If you found this video useful, please hit the like button.
15:44 Also, don't forget to subscribe
15:45 and also press the bell icon
15:47 so you can find out every single time we test something new.
15:50 But until next time, take it easy.