Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute 2024

It’s one of Australia’s most popular new vehicle types, second only to mid-size SUVs in terms of sales, so it’s time to name the Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute for 2024.

The Australian-developed Ford Ranger was the nation’s top-selling vehicle bar none last year, ending the seven-year reign of the Toyota HiLux and handing the Blue Oval brand its first number-one best-seller in 28 years – a feat not achieved since the EF Ford Falcon outsold the VR/VS Holden Commodore way back in 1995.

The third-placed Isuzu D-MAX made it an all-ute trifecta in the overall 2023 sales charts, but the Ranger remains the one to beat – not just on the scoreboard this year, but as the winner of our past three Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute mega-tests: when the latest generation arrived in 2022, as well as in 2021 and 2019.

Everyone wants a piece of the action and names unfamiliar to the category will soon join the fray like the Kia Tasman, BYD Shark and more, but this year we’re still dealing with the traditional players.

You know them: Ranger, HiLux, D-MAX, the Nissan Navara, Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi Triton and, not least of all, Volkswagen Amarok.

It’s a tremendously competitive arena so, as with all carsales Best awards, to sort this year’s seven shortlisted contenders we judged each against our five main criteria: safety, technology, comfort and convenience, driving performance and ownership costs, the latter using data provided by the experts at RedBook.com.au.

The categories are a little more involved than with SUVs and passenger cars, such as our recent Best Mid-Size SUV 2024 award, as comfort and convenience needs to take into account tray space and payload, and driving performance incorporates off-road and towing ability.

To break all this down, road test editor Scott Newman was joined by senior journalists Nadine Armstrong and Daniel Gardner, while our resident towing expert Phil Lord assessed each ute’s hauling capabilities.

Each ute received a score out of 20 for each criterion, for a total out of 100 points from each judge. The final total is the average of the three judges’ scores.

As ever, we need a disclaimer. These rankings are a holistic view of each contender so your personal ranking may differ depending on your preferences and priorities. Each criterion is explained in more detail below the rankings.

For carsales’ Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute 2022 we focused on mid-spec variants, but for 2024 we’re going higher-spec – around the $75,000 mark, or as near as vehicle availability allows – to determine our winner.

Higher-spec dual-cab 4x4 ute variants are disproportionately represented in sales as buyers want all the features, but it also allows us to examine these vehicles in their ultimate form.

This focus does mean the likes of the JAC T9, SsangYong Musso, LDV T60, Mahindra Pik-Up and GWM Cannon aren’t present.

It wouldn’t be fair to judge these utes against much more expensive rivals – and the GWM Cannon Alpha wasn’t released at the time of testing.

To kick off there’s our reigning champion the Ford Ranger, here in Wildtrak 3.0-litre V6 guise, and it’s now joined by the very closely related Volkswagen Amarok PanAmericana.

When we held our last ute mega-test, the new-generation Amarok – which is based on the latest Ranger – hadn’t been released, and while we’ve run several head-to-head comparison tests since then, this is the first time they’ve lined up under our Best Cars assessment program.

Speaking of twins, we have the equally-related Isuzu D-MAX X-Terrain and Mazda BT-50 Thunder, though the Isuzu is fresh from a recent facelift that brings useful improvements while the BT-50 continues unchanged for now.

Next up, Australia’s perennial favourite, the Toyota HiLux. The GR Sport sits atop the range with added off-road competency and an upgraded engine, while improved bush-bashing ability is also the remit of the Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior.

Last but certainly not least, the all-new Mitsubishi Triton. It has value on its side, with even the flagship GSR tested here falling well short of our theoretical $75,000 mark, but it boasts an upgraded engine, vastly improved interior and better load-carrying capability.

But can it topple Ranger and outmuscle the rest of the field to become our Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute for 2024?

We’ll focus on the top five in detail so keen maths students will realise two of our initial seven didn’t make the cut.

These are the Nissan Navara – as tested in Aussie-bred Warrior guise – and the Toyota HiLux, also in off-road flagship form with the GR Sport.

