Isuzu has updated the Isuzu D-Max dual-cab ute for the 2022 Model Year! Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the updated 2022 Isuzu D-Max to see if it's any good!
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So the Isuzu D-MAX, we've already reviewed the X-Terrain, but it's been updated for the 2022 model year.
00:07 So today we're going to check it out, have a look at all the changes and see whether it's still worth spending money on.
00:12 Now this right here, the X-Terrain is at the top of the D-MAX tree.
00:16 It's priced at just under 66 grand.
00:18 So the price has increased since we reviewed it the first time, and they've also adjusted some of the driveway off it.
00:25 So just make sure you check to see what the exact pricing is when you do watch this.
00:29 This competes with things like the Ford Ranger, the Toyota Hilux, the Mitsubishi Triton.
00:34 There are lots and lots of competitors in the segment.
00:37 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this ute.
00:40 So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you can use those time codes.
00:43 Or if you're on YouTube, scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:46 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel, press the bell icon.
00:50 That's going to tell you every single time we drive one of these utes.
00:52 OK, so let's talk exterior.
00:56 You get eight different colors to pick from.
00:58 All but white is an additional 500 bucks, but there are no changes to the outside for the 2022 model year.
01:05 It's all sort of inside and also with GCM, and I'll run you through that in a second.
01:08 So that means the rest of this design looks pretty familiar.
01:11 So I'll quickly run you through it.
01:12 You have this double decker grille section.
01:15 I know that I found this fascinating.
01:16 I never actually noticed it until one of you guys in the comments section pointed it out.
01:20 But there's two of these things here.
01:22 I do wonder what it would look like if there was just this top section or just the bottom one.
01:26 I don't know. It would kind of give it a different appearance.
01:28 I don't dislike this.
01:29 I just think it's it's interesting the way that it looks.
01:31 So you've got Isuzu along the top there.
01:34 You got all these big openings for cooling.
01:36 And then you also have parking sensors nestled in down the bottom there.
01:40 You've got this different color differentiation.
01:42 So you have the body color, a darker color here, and then a lighter silver color there
01:46 with piano black on that grill section.
01:49 Over with the headlights, you have bi-LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
01:54 You also have fog lights down the bottom here with an indicator built in in that bottom section.
01:58 Unfortunately, despite a lot of the lights in this car being LED,
02:02 they still do have some incandescent globes here and in the back, which I don't know,
02:07 if you're going to go LED, you may as well just do everything LED
02:10 and not just have these random little globes that you'll have to replace more frequently.
02:14 So, all right, we'll whip around to the side.
02:16 Down here, you've got a set of 18-inch alloy wheels.
02:19 We've also got these wheel arch guards up the top there,
02:22 so fairly chunky and they're offset from that body color.
02:25 Love this red.
02:26 I haven't seen an X-Terrain before in this red.
02:28 I've only really seen the orange color and a few other sort of colors,
02:31 but this red actually looks pretty cool and offsets nicely with
02:35 with that sort of body arch protection there.
02:37 You've got a set of highway terrain tires.
02:39 Now, let's talk about this wheel design, because Isuzu initially said that
02:42 they were looking at offering an accessory wheel for the X-Terrain
02:46 for people that didn't like this, but it doesn't look like they've actually done that at all.
02:49 So you're stuck with this design.
02:51 So some people love it, some people hate it, but it is just worth keeping in mind
02:54 that if you do want a different design, you have to fork out your own money to do that.
02:58 But look, often what people will do is buy the new wheel, leave these in the shed,
03:01 and then when they go to sell the car, they'll swap it back over.
03:04 So it might not be a bad idea.
03:06 Up the top here, we've got an indicator built into that wing mirror.
03:09 You can again see you've got that sort of plain plastic down the bottom there
03:13 and that same colour as the wheel arches along the top.
03:16 You don't have any cameras or anything built in under here
03:19 because they don't have a 360 camera available for this just yet.
