Isuzu ready to fight Prado

Isuzu’s long-awaited answer to the nation’s top-selling large SUV, the Toyota Prado, is just months away from Australian showrooms.

The replacement for the Japanese truck brand’s MU-7, which motoring.com.au can reveal will be called the MU-X, has received Australian Design Rule approval ahead of its release here in December.

Based on the new-generation D-MAX ute launched here last June, the MU-7 successor will be a direct rival for the evergreen Prado and other seven-seat off-road wagons like the Holden Colorado 7, Mitsubishi Challenger and Ford’s upcoming Everest.

Isuzu Ute Australia (IUA) would not comment on the existence of the MU-X, but motoring.com.au understands it will be revealed in Thailand -- where it will be produced alongside the D-MAX one-tonner upon which it is based – in late October, before sales commence in Australia by the end of this year.

IUA has made no secret of its desire to sell the MU-7 replacement Down Under, where SUV sales are booming, and Australia should be one of the world’s biggest markets for the MU-X.

Outside Japan, Australia is Isuzu’s second-largest market after Thailand, with a record 7782 D-MAX utes sold here -- up almost 22 per cent on 2011.

However, even in the big Thai truck market, Isuzu sells only about 5000-6000 MU-7s a year, compared to more than 200,000 annual D-MAX sales.

Although Toyota sold well over 30,000 HiLux utes in Australia last year, making it one of the country’s top-selling vehicles, it also found homes for more than 17,000 Prados – up 57 per cent on the previous year.

IUA officials told journalists following the local debut of the new D-MAX at last year’s Sydney motor show that it had received a verbal commitment from Isuzu head office to produce an Australian-specification version of the next-generation MU-7.

While the MU-X is based on a similar ladder-frame chassis to Holden’s Colorado 7, the two SUVs (like their pick-up cousins) are built in separate factories in Thailand and it’s understood the MU-X will wear completely different bodywork to the Holden.

However, like the Colorado and its ute namesake, the MU-X’s front-end will resemble that of the latest D-MAX, an ‘X-Runner’ limited-edition version of which was released in February.

Although, like the Colorado 7, the MU-X should incorporate coil-spring rear suspension rather than the leaf-sprung rear-end of the ute from which it’s spawned, it will share the same diesel engines as the D-MAX (but not the diesel-only Colorado 7, which is powered by a Cummins-sourced 2.8-litre turbo-diesel).

Isuzu is one of the world’s largest diesel truck engine producers, but instead of the Australian D-MAX’s Isuzu-built 3.0-litre turbo-diesel, the MU-X may be powered by the more advanced twin-turbo 2.5-litre diesel engine that powers Europe’s D-MAX.

The European D-MAX’s Euro 5 emissions-compliant diesel produces 119kW at 3600rpm and 400Nm between 1400-2000rpm, making it less powerful than the Australian-market D-MAX’s 130kW/380Nm 3.0-litre single-turbo diesel, it delivers 20Nm more peak torque 400rpm lower in its rev range.

The twin-turbo 2.5-litre is also more efficient, consuming 7.3L/100km – a whole 1.0L/100km less than the 3.0-litre – and emits 25g/km less CO2, at 195g/km. The same engine could also power our D-MAX by 2016, when the Euro 5 emissions standard will apply to all vehicles sold here.

According to Australian Department of Transport homologation documents approved on August 20, the MU-X -- like the D-MAX -- will be available in both rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. Isuzu’s first SUV in Australia should also come with the choice of manual and automatic transmissions.

Expect a starting price of under $50,000 to compete directly with the Colorado 7 (from $46,990) and Prado, which is currently priced from $55,990 but will be replaced by a facelifted model in late October -- about the same time the MU-X appears globally.

Effectively a successor to two generations of the Isuzu Trooper, which were produced between 1981 and 2005 and sold under various guises around the world (including the Holden Jackaroo in Australia until 2003), the original MU-7 was first produced in 2004 and remains one of Thailand’s most popular full-size SUVs.

The outgoing MU-7 is also manufactured in the Philippines, where it’s known as the Alterra, and China – where it goes by the Duogongnengche name. The MU-7 and D-MAX are also assembled from knocked-down kits by Hindustan Motors in India, where Isuzu plans to build 120,000 D-MAX and MU-7/X vehicles from 2016.

Isuzu cut ties with General Motors in 2008, forcing GM Holden to retire its long-running Rodeo nameplate, to which Isuzu owned the rights.

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