This doesn’t make them poor choices. The locally-developed Navara Warrior has impressive road manners and is great off-road, but its age counts against it in this company due to safety and features lists that are fine in isolation, but a little lacking compared to its rivals at this price point.

Equally, servicing is on the expensive side, residual value isn’t great and there are payload limitations if you’re towing large loads. If you want a no-frills and very capable ute, the Navara is still worth a look, but in that case we’d point you towards the near-$10K cheaper SL Warrior.

It’s for similar reasons the Toyota HiLux GR Sport doesn’t make the top five. It’s actually a lot of fun off the beaten track, the engine is strong and it’s truly unstoppable off-road, but it attracts a premium price tag without the feature list to back it up.

What’s more, servicing is double its most affordable rivals over the first five years and the 5850kg gross combined mass (GCM) is 550kg less than the Amarok and Ranger’s 6400kg benchmark, limiting its towing capabilities. Likeable, but flawed.

There’s plenty to commend the Mazda BT-50. The engine is rugged but strong, its dynamics are reasonable by dual-cab standards, it gets the job done off-road, the safety offering is impressive and Mazda has added some extra leather inside the Thunder in an attempt to bring it upmarket of the equivalent D-MAX.

In short, it’s a good ute.

Unfortunately, the Thunder treatment does it few favours. Aside from the price premium the extras generate, the add-ons – especially the monster steel front bumper – make it almost 200kg heavier than a standard XT/XTR/GT BT-50 and that hurts everything: dynamics, performance, economy and payload.

It’s also the weakest of all the utes on test off-road, but the biggest problem was having the updated MY24 D-MAX X-Terrain alongside, offering upgraded tech for much less money.

This makes it sound like we’ve got a downer on the Mazda BT-50, which isn’t the case as it’s a very solid ute across the board. But you miss out on very little by opting for the GT and saving yourself almost $12,000.

2024 Mazda BT-50 Thunder at a glance:
Price: $74,095 (plus on-road costs)
Powertrain: 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 140kW/450Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.0L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 207g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2020)

The new Mitsubishi Triton is a huge step forward over its predecessor on many levels. Benchmark payload stats, much-improved towing, an impressive new interior with more space, very good fuel economy – and, while prices have risen, it’s still much more affordable than most rivals.

Almost without exception, everyone who stepped out of the Triton liked it, which only makes its shortcomings even more frustrating. This is so close to being a really good ute.

The driver monitoring system is incredibly irritating, admonishing you the second you divert your gaze (including for approaching traffic or to the infotainment or climate controls), though to be fair it does seem to get better over time.

What doesn’t is the incredibly rough automatic engine idle-stop system, but while these can both be deactivated, what can’t be is the odd jolt from the gearbox and the suspension that feels all at sea. Bumps that were dismissed or ignored by most of our contenders had the Triton lurching and heaving.

This suspension set-up also hurts it when towing, and the overriding sensation is a vehicle that doesn’t have the control you’d wish for.

However, the new Triton still has a lot going for it, key among which is tremendous off-road ability. While the right mode is required – it won’t go anywhere with the stability control in its regular road-going setting – it really made light work of some challenging obstacles.

Hopefully, the Triton has some chassis revisions in its future because then it really will be competitive.

2024 Mitsubishi Triton GSR at a glance:
Price: $63,840 (plus on-road costs)
Powertrain: 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 150kW/470Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.7L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 203g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2024)

Kudos to Isuzu Ute for listening to feedback on its Isuzu D-MAX and rectifying some of its weaknesses with the recent update.

The infotainment has more features and is easier to use, and there’s more safety kit, but the biggest improvement is the Rough Terrain Mode on 4x4 models that really does work a treat.

The patience and momentum required by the BT-50 (sans the D-MAX’s new off-road system) to traverse our chosen rutted section shows just how effectively it works, as the D-MAX wandered up with minimal fuss.