03:22 Now, on the sidesteps down here, look, they look OK,
03:25 but if you are doing some proper off-roading, you're probably going to damage those pretty quickly.
03:28 I'd love to see something like the Raptor sidesteps here, big, chunky, meaty
03:32 sidesteps that really give you the ability to hit rocks and climb onto them
03:36 and all that sort of stuff.
03:37 You've got roof rails up the top here.
03:39 You've got a sailplane.
03:41 So they've added some stickers here.
03:43 I don't think that was standard on the 2021, but the sailplane has a plastic outer surround on it.
03:48 You can't really hook anything onto that.
03:49 It's here just as a decorative piece.
03:52 More of those wheel arch protections.
03:53 4x4 on the side there.
03:55 And if you come around to the back, you've got an X down here,
03:58 which signifies X-Train, three litre turbo diesel, because that is the engine fitted to this.
04:02 There is a 1.9 litre diesel coming, which we'll review in the coming months.
04:07 And I think that'll be an interesting step down.
04:09 It may not be sort of as grunty as this, but it will be more affordable
04:12 and probably more fuel efficient as well when it's finally launched.
04:15 And then Isuzu D-MAX on the side there.
04:18 Let's talk about the tray.
04:19 So up the top here, you've got this roller cover that you can push out of the way.
04:22 A little bit noisy.
04:24 And then it comes with a rope as well to pull it back in.
04:27 The actual tailgate itself has the camera built into it there.
04:30 And then the handle that drops down.
04:31 Unfortunately, no torsion bar over here.
04:34 It is becoming common theme now in a lot of units to add that torsion bar
04:37 to make it easier to open and close this tray.
04:40 So it is missing out on that.
04:41 But inside the tray, you do have some hooks off to the side.
04:44 Little channel here to collect water so it doesn't come into the tray itself.
04:48 And then in terms of the tray dimensions, it has a load length of just under 1600mm.
04:52 You've got a load width of a little over 1500mm
04:55 and then a little over 1100mm between the wheel arches.
04:59 You have a payload of almost one ton.
05:01 And as part of the 2022 model year changes, the GCM has increased by 50kg
05:06 to 6000kg.
05:08 So that gives you just a little bit more capacity.
05:10 You also still have a three and a half ton braked towing capacity.
05:14 So we are inside the D-MAX.
05:16 Let's run with the key first.
05:18 So here it is here.
05:20 You've got a remote start function up the top there.
05:22 Lock, unlock, blank down the bottom.
05:25 Got a little bit of metal trim around there.
05:27 Then on the back, you've got Isuzu.
05:29 It's a proximity sensing key.
05:31 So you leave that in your pocket.
05:32 Once you're inside, you have a push button start.
05:34 And then this little key here, this is for your cargo cover.
05:38 So you can lock that so no one can get inside and steal your goodies.
05:42 Now, what about the design?
05:43 So I did mention in our last D-MAX review, I reckon this is completely
05:48 chalk and cheese compared to the last D-MAX.
05:51 It's a huge step forward in terms of design, but also just in terms of
05:54 the fit and finish and premium materials used here throughout the cabin.
05:58 So talking about stuff like here on the dashboard, it's all nice and soft touch.
06:02 You've got that stitching along the top there.
06:05 You've also got these materials that, I don't know, they're scratchy plastic,
06:09 but they're not sort of offensive.
06:10 They actually look nice and soft through there.
06:12 And then as you come down, you do have a fair bit of piano black around here,
06:16 which I'm not a massive fan of, but it's there anyway.
06:19 But I do think this is nicely presented.
06:21 Now, part of the model year 22 changes are things like the red stitching here
06:25 on the steering wheel that continues along the dashboard there.
06:27 I think in the previous one that was like white or something like that.
06:30 It's red on the seats and also this gear lever.
06:32 They've also changed some of the silver highlights that were around
06:36 the air vents in the steering wheel.
