LDV D90 Executive 2020 Review

The LDV D90 has been on sale in Australia for more than two years now, and during that period the big Chinese SUV has barely sold 500 units. It’s a far cry from the segment champion, the Toyota Kluger, which consistently sells above 3000 a month.

What keeps the D90 on the bench, rather than in the forward flank of large SUV sales is its name – a brand not well recognised, at least down under. The importer is currently addressing that with a strong TV and outdoors advertising blitz to raise brand awareness.

For those not familiar with the D90, it’s an attractively styled SUV that will seat seven and tow two tonnes. The flagship variant tested is the only four-wheel drive in the range, so it’s priced accordingly at $43,990 drive-away. Metallic paint adds $500.

The D90 impresses with its long list of standard features, including three-zone climate control, keyless entry/start, LED headlights, powered tailgate, fold-in mirrors, leather upholstery, rain-sensing wipers, auto-on/off headlights, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone integration, a sunroof and tyre pressure monitoring.

While the five-year warranty is competitive, it’s not class-leading, and is limited to a distance of 130,000km in a segment where some rivals are offering unlimited coverage over a five-year period. On the servicing front, intervals are 15,000km or 12 months, whichever comes first.

The LDV D90 feels pretty solid, and ANCAP rates it five stars for safety, based on the 2017 testing protocol. That means, in essence, it’s going to keep the whole family quite safe when it meets an object from another direction at a moderately high speed.

Features fitted as standard include AEB and lane departure warning, reversing camera, driver fatigue monitoring, side curtain airbags for all three rows of seats and side-impact airbags for driver and front passenger.

Some of the design elements that earned the D90 that five-star rating are subject to minor glitches. One such was the seatbelt reminder that remained lit long after the driver’s seatbelt had been fastened, and with no other passengers in the car, nor anything else lying on the seats.

The adaptive cruise control was frequently braking for no obvious reason on a winding country road. And the LED headlights were bright enough, but dipped too far on the low-beam setting. On high beam, however, they did cut through the dark very well.

In one particular way the D90 has departed from the engineering conventions of large SUVs: petrol power from a turbocharged four-cylinder displacing 2.0-litres.

The longitudinally-mounted engine drives through a six-speed automatic transmission and dual-range transfer to all four wheels, suspended by coil springs all round. A live rear axle is located by a Panhard rod and the front end features double wishbones. There’s a disc brake for each wheel.

Powertrain settings are adjusted using a dial in the centre console for sport, normal, eco, mud, snow, sand and rock modes. There’s also a separate button in the console to actuate the rear diff lock and another button to disable the traction control.

So it’s certainly up to the task of mixing it with other off-roaders in the bush.

Thanks to the engine’s prodigious, diesel-like torque, the LDV D90 just crawls up steeper grades, going places where a more town-oriented SUV would struggle. Despite the complete lack of chunky tread on the Continental 255/55 R19 tyres, the D90 in Rock mode (automatically selecting low range) with the rear diff locked electronically, wasn’t fazed by tougher upward climbs.

Mimicking Land Rover’s ‘Terrain Response’ system, the D90’s system also offers mud, snow and sand programs for each respective surface.

Ground clearance is commendable and approach, departure and break-over angles all seem competitive too. The D90’s underbody protection looks pretty beefy as well.

On the blacktop things aren’t as sweet. From a cold start the engine sounds coarse between 2500 and 3000rpm, even on a light throttle. That, unfortunately, is the sector of the rev range where the engine develops peak torque.

The engine will rev to 6000rpm and deliver performance all the way, but in character this powerplant is a slogger, not a screamer. It doesn’t feel lively, but a determined driver will stay ahead of the traffic. Between turbo lag and fuel-saving calibration for the transmission, the D90 feels slow completing a turn into a suburban side street.

At 100km/h the engine is running at just 1900rpm, but produces some noticeable rumble, and that’s complemented by what sounds like powertrain-related drumming, like the rear diff is still locked (it wasn’t, I checked).

The front-passenger seatbelt knocks against the hard plastic of the B pillar, producing constant rattling and thumping over bumps and potholes. But the D90 feels very solid otherwise.

Fuel consumption topped 15L/100km in urban commuting, despite the standard idle-stop system, which restarts the engine quickly and with little grumbling. On a night-time test drive the D90 posted a figure of 12.8L/100km, which is still worse than diesel competitors and the 3.5-litre Nissan Pathfinder in the same scenario.

