ford rangers,

I know it's not a Nissan or Toyota, its a Mazda BT50 (so I've been told)

Russell

Kampenman,

They are a good vehicle and are well rated by fleet operators. Good on fuel & service. I am a fleet manager, by day. However they were recently crash tested and did not perform well. In fact one of the worst commercial vehicles available. This is very disappointing considering it is totally new release of dual cab to competitive market.

RB

For what its worth the Mazda BT50 Dual Cab Ute won the 4WD Monthly "ute of the year" for 97. 4 x 4 Australia gave it to the Nissan Navara. No its not a Nissan or Toyota but perhaps one could say that the Navara is not a Nissan.

If your not into the extreme off road stuff the Mazda would serve you well. I just traded my eleven year old Mazda B2600 4WD which I used for the purposes you describe. It served me damned well. Eleven years and 198,000K's, still had original gearbox, clutch and rear brake shoes. Replaced front pads 30,000K's ago.
Two mid mufflers in it, the rest of the exhaust was original, one clutch slave cylinder, plugs, one distributor cap, HT Leads and rotor and then the usual filters.

The damned thing owed me nothing and towed our heavy camper all over the country.

I was one hour away from signing for a new BT50 diesel until my son took me to see his brother-in-law who is a Nissan Dealer Principal. I traded to B2600 on a Patrol ST which had up till that point been out of my budget.

I love the Nissan but was more than willing to go the BT50.

Ian

I have a 3month old/12000Km Ranger supercab/chassis. The reason for the high mileage is that I drove from WA to Vic. to pick up a caravan and did some touring while over there.

It is a good tow vehicle, towing a 1700Kg van with little effort including taking it over the Alpine Highway in Vic.

I haven't done any extreme offroad driving yet but have had it in soft sand which it handled well. Much higher geared than the old 3 litre diesel Hilux so may need to use low range more often.

It is a good value for money vehicle.

Sadly it is not offered with a Petrol Engine.

May be of no concern to some, but I do like a bit of grunt.

If your choice is to buy a diesel, they are a badge copy of the Mazda BT50 and Mazda IMHO produce fine vehicles.

I drive a Ford Courier (which is a replica Mazda Bravo) and it is fine.
Still, if I had the dough I would have bought a Hi Lux V6. 180kW sounds very appealing.

jim

For comparisons of the 6 utilities in this class see Site Link

PeterD