06:37 So that's all been piano blacked.
06:40 It's just more piano black as we go, not less.
06:43 We've also got some changes here in the gauge cluster as well.
06:46 The little X down there as well.
06:48 So visually, it looks very similar to the model year 21 Isuzu D-Max X-Terrain.
06:53 Now, what about our touch points?
06:54 Well, that feels good there and not too bad on the door.
06:58 How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer.
07:00 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
07:02 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
07:05 have a look at the link in the description.
07:08 Builds quality, righto, let's see what this is like.
07:10 That feels not too bad.
07:13 A little flex there in the center, but it's not too bad.
07:15 Oh, that's pretty solid as well.
07:17 So D-Max has been out for a little while now.
07:19 How has yours been going if you have already bought one?
07:22 Has it been OK? Have you had any dramas with it?
07:24 Let me know in the comments section.
07:25 And what about our door test?
07:29 Nice and solid. Righto, let's talk infotainment.
07:32 So at the top here, you've got a nine inch infotainment screen.
07:36 So it's a color touchscreen.
07:38 And then you have shortcut buttons down the bottom here.
07:40 Comes with inbuilt satellite navigation and you also have voice recognition.
07:45 There's AM, FM and DAB plus digital radio.
07:49 So that means you do have some pretty good coverage there in terms of audio.
07:52 In addition to that, you also have the ability to hook up a USB
07:56 audio device, an auxiliary audio device,
07:58 and then also stream through Bluetooth.
08:00 And on the smartphone mirroring front, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
08:04 The good news about Apple CarPlay is that it is wireless.
08:06 And that means that...
08:07 I honestly don't know what all this music is.
08:11 I didn't download that.
08:13 So, yeah, full screen integration.
08:16 Tiny bit laggy as you go through those screens, but for the most part,
08:19 it's not too bad.
08:20 And the good news is with the voice recognition that it does it through your phone.
08:24 So if you do have Siri or, you know, the Google equivalent of Siri,
08:27 it's doing that via the cloud.
08:29 Means you're getting far more accurate voice recognition.
08:31 You can send text messages and do all that kind of thing.
08:33 So, look, I do like this infotainment system.
08:36 It just can be a little bit annoying sometimes.
08:38 What I've noticed is that once you get into the car
08:40 and it connects to Apple CarPlay, which it does automatically once you hop in,
08:43 it switches your audio to Apple CarPlay instead of the radio.
08:47 So you have to then get out of it, go into the sort of radio again
08:51 and then go back into CarPlay.
08:52 So I know it's a tiny bit clunky.
08:54 Now, I am curious, just very quickly, Ford has just released a new Ranger.
08:59 They've got a giant infotainment system.
09:00 Are you a tech person?
09:02 Do you prefer a giant infotainment system or do you prefer something smaller
09:06 like this that's easier to use?
09:07 Let me know in the comments section below.
09:09 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
09:11 So, again, a full screen integration.
09:14 It feels a little snappier than CarPlay, which is good news.
09:17 And that's all plumbed through an eight speaker sound system
09:20 with the live surround sound.
09:22 Now, let's talk about the screen here ahead of the driver.
09:25 It's a 4.2 inch display.
09:26 This gives you basic functionality, such as your, you know,
09:30 engine temperatures, fuel economy, range and your four wheel drive controls as well.
09:35 Now, what about your safety tech?
09:36 You've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
09:41 You've got an auto dimming rear vision mirror now.
09:43 So this is new to the range.
09:45 You've also got a center airbag here.
09:46 This prevents occupants hitting each other in a side impact.
09:50 There's also radar cruise control.
09:51 You have rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning and a lane
09:54 keeping assistant. But there is something exciting.
09:56 I did complain about this in our last review with the lane keeping assistant.
10:00 It's not a very good system.