The six-speed automatic has its good points and bad. It’s fairly responsive when the driver shifts manually and it won’t baulk at changing to second at a road speed that would spin the engine up to 5000rpm. But the D90’s transmission is reluctant to kick down in ‘Auto’ mode and Drive.

Braking is acceptably good in an emergency situation. The Continentals do their bit, as does the suspension, but the D90’s brake pedal feel is missing in action initially, although it does come good with a little more pressure applied.

Steering is light for parking, but the turning circle is not particularly tight, which is no surprise. While the steering weight increases at open-road speeds, feedback is less than ideal.

The D90 is somewhat slow to turn in, and corners much as you would expect of a high-riding off-road SUV based on a light commercial vehicle. Once committed to the bend, however, it noses in towards the apex, but without any sign of lift-off oversteer – so it’s fundamentally safer than the crazy person behind the wheel.

Ride comfort feels initially firm, but soaks up heavier hits in the way we've come to expect of a vehicle like this one.

The LDV D90 rides high – to clear those exposed rocks and negotiate flooded streams – so it’s quite a large step up into the cabin for anyone under 180cm tall. Fortunately, there are side steps under the door sills and passenger grab handles inside all door openings other than the driver’s.

It’s roomy inside, with second-row seating suitable for adults, and the seats also slide and recline. But the single seat is behind the driver, meaning kids either board from the road or by means of the heavier two-seat section nearer the footpath.

There are switches for the third zone of the climate control for second-seat occupants, with adjustable vents mounted in the headlining over the doors.

The third-row seating is easy to raise and lower, using a cord draped down the rear of the seat. In place, the seat leaves enough room for an adult to sit back there, but the footwell is high and the seat is mounted low, so the occupant’s thighs don’t rest on the seat base.

It’s probably not the sort of place an adult or larger teenager would want to endure for more than half an hour, but the D90’s roominess is praiseworthy – all the more so with some luggage capacity behind the third-row seat, and finger pulls to lower the second-row seats for added luggage capacity.

The spare wheel is a conventional tyre on a 17-inch steel rim slung underneath the boot, for easy access even when the boot is fully loaded. It’s not a match for the 19-inch alloys fitted, but it’s ultimately a better option for making your way out of the bush than a compact space-saver would be.

The driving position is compromised by a (right-hand) door mirror that wouldn’t adjust outboard as far as I wanted it to.

Tucked away in the left side of the binnacle, the speedo is hard to read at a glance when the needle is pointing at 60km/h, due to the fine calibrations. However, there’s a digital speedo readout on the trip computer for those occasions when a difference of two or three km/h matters. The fuel gauge is another example of the same design thinking, so it’s not immediately obvious how much fuel remains unless you study the dial.

Using the driving mode/terrain type selector dial in the centre console takes a little familiarity. It’s not a knob, despite its appearance, and there’s no pointer on it to indicate which mode you’re selecting. You are entirely dependent on the screen to inform you of the mode selected, until you become properly acquainted with the system.

Other ergonomic flaws that tarnish the D90’s appeal include some infotainment functions that are occasionally slow to react to a finger press applied to the touch screen. What’s more, the graphic ‘buttons’ displayed on the infotainment touchscreen are shadowed for a raised look when they’ve been selected, rather than when they’re disabled. So you have to press the dimmed button for the selection you want.

The switchgear on the steering wheel spokes for audio and trip computer toggle in two different directions, but it’s not immediately apparent they toggle up and down as well as side to side. And I’d argue that the audio switchgear should be on the left spoke, closer to the infotainment screen.

There’s no satellite navigation, but the D90 does come with Apple CarPlay, although you have to select CarPlay manually – it doesn’t load automatically when you plug the cable into the USB port.

Pairing a smartphone via Bluetooth took some time. It won’t auto-connect, so you’re not only forced to re-pair the phone every time you restart the car, you have to ‘de-pair’ the phone first. Better to stick with CarPlay, it seems.

There’s no separate volume-control knob for the front passenger to adjust the audio settings. Try as I might, even reading the manual, I couldn’t adjust the clock. And is there a way to disable parking sensors for heavy-duty four-wheel driving?

So the week in the D90 finished in a slightly inglorious way. In the big picture, the D90 has a lot going for it, and you could probably live with the niggles, but I’d rather spend the extra for an Everest.

How much does the 2020 LDV D90 Executive 4WD cost?
Price: $44,490 (as tested with optional metallic paint, includng on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 165kW/350Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 10.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 255g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2017)