Isuzu D-Max doesn’t have a drinking problem

Back in the early 1990s I went through a phase of loving bakkies. Kasi life brought me closer to the less-explored bakkie and minibus styling subculture of taking mostly single cabs and dropping their front suspensions, creating an extreme front down/rear up stance known as mabhekaphantsi.

Instead of more rugged tyre and rim choices as befitting their commercial vehicle status, Toyota Hiluxes and Super Ts mostly were fitted with expensive white-wall Pirelli, Yokohama or Michelin rubber and Toyota Crown wheel caps. More bizarre was the owners’ avoidance of using the vehicles for any manual labour. Then someone applied this look to an Isuzu KB 280 LE single-cab and I was hooked.

I thought back to this stylistic sect while mulling over accessories to fit on our long-term Isuzu D-Max 3.0 LSE. The mabhekaphantsi look doesn’t work on double-cabs; I know this because some enthusiasts have tried it and ended up with terrible, disproportionate looking bakkie. 

Our Isuzu styling has been gradually capturing the attention of locals though, including compliments from a Mazda BT-50 driver who struck up a comparison chat while we were gridlocked.

Though our Desert Orange paint job is flashy in its own right, it pales in comparison to the Summit White, especially in V-Cross spec where the black grille and rear cowling contrast spectacularly with the body colour. Perhaps a body wrap in white and blackening of the grille and adding the cowling as a start? Still, I’ve yet to come across Blue Me Away (Blue) and Pull Me Over Red painted vehicles to compare with ours.

Living with the D-Max has been going well indeed since the last update. Nothing’s chafed or broken inside yet, but the scuff marks in the load bay is becoming unsightly. Perhaps rubberising the load area should be considered.

Another weak point in this area is that the load-bin door isn’t integrated with the vehicle’s central locking system, while  the fitted tonneau remains vulnerable to uncovering or slits. 

Happily, the fuel consumption has dropped. As the diesel engine gets on it’s now consuming 8.7l/100km compared with the initial 9.4l/100km average and it’s less than 3,000km to its first 15,000km service.

I expect to get it down to about 8l/100km on a long highway after the oil change but I’ve also picked up a driving annoyance and one or two foibles. The cruise control memory resets after the vehicle is idling for a certain time, and requires the speeds to be set again on pull-away instead of being recalled on the resume button. I wonder if the V-Cross with self-braking and throttle has this issue.  

Despite that it’s probably my second favourite of the four long-term test cars I’ve run for this publication over four years, thanks to its inherent sensibilities and how it fits into my life as a family car and adventure wheels, but even more for its fuel-eating habits.

As a bakkie there’s much to commend about the D-Max, not least the styling, the easy steering and capacious cabin. It's also a resounding upgrade from the previous generation in the areas of refinement and digital features. This stands it in good stead in the competitive double-cab segment, which will get even more cut-throat with the soon-to-be-launched new Ford Ranger and VW Amarok.