10:01 It kind of keeps pulsing you back into the lane, even when you are already
10:05 in the lane. To turn it off, you had to basically go through all of these menus
10:10 and faff about with everything. And it was really frustrating.
10:12 Now, all you do is push and hold this button here and it disables it.
10:15 Now, this is part of the model year 22 upgrade, but given it's the same button
10:19 it's always been, I don't know why this can't just be applied to other models
10:23 with a software upgrade.
10:24 So maybe they're going to roll that out eventually.
10:26 Who knows?
10:27 Got a blind spot monitor built into that wing mirror.
10:29 You have front and rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera.
10:33 I'll show you what the camera looks like.
10:35 Here it is there. So pretty decent quality.
10:38 Yeah, so it's not terrible.
10:40 You've also got these guidelines as well to help you
10:43 getting into parks and a very clear view there for the trailer
10:46 when it comes to rigging up your trailer.
10:49 But no 360 camera here.
10:50 Moving on to practicality, we'll start with your connectivity options.
10:53 So down the front here, you have one USB port,
10:57 one auxiliary outlet and a 12 volt outlet.
11:01 Would've liked to see another USB port down here, I reckon.
11:04 Just the one's kind of not enough.
11:05 You do have a tray down here for your phone.
11:08 No wireless phone charging, but it does fit into there pretty easily.
11:11 Your phone can also be stored here in the cup holder without any dramas.
11:14 Coffee cup. So watch this.
11:18 It disappears and your lid will disappear as well if you go to get it.
11:22 So not the best spot because it is quite deep and there's no teeth on the side there.
11:26 But they do have a solution, and that is cup holders in front of the air vent.
11:30 So you can slot your coffee cup in there if you need to.
11:33 And it means that it will stay warm on a cold day and.
11:36 It will stay cool on a hot day.
11:39 I'm trying to get my head around that stuff.
11:41 So there is an option there if you do need it.
11:43 In terms of your other storage for bottles,
11:45 your bottle can easily live in there without any dramas.
11:48 But like I said, there's no teeth, so it does move around a little bit.
11:51 Can also fit your bottle inside the door.
11:53 And try out a big bottle.
11:55 See how that goes. So it doesn't fit in the center there.
11:57 But it does fit inside the door, which is good news.
12:02 Get that out of the way.
12:04 Other storage.
12:05 So you've got this center console, reasonably sized.
12:08 It's not too bad.
12:09 You've also got this storage spot down here.
12:11 Then you have a box up the top here.
12:14 It's now easier to open.
12:15 I remember the last D-MAX, you had to kind of,
12:17 you know, do a push and a pull at the same time to get that to open.
12:20 But that is very straightforward.
12:22 You've got a glove box down here.
12:24 There is no room in there at all once you've got the manual.
12:26 But you do have a second glove box just above it
12:29 with enough storage there for bits and pieces.
12:31 And then finally, you have a sunglasses holder up the top.
12:34 It's worth pointing out as well that the 22 upgrade brings you
12:37 lights inside your vanity mirrors.
12:39 Now let's talk about comfort.
12:41 You've got dual zone automatic climate control.
12:43 Finally, there's heated seats.
12:45 Look at this.
12:45 You've got buttons there for your heated seats, which is good news.
12:48 You've also got electric seat adjustment for the driver.
12:51 So it goes forwards, backwards, backrest goes forwards, backwards.
12:55 Seat goes up and down as well.
12:57 You also have a lot of seat comfort because when you're driving in this,
13:01 they just hug you in beautifully.
13:03 And for long distance drives, it's a good place to be seated.
13:06 I've done a few long distance drives in D-MAX since it launched
13:08 and been pretty impressed with seat comfort and how they feel.
13:12 And they're also perforated as well, which means on hot days,
13:15 you don't have to really sort of peel yourself off the seat.
13:17 It just you just come off nicely and there's enough sort of aeration there.
13:21 In addition to the heated seats, I've also added heating for the wing mirrors.
