SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We go ‘bush’ in the 2012  Isuzu KB300 D-Teq LX 4x4 double cab

This vehicle is called Isuzu D-Max in some countries

Pics by author

Competent but not flashy

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday June 20, 2012

What can one say about the KB? It’s been around in SA for over 30 years. Isuzu has spent that time fruitfully listening to customer feedback and quietly updating and refining its product. The first KB300 D-Teq we drove was an extended cab version, early in 2008. At that time, this engine was new and offered more power than the old motor that was falling behind its peers of the time.

Four years later, that 3,0 litre four-cylinder diesel is still making 120 kW of power and 360 Nm of torque – enough to keep up with half its natural competitors, Toyota and Mazda, but falling behind the new five- and six-cylinder engines from Ford and Nissan. It still does what needs doing, but word down at the co-op is that a new D-Max (what they call the KB overseas) is on its way from Thailand and expected here next year. Apart from a major styling upgrade, power will probably be increased to 132 kW/380 Nm – not enough to make brands F and N quiver in their tyre tracks, but progress at least. We shall see.

How does one describe a double-cab pickup; as weekday workhorse or weekend warrior? It is both. As you dress for every occasion, so it adapts to your needs. Use it for visiting sites, carrying smaller loads or transporting colleagues from job to job. Take the family on a weekend safari or a summer break at the coast. Conquer Sani to see the snow, go on a fishing trip with the boys or cross the Karoo on a journey of discovery. The SUV-with-bin is possibly the most versatile vehicle ever invented.

What about this one, specifically? Drive it and you will find that the first three of its five ratios in the manual ‘box are geared for work, with maximum comfortable speeds of 30, 60 and 100 km/h respectively. Use the electronic selector to switch over to 4Lo and speeds drop to about 15, 25 and 40 km/h for pulling, towing or crawling through obstacles.

KBs have always been very competent off-roaders, backing down only to specialist equipment with greater clearances and shorter overhangs. If you have done it, you won’t need convincing. If you haven’t but would like to learn how, visit www.isuzu.co.za and follow the links from “Experience Isuzu” and “Off-road academy” to discover more. It will be worth it.

Getting down to practicalities, the load bin is just shy of 1,5 metres long by 1,6 wide and 480 mm deep, rated for a payload of 900 kg. The bin floor is just above knee height and four lashing rings are provided. For weekend work, a tow hitch and socket is attached to the rear step bumper. Our test unit was fitted with a GM-approved canopy fixed by means of four clamps, so removal and replacement should be straightforward. As useful as canopies can be though, rearward vision is reduced, making the five-metre vehicle awkward to reverse. That’s why we were grateful for a useful toy added since our last drive in one of these – reverse park assist.

Because this is first and foremost a pickup built on a ladder frame chassis, rear seat accommodations are not quite as generous as those in unibody SUVs for example. The SA Standard tall passenger (1,85m and105 kg) allocated 8/10 for headroom and 9/10 each for knees and feet. Your passengers might not be as picky. Three seat belts and a pair of head restraints are fitted while storage is limited to a pair of seatback pockets. Those in front fare better, with a fairly big glove compartment, a deep armrest box, door bins and a few smaller stash areas.

The music centre looks more modern than I remember it, now boasting support for auxiliary and USB inputs – MP3-only on the USB though. One thing that has not changed is the silver plastic switchgear for the air controls. Hope the new version gets it right. Regarding other controls, the steering wheel adjusts for height only, but pedals and footrest are comfortably spaced. Steering is nicely weighted and the gearshift is positive if a little slow and deliberate, although we mustn’t forget that this is a diesel pickup after all – it comes with the territory.

So how does one describe the KB-slash-DMax? It’s handsome in its own way, competent but not flashy, very useful and possibly getting to its sell-by date as far as looks and power go. Still a fine machine though.

The numbers
Price: R407 400
Engine: 2999 cc, four-cylinder, common rail turbodiesel
Power: 120 kW at 3600 rpm
Torque: 360 Nm between 1800 and 2800 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,6 seconds
Maximum speed: 168 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 11,5 l/100 km
Tank: 76 litres
Maximum braked towing mass: 1100 kg
Ground clearance: 206 mm
Approach/departure/rampover angles: 36/23/158 degrees
Maximum wading depth: 500 mm
Warranty: 5 years/120 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km at 15 000 km or 1-year intervals




What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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