Photo: Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien
The D-Max has always been great value for money in the mid-size pickup segment, and moving forward, Isuzu plans to stay true to its promise. The third generation of the D-Max is scheduled to arrive in 2020 for the 2020 model year, and as you can tell, this single cab looks fairly familiar.
We haven’t seen the all-new D-Max in a long time, but Isuzu is now testing a prototype in Germany with quite a few makeshift components. The headlamps and fog lights are some of the most obvious areas where the Japanese company has to work its magic, yet the wheels and taillamps appear to be the series-production specification.
The single exhaust tip coming from under the pickup on the right-hand side could be an indicator of the RZ4E-TC engine, a 1.9-liter turbo diesel that’s matched as standard to a six-speed manual and as an option to the Rev-Tronic automatic transmission. In the outgoing D-Max for Europe, this powerplant develops 163 PS and 360 Nm.
What about those two forward-facing cameras located right next to the rearview mirror? Those indicate Isuzu’s attempt to make the pickup smarter thanks to technologies such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist. Adding a radar up front would also enable the engineers to implement cruise control with stop & go functions.
It is believed that Isuzu hides more aluminum under the thick camouflage of the prototype, a trend that’s best embodied by Ford with the F-150 in the United States of America. The right type of aluminum alloy is both light and strong, a combination that few automakers can refuse in the day and age of stringent emissions standards and safety performance tests.
In places such as Australia and New Zealand, the D-Max levels up to a 3.0-liter turbo diesel with 130 kW and 430 Nm of torque. That’s 178 PS or 174 horsepower plus 317 pound-feet, the kind of figures you need for towing every single day of the working week. Isuzu rated the current generation at 3.5 metric tonnes, the equivalent to 7,716 pounds. As a side note, that’s more the Chevrolet Colorado with the 2.8-liter Duramax turbo diesel.
The single exhaust tip coming from under the pickup on the right-hand side could be an indicator of the RZ4E-TC engine, a 1.9-liter turbo diesel that’s matched as standard to a six-speed manual and as an option to the Rev-Tronic automatic transmission. In the outgoing D-Max for Europe, this powerplant develops 163 PS and 360 Nm.
What about those two forward-facing cameras located right next to the rearview mirror? Those indicate Isuzu’s attempt to make the pickup smarter thanks to technologies such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist. Adding a radar up front would also enable the engineers to implement cruise control with stop & go functions.
It is believed that Isuzu hides more aluminum under the thick camouflage of the prototype, a trend that’s best embodied by Ford with the F-150 in the United States of America. The right type of aluminum alloy is both light and strong, a combination that few automakers can refuse in the day and age of stringent emissions standards and safety performance tests.
In places such as Australia and New Zealand, the D-Max levels up to a 3.0-liter turbo diesel with 130 kW and 430 Nm of torque. That’s 178 PS or 174 horsepower plus 317 pound-feet, the kind of figures you need for towing every single day of the working week. Isuzu rated the current generation at 3.5 metric tonnes, the equivalent to 7,716 pounds. As a side note, that’s more the Chevrolet Colorado with the 2.8-liter Duramax turbo diesel.
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