13:25 So if it is frosty in the morning, they will sort of defrost nice and quickly as well.
13:30 So you do have all bases covered.
13:32 Now, in terms of steering wheel, it offers both tilt and reach adjustment.
13:36 And on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
13:41 So before I hop in the back, let's talk about what you got back here.
13:45 So these lift up in an interesting way because you can lift just this side,
13:50 which gives you access to a little storage nook down here.
13:52 Then what you can do is lift this side as I drape myself across the seat
13:57 and you've got another storage nook under there.
14:00 And if you do have kids, you have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats
14:04 and also two top tether points, and you access them behind here
14:08 through this thread.
14:09 So they basically go through there and then connect into the center.
14:12 That's also where you'll find your jack, but no real storage space behind here.
14:16 Now, in terms of room, use a handle to hop in.
14:20 Let's see what it's like.
14:22 So look, knee room is OK.
14:25 It's not amazing. I'm sort of...
14:26 There is like a gap there.
14:28 I am comfortable, but if this seat was any further back,
14:31 I'd be sort of sitting with my knees in there.
14:33 Toe room is average, not that fantastic.
14:36 And headroom is reasonable, but not amazing if you're any taller than I am.
14:41 Outside of that, you do have some creature comforts back here.
14:44 So you've got two map pockets.
14:45 You've got air vents, a USB outlet there.
14:48 It's a USB-A outlet.
14:49 You've also got a hook here to hold, you know, stuff like shopping and bags
14:55 and other random things.
14:57 You have a center armrest here with two cup holders
15:00 and that holds a bottle without any dramas.
15:02 No teeth, though.
15:03 That does move around a little bit and you can pop this inside the door
15:07 if you need to.
15:09 But look, outside of that, it's actually not a bad place to be seated.
15:12 It is fairly comfortable and I've got good visibility out the sides as well,
15:15 which means I won't feel claustrophobic while, you know,
15:18 I'm relegated to the back while my mates are driving and doing fun things up the front.
15:22 So we're on the road in the D-MAX.
15:27 So with the model year 22, there's no changes to the engine.
15:30 So you're getting the same three litre turbocharged four cylinder diesel.
15:34 It makes 140 kilowatts of power and 450 newton metres of torque.
15:38 So that is more than the outgoing model,
15:41 but it's still a bit short on the rest of the competitors in this segment.
15:44 They all produce about 10% more torque at around that 500 newton metre mark.
15:47 And look, it's not the end of the world.
15:49 The six speed auto that this is mated to, and by the way,
15:52 the six speed auto is the only gearbox you can get in the X-Terrain.
15:56 It does a good enough job, but, you know, if you sink the boot in,
16:00 look, it does sort of pin you back in the seat.
16:02 It's really not that bad.
16:03 I just think when you've been spoilt with 500 newton metres,
16:06 you kind of feel that top edge missing a little bit.
16:09 And you'll notice it most when you're towing and have a load in the tray.
16:12 I think that's where the 450 is going to feel the most different to 500 newton metres.
16:16 And how does that gearbox feel behind the wheel?
16:18 Look, it's pretty good.
16:20 It can be a little lazy at times,
16:22 but it does take the advantage of the torque band of the engine.
16:25 So instead of dropping back through gears, I can lean on the throttle
16:28 and it will just progressively feed in that torque and it doesn't have to hunt,
16:31 which is, I guess, one of the advantages of not having 10 speeds
16:34 to deal with like you do in the Ranger.
16:36 Isuzu doesn't have an official zero to 100 time,
16:39 but this is how it went up against our stopwatch.
16:56 Isuzu claims a combined fuel economy of eight litres per 100 k's.
17:00 We are currently sitting on 11.9.
17:03 I will mention that we have been doing our off-roading
17:06 before we went on our drive, and this car is brand new or pretty much brand new.
17:10 It's under 100 kilometres old.
17:11 So I do expect that fuel use to settle a little bit.
