On location, hunting for dinosaurs! While waiting for a massive Sauropod to wander across the barren...
Vehicle Tests > Mazda > B-ute-y Treatment: Mazda BT-50
B-ute-y Treatment: Mazda BT-50
Issue: May 2006
Words by Glenn Torrens Photos by Sarat Ekarintarakul and Mazda
Mazda's fresh-faced BT-50 ute boasts an excellent new 3.0 litre engine. But is it too little, too late?
There were only two things wrong with the old Mazda Bravo: the engines and everything else. Harsh words, sure, but let the current 'Japanese' pickups loose against each other in an automotive game of Survivor and the old Mazda Bravo (and its badge-engineered Ford cousin, the Courier) was often the first to get its flame snuffed out.
Say hello to a new challenger: the Mazda BT-50, a renamed and facelifted Bravo fitted with a heavily revised interior and a new turbodiesel engine.
The basics
Based on the decade-old previous model, the BT-50's basic dimensions - height, interior room, seating positions etc - remain as before for both the suicide-doored Freestyle and the Double-Cab variants.
Starting on the outside, the re-skin includes new pull-type door handles and an aerodynamic one-piece plastic 'nose' around new headlights. The load area sides have been raised by 60mm and the tray features slots that allow a plank-like divider to be installed to help retain cargo. The rear corners' tie-down points have been mounted closer to the floor, too, for better winching down of gear and exterior rope rails - not fitted to the cars we drove - will be available in Australia.
read on below advertisement
Inside, the dash is all-new and, as is the current vogue in new cars, is visually symmetrical around a centre tower for the HVAC controls. The instruments - three separate dials - look good but the new dash's claim to fame is a small slide-out shelf above the glovebox on the passenger's side. The handbrake remains a pull-lever under the dash. Storage is much the same as before although the door pockets can now take 500ml bottles.
Two new common-rail, intercooled turbodiesels are the big news. Dubbed MZR-CD, the direct-injection, common-rail, twin-cam, four-valve engines are 2.5 and 3.0-litre but 4WDs will come with the 3.0L so that's the one we're concerned with. Along with the low-inertia turbo and 32-bit electronic control, throttle response is improved from low engine speeds, a bugbear of some TD engine designs. Of course, the variable nozzle turbo, exhaust gas recirculation and a catalyst will help the engine meet current Euro III equivalent Aussie design rules (ADRs) too.
Both engines provide a lot more poke. From the old single-cam 2.5's 82kW, the new double-bumpstick 3.0's output is a class competitive 115kW/3200rpm and 380Nm, also at a luggy 1800rpm.
next page »
Words by Glenn Torrens Photos by Sarat Ekarintarakul and Mazda
Mazda's fresh-faced BT-50 ute boasts an excellent new 3.0 litre engine. But is it too little, too late?
There were only two things wrong with the old Mazda Bravo: the engines and everything else. Harsh words, sure, but let the current 'Japanese' pickups loose against each other in an automotive game of Survivor and the old Mazda Bravo (and its badge-engineered Ford cousin, the Courier) was often the first to get its flame snuffed out.
Say hello to a new challenger: the Mazda BT-50, a renamed and facelifted Bravo fitted with a heavily revised interior and a new turbodiesel engine.
The basics
Based on the decade-old previous model, the BT-50's basic dimensions - height, interior room, seating positions etc - remain as before for both the suicide-doored Freestyle and the Double-Cab variants.
Starting on the outside, the re-skin includes new pull-type door handles and an aerodynamic one-piece plastic 'nose' around new headlights. The load area sides have been raised by 60mm and the tray features slots that allow a plank-like divider to be installed to help retain cargo. The rear corners' tie-down points have been mounted closer to the floor, too, for better winching down of gear and exterior rope rails - not fitted to the cars we drove - will be available in Australia.
read on below advertisement
Inside, the dash is all-new and, as is the current vogue in new cars, is visually symmetrical around a centre tower for the HVAC controls. The instruments - three separate dials - look good but the new dash's claim to fame is a small slide-out shelf above the glovebox on the passenger's side. The handbrake remains a pull-lever under the dash. Storage is much the same as before although the door pockets can now take 500ml bottles.
Two new common-rail, intercooled turbodiesels are the big news. Dubbed MZR-CD, the direct-injection, common-rail, twin-cam, four-valve engines are 2.5 and 3.0-litre but 4WDs will come with the 3.0L so that's the one we're concerned with. Along with the low-inertia turbo and 32-bit electronic control, throttle response is improved from low engine speeds, a bugbear of some TD engine designs. Of course, the variable nozzle turbo, exhaust gas recirculation and a catalyst will help the engine meet current Euro III equivalent Aussie design rules (ADRs) too.
Both engines provide a lot more poke. From the old single-cam 2.5's 82kW, the new double-bumpstick 3.0's output is a class competitive 115kW/3200rpm and 380Nm, also at a luggy 1800rpm.
next page »