That aside, the D-MAX continues to be a very well-rounded package, though the appeal of the flagship X-Terrain is certainly enhanced by its special $67,990 drive-away launch pricing (down from a recommended retail price of $70,500 plus on-road costs), which makes it cheaper than the LS-U+ that sits below it in the range.

Regardless, it’s effortless to drive if you want to take it touring, it tows well, it’s reasonably frugal, it has an impressive warranty, its service pricing is very competitive and its residual values are strong, so it’s little wonder that the D-MAX is one of Australia’s favourite utes.

2024 Isuzu D-MAX X-Terrain at a glance:
Price: $70,500 (plus on-road costs)
Powertrain: 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 140kW/450Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.0L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 207g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2020)

One of the big questions for Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute 2024 was where the Volkswagen Amarok would slot into the pecking order and the answer is second – but it’s not quite that simple.

After each of our three judges worked through the assessment criteria and the final points were tallied, less than a single point separated the Ranger and Amarok.

So there is a degree of horses for courses here, especially as across their respective ranges it’s so tit-for-tat that it could swing this way or that depending on price point.

Here’s the case for the Amarok, as tested in PanAmericana guise. The interior is clearly nicer. The seats are more comfortable front and rear, the leather is better quality and more liberally applied, there’s the full-width digital instrument cluster as standard (unavailable in the Ranger Wildtrak) and Apple CarPlay fills the portrait infotainment screen, too.

It also comes loaded with standard kit like Matrix LED headlights (optional on Ranger), 10-way power-adjustable front seats, a spray-in bedliner, as well as inheriting all the things that make the Ranger great: refinement, performance, dynamics, safety, load-carrying, etc.

The Amarok PanAmericana has VW’s unique monotube damper set-up, and while it initially feels a little too reactive to road surfaces, this sensation fades and there is excellent body control.

So why does the VW finish second? It’s one-percenters, really.

The Amarok’s interior isn’t quite as practical, likewise its tray area, it’s a bit more expensive and residual value isn’t as good. It has more standard equipment than the Wildtrak, but then the Ranger Platinum ($1850 more than the PanAmericana) is even better equipped.

Really, though, the two are so close that it’ll come down to aesthetic choice or brand loyalty (or, perhaps, which dealer will offer the best price) as to which is the better buy rather than any cold objective measures.

Volkswagen Amarok PanAmericana at a glance:
Price: $78,990 (plus on-road costs)
Powertrain: 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel
Output: 184kW/600Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.4L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 222g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

It’s been the closest-fought contest in years, but the Ford Ranger continues its reign as carsales’ Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute in 2024.

This shouldn’t be a huge surprise as Ford expended an incredible amount of money and effort in reinventing the segment and has done so very successfully since 2022.

The Ranger’s V6 diesel is refined and powerful, the ride/handling balance is beautifully judged, it’s loaded with equipment in Wildtrak guise, the technology is not only impressive but useful (such as the towing aids), it’s extremely capable off-road, it’s not expensive to service (the cheapest of the lot, actually) and it has the best residual value. And that’s just for starters.

Indeed it claimed almost a clean sweep across our five assessment areas of safety, technology, comfort and convenience, ownership costs and driving performance – there really aren’t many chinks in its armour.

If we’re being picky the Amarok shows there is another level of interior quality to achieve and the Wildtrak could do with more ground clearance, scraping its side steps off-road where others didn’t. The full-width digital instrument display should at least be an option at this price and, speaking of which, prices have risen by around $4000 since launch.

Clearly, a lot of its strengths are shared by the Amarok and the Ford’s price advantages are negligible, so it’s really the little touches the Ranger possesses that gave it the nod when it came time to split the two.

The VW has nicer interior materials, but the Ranger’s cabin is more practical for odds and ends. There are rear USB ports, a powered roller tonneau, sliding upper tie-down points for load-securing flexibility, side steps for easier tray access and the list goes on.

Not things that would sway a purchasing decision one way or the other, perhaps, but appreciated once you have them.

The ute category will look very different in 12 months with the arrival of the new guard, but they’re going to have to be very, very good to topple carsales’ Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute for 2024, the Ford Ranger.

