4x4 Magazine
April, 2001
Holden has taken over the marketing and distribution of the Isuzu-designed and made Jackaroo, and although it has always been available from Holden dealers you can now expect this much underrated 4WD wagon to receive a bit more marketing support. In the process Holden hopes to deliver more sales of the aging Jackaroo in its current guise it has been around for nearly ten years and has seen sales drop from 4275 units, around 12.7 percent of the medium wagon market, in 1999 to 3576 units (10.2 percent) in 2000.
Still, the 2001 model has been upgraded with a few new features, although most people would have to look long and hard to see much difference. Externally this year¹s version is distinguished by large flared wheel arches and new body-side protection mouldings. The wheel arches accommodate a wider stance for the Jackaroo, which has had its front and rear track increased by 60mm. Overall width has been increased by 90mm.
Along with that have been revised spring, shock absorber and suspension settings to accommodate the track width change and to improve straight line stability tracking and overall ride quality. There's increased rear suspension travel.
Understeer and oversteer characteristics are more neutral although there is a fair amount of body roll on fast corners. On rougher dirt roads the suspension soaks up the bumps reasonably well, although in the brief drive we had in an SE and then a Monterey it seemed a little soft.
The base model Jackaroo now features shift-on-the-fly push-button 4wd selection while the mid-range SE model has been upgraded with a number of changes. The most obvious is heated front seats; the driver¹s seat is now 4-way power adjusted and the passenger's is 2-way power adjusted.
The Monterey gets the much raved about 3.0 litre turbo diesel with both manual and auto boxes available. As well as the heated and power adjusted front seats found in the SE the Monterey also gets an abundance of leather upholstery, with a little wood trim. A small overhead centre console features what Holden calls an "environment meter" which details outside temperature, altitude, compass heading and barometric pressure.
Pricing remains competitive with the base model petrol manual starting the ball rolling at $39,960, air conditioning standard fare across the range. It tops out with the Monterey turbo diesel for $58,740 but surprisingly you don't get cruise control with that! However, the Monterey does come with the torque-on-demand 4wd system which is not bad, we've got to say.