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Written on the 25th of August 2009 by 4WD Action Magazine
When you take a bunch of the best turbo diesel dual-cab utes on the market with a testing crew that is made up of a wide range of 4WD enthusiasts, you have a test that holds more value than a standard, run-of-the-mill vineyard tour like other publications try to get away with. Throw in miles of untamed dirt roads, water crossings, ruts, mud and hill climbs, and you have a new vehicle test that is worth of these pages.
Our testing criteria were simple: we let real 4WDers cast their own views and opinions on each of the vehicles to get a series of widespread results that would hopefully reflect the wide demographic we had on the test. As it turned out, the results were a real reflection of the test and showed that real 4WDers know how to pick real 4WDs.
In last place was the Navara D40. Highlighting the poor underbody protections and bad design by busting a sump certainly didn’t do it any favours in the voting department. Especially when you have the six best utes on the market in your test, the stakes are always going to be high. Next was the triton in fifth place. The lag in the auto gearbox and suspension really let it down.
In fourth place was the HiLux; a brilliantly built 4WD that had Toyota written all over it. If it weren’t for the price, the ‘Lux probably would have taken out the top honours. For third place and second it was so close that we couldn’t call it and had to instead of call for second place to be tied. That’s how close the votes were! The Colorado and BT-50 took out the honours for second place.
The top award of 2009 4WDer’s Ute of the Year is awarded to the Isuzu Dmax. This dual-cab ute impressed the testing crew the most as a great value, all-round package. But like we have always said, all of the vehicles were so close to each other that there was not a lot separating them.
Our results aside for the moment, the real winners of this test are you and me! 4WDers are the real winners, as we have so many truly great vehicles to choose from. With the stakes in the competitive dual cab turbo-diesel ute market ever increasing, so are the quality and pricing of each model that supersedes the next. This is great news for those in the market for an all round, super-versatile 4WD vehicle.