17:14 I know when I've done a lot of highway driving in these before,
17:16 that they settle around the sort of nine litre per 100 k mark.
17:19 So pretty efficient.
17:20 And you should get about 1000 k's out of a tank if you're hitting those numbers.
17:23 Let's talk about the ride.
17:25 So D-MAX comes standard with a three leaf rear suspension setup.
17:29 Generally, the less leaves that you have at the back,
17:31 the smoother the ride should be.
17:33 And in this instance, it is smooth.
17:35 So it can feel a little bit brittle on some of the corrugations
17:39 you'll find on a country road, but it is softly sprung,
17:41 just slightly firmly damped.
17:43 But for the most part, it is pretty comfortable,
17:45 especially in and around the city.
17:46 You can whack speed humps, potholes, all that sort of stuff.
17:49 You don't really feel anything inside the cabin.
17:51 And in terms of road noise.
17:52 So it's pretty quiet in terms of tyre noise,
17:56 but where it is a bit noisy is the engine.
17:58 So it's making a fair old racket coming into the cabin.
18:02 So it is something that you do notice when you do lean into the throttle
18:05 and try and sort of keep up with traffic.
18:07 And then on the visibility front, I can see clearly down the front of the car there.
18:10 The wing mirrors are massive.
18:12 So good visibility down the side.
18:13 You've got a blind spot monitor there.
18:15 Visibility is excellent at the rear as well.
18:17 Keep in mind when you do get to parking and that kind of thing,
18:20 you've got front and rear parking sensors, a reverse view camera,
18:23 and the steering is incredibly light at low speeds.
18:25 Means that it is very easy to place the car when you do need to.
18:29 You don't have any drive modes, but I will just call out your driving modes.
18:33 So you've got a two wheel drive high range and that is for sealed surfaces.
18:36 So unlike stuff like the Triton, which has the super select four wheel drive system,
18:40 you can't drive this in four wheel drive high range on sealed surfaces
18:43 because you can do damage to the car.
18:45 So just keep that in mind.
18:46 We did shoot a video on four wheel drive controls that I've run through
18:49 a little later on.
18:50 There's a link in the description as well, if you do need to catch that.
18:52 And that will explain why you can't do that.
18:54 But you also have a four wheel drive low range.
18:56 And I'll demo some of these when we do our light off road section.
18:59 Just on steering feel, they've ditched the hydraulic steering rack
19:04 and you now have this electrically assisted steering rack.
19:07 The steering is very light.
19:09 And look, I think that's good for low speed manoeuvres,
19:11 such as parking and that type of thing.
19:13 There isn't a great deal of steering feel, and that is because,
19:16 you know, they've made it as light as they possibly can.
19:19 So it's kind of polar opposites to something like a Ford Ranger,
19:21 which has just a little bit of meat to it.
19:23 So I think some people are either going to like or dislike that,
19:25 depending on their driving mood.
19:27 You don't have any drive modes.
19:29 You can select gears manually by doing this, but let's see how it goes
19:33 through our corner.
19:35 It's kind of fun.
19:39 It's not a Ferrari, but it holds its own.
19:42 OK, when you do punt it through a corner, that's a good thing with dual cab utes.
19:46 They're big and cuddly enough that you can, you know,
19:49 throw it around a bit without it snapping over steer or doing anything
19:53 you're not going to expect it to do.
19:55 So let's do a little bit of light off-roading in the D-MAX.
20:00 Let me run you through the specs first.
20:02 So nothing's changed with the model year 22, so it all stays the same.
20:05 I mentioned down on the road that you have a number of different drive modes
20:08 in terms of where you're sending drive.
20:10 But these are the only ones that you want to use while you're off-roading.
20:12 So two-wheel drive high range is for on-road driving or, you know,
20:16 if you're going down a very basic gravel road and you don't want to switch
20:19 into four high.