2024 Ford Ranger Wildtrak at a glance:
Price: $74,840 (plus on-road costs)
Powertrain: 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel
Output: 184kW/600Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.4L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 222g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

So that’s the scoring, but which contenders shine when it comes to the individual criteria of safety, technology, comfort and convenience, driving performance and ownership costs?

All of our finalists have the basics covered, though the older Nissan Navara Warrior lacks some of the other utes’ features like active cruise control, front parking sensors and a centre airbag.

The Mitsubishi Triton and Isuzu D-MAX also tick plenty of boxes, the latter scoring a better stereo camera for its driver assists as part of the recent upgrade and stop-and-go functionality for the adaptive cruise control, though the Mitsubishi is pinged slightly for that irritating driver attention monitoring. Having the gear is one thing, but it has to be useful.

It’s the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok that reign supreme, however, with everything from all the active safety aids (that are also well calibrated), 360-degree cameras, self-park capability, the most airbags, individual top-tether strap points for kids’ seats in the rear – you really couldn’t ask for anything more in this class of vehicle.

Once again, the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok stand clear of the pack, though the VW gets the nod for its full-width digital instruments and the fact CarPlay uses most of the screen rather than being limited to half as in the Ford.

Both also have genuinely useful tech like the trailer light checks, and the Ford goes one further with its clever Pro Trailer Back Up Assist – basically Reversing Trailers For Dummies.

The updated Isuzu D-MAX now scores wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as wireless smartphone charging, matching the Ford and VW, in addition to a clearer infotainment screen, better reversing camera and upgraded instruments.

All our contenders have heated and powered front seats, leather or combination seat trim, dual-zone climate control, rear air-vents and keyless entry/start – all the things that make day-to-day ute life a little easier.

The in-dash cup holders of the Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton and Isuzu D-MAX (though the Ford’s are nicely spring-loaded) are always handy, freeing up the centre console for other odd ’n’ ends, and kudos for the D-MAX’s lidded dash-top bin that can be used to hide away valuables from prying eyes.

When it comes to the tray, the Ford stands clear with the standard powered roller tonneau for security, easier access, greater load-carrying flexibility, LED lighting, 12V power outlet, the works.

Kudos to the D-MAX for also offering a (manual) roller tonneau and, although only two tie-down points is a miss, it’s the only ute here to have a damped tailgate, which is a nice feature to stop it clanging open.

There are three facets to this area of assessment: on-road, off-road and towing. In terms of ride, refinement, performance and dynamics, the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok are in a different league to the others, with road manners that aren’t miles away from some decent SUVs.

Off-road, all are very capable but the Toyota HiLux GR Sport’s ground clearance and sensational traction control make it almost unstoppable, even on less-than-ideal tyres, though the Nissan Navara Warrior is not at all far behind.

It’s also worth noting that the MY24 Mazda BT-50 4x4 picks up Isuzu’s ‘Rough Terrain’ off-road drive mode, as already seen in the D-MAX, but wasn’t available at the time of testing.

But it’s back to business as usual when it comes to towing, with the Ranger and Amarok performing the best – though others are certainly competent – with a chassis tune that makes them the pick dynamically also giving them great control and stability when hauling heavy loads.

This is where the Mitsubishi Triton shines with its 10-year (conditional) warranty, reasonable service costs, excellent fuel economy and relatively affordable purchase price.

For similar reasons, the Isuzu D-MAX X-Terrain also performs well here, thanks to that drive-away deal.

The Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok are slightly thirstier than their rivals thanks to having six cylinders to feed, yet both are the cheapest to service. The Ranger also has fantastic resale value and seven years of roadside assistance, so while the purchase price is high there is value there.

You could make a case that Toyota’s six-month/10,000km service requirement is a factor in the HiLux’s reputation for longevity, but this results in 10 visits and a $3889 bill over the first five years, whereas the Ford will set you back just $1805 over the same period if you pre-pay ($1936 pay-as-you-go), which is simply the icing on the Ranger’s well-baked cake.