20:20 But four high is what you want to be using on unsealed surfaces.
20:23 You also have four-wheel drive low range.
20:25 You have a rear differential lock, only works in low range.
20:28 You have a hill descent control as well.
20:30 Then in terms of your ground clearance, 240 millimetres of clearance,
20:34 which is the amount of space you have before you start hitting anything
20:36 underneath the car.
20:37 You have an approach angle of 30.5 degrees.
20:40 That's the angle of the face you can approach before you hit anything
20:42 at the front of the car.
20:43 And then a 24.2 degree departure angle, which is the same but in reverse.
20:48 And finally, you have an 800 millimetre wading depth as well.
20:51 Now, if none of that makes any sense to you, we actually shot a video that
20:54 explains four-wheel drive controls with a D-Max.
20:56 You can click up here to watch that and that will run you through all of that
20:59 and when you use all of these controls.
21:01 But let's flick over to four-wheel drive high range for the moment.
21:04 You can see it activate down there.
21:06 What we'll also do is bring up our four-wheel drive screen.
21:10 That will tell us exactly what the car's doing and which mode it's in.
21:15 And we'll start off with the log mounted.
21:16 It's all pretty drive, so it shouldn't be too much of a drama getting up here.
21:20 I've got everything just in the standard sort of drive mode,
21:23 so it's managing it all on its own.
21:24 But you can change gears manually if you need to.
21:28 We are on highway terrain tyres, so if you are planning on doing any off-roading,
21:32 the first thing I'd probably change is the tyres to give you just a little bit
21:36 more latitude while you're off-road.
21:39 You can see just there, highway terrain tyres will sometimes get a little bit
21:46 stuck 'cause they don't have a great deal of grip available in comparison
21:50 to an all-terrain tyre.
21:52 Alright, we've crested the top here.
21:54 I'm gonna kill that parking sensor.
21:55 We'll pop the hill descent control on and we can see how that goes on the way down.
22:00 Okay, here we go.
22:02 So we've got some deep-ish ruts here and I wanna see how fast the hill descent
22:06 control goes on the way down.
22:10 Yeah, look, it's probably a little quick for my liking 'cause it's kind of throwing
22:13 us about a touch.
22:15 No, it's not terrible, like it could just be a touch slower.
22:18 With some of these cars, I just wish there was a way to adjust the speed of the
22:22 descent instead of having just the one set speed that the manufacturer decides.
22:26 So yeah, it is okay, it's just not ideal in terms of speed adjustment.
22:34 Next up, we have our offset mogul and our seesaw.
22:37 Now, what I'm gonna do here is I've deliberately left this in two-wheel drive
22:41 and I do this in most utes because it gives us a really good chance to see how
22:46 the traction control system works when it is limited in two-wheel drive and we have
22:51 a wheel off the ground.
22:52 But before we do that, we've got our centre section here where the car is at full flex.
22:58 There it is, just there.
22:59 I can feel it sort of teetering.
23:02 We'll see if we can open and close these doors easily.
23:04 Yeah, no problems there.
23:06 So the weaker utes with weaker chassis, you won't be able to close the door
23:09 properly, that is the big difference there.
23:11 This seems fine though.
23:13 Whip through to the other side.
23:14 On the other side here is where we're gonna get that rear wheel in the air and we wanna
23:17 see how well the traction control deals with that wheel being in the air before you
23:21 have to lock a diff lock.
23:23 So there it is, just there, that wheel is off the ground.
23:28 Just gonna lean onto the throttle now.
23:30 So traction control is biting and you can see the revs dip there as the traction control
23:36 bites.
23:37 I'm gonna just gradually put more and more throttle on.
23:41 And eventually it's gonna pull us out of there just using traction control alone.
23:46 So yeah look, not a bad setup.
23:48 We'll go through that once more just in four-wheel drive high range and we'll see if
23:51 that helps that situation as well.
23:54 Because in four-wheel drive high range it's sending 50% of torque to the front, 50% of
23:57 torque to the rear.
23:59 And in that situation where you do have two wheels kind of teetering off the ground, it
24:03 has to figure out how to do its thing involving traction control as well.
24:07 OK take two this time.
24:08 I have it in four-wheel drive high range.
24:10 We'll get it set up in that condition again with the wheel off the ground which is just
24:15 there.
24:16 And then I'll do the same thing, I'll just ease off the brake and onto the throttle,
24:20 we'll see what happens.
24:21 So remember no diff is locked at the moment, we just have it in four-wheel drive high range.
24:25 So it's sending 50% of torque to the front, 50% to the rear.
24:28 It's kind of doing the exact same thing which is a little disappointing.
24:31 I would have hoped that in this mode it will actually utilise the front axle a whole lot
24:35 more to pull the car out but it's just spinning that wheel and waiting for the traction control
24:40 to intervene.
24:41 So yeah look, it's not the most intelligent four-wheel drive system in the world.
24:45 I would have hoped it would just pull through that without me having to really sort of get
24:48 onto the throttle.
24:52 Righto next up we have a test.
24:55 It's kind of just a little bit further than the basic off-road stuff that we do and now
24:59 that it's dry I can safely do this.
25:01 It's basically a concrete hill, it doesn't look all that technical but what it does have
25:05 is offset divots and as the car gets closer to the top it's forced to use the rear wheels
25:10 to drive it up the hill when the front lifts off the ground.
25:14 So it does rely on the traction control systems working really well and it also relies on
25:18 our rear diff lock too.
25:19 So what I'm going to do is go into low range, you achieve that by popping it into neutral,
25:23 going into four low and all of these light up.
25:27 So basically here it's saying that traction control is off, stability control is off,
25:30 we're in four-wheel drive low range.
25:32 I'm going to set myself up the hill, engage the rear diff lock and we'll see what happens.
25:40 OK here we go, so we climb, pick our line through here, drop off a little off the side
25:47 there, as we get closer to the top is where it starts grappling for grip, there's that
25:52 front wheel lifting as we pile on a bit of throttle.
25:55 So I got up there without any dramas.
25:57 What we find is that as it's climbing it has to use that rear diff lock because some of
26:02 the holes that it falls into forces it to send all of that torque to the rear axle and
26:07 that means that it's really just driving the car up the hill because the front wheel is
26:11 off the ground.
26:12 So it is good that it got up there without too many dramas and all you do is just lean
26:16 into the throttle.
26:17 So full drive system in this is pretty good once you switch the traction control off because
26:20 that seems to be the weak link of the four-wheel drive system.
26:30 So the 2022 D-MAX, it's kind of the same as the last D-MAX, it really hasn't changed all
26:35 that much but that's not a bad thing.
26:37 They've added the features that it was missing to start with and when this car launched it
26:41 actually really set a benchmark for the segment.
26:44 But it is let down by the engine ever so slightly, I think it could do with just a tiny bit more
26:48 punch and I was hoping that now when this launched they would maybe take this opportunity
26:52 to wind the wick up a little bit on that and give it 500Nm.
26:55 It's not the end of the world but it could just do with a tiny little bit more.
26:59 I'm interested to see what you guys think.
27:01 So you've seen the new Ford Ranger and if you haven't seen our detailed video click
27:04 up here to watch that.
27:05 Do you think that that should be cause for concern for all the other ute manufacturers,
27:10 especially with the interior in the new Ranger and the V6 diesel?
27:13 Do you think that the rest of these guys need to start doing some catching up?
27:17 Let me know what you reckon down in the comment section and if you have bought a D-MAX let
27:20 me know how it's going, what's it like as a longer term proposition and have you enjoyed
27:24 it so far?
27:25 Now if you did enjoy this video please make sure you hit like and share it with your mates
27:28 and if you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon but
27:31 until next time, take it easy.