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We are back with our first vehicle, and it's one that should have arrived far earlier, however it's here now...  it was delivered yesterday and it's a Lifestyle pick up, the Isuzu D-Max XTR.
 
We had the D-Max Blade last year, a very capable pick up with a great price, the XTR capitalises on the D-Max and specs it up, quite literally.
 
XTR is one of the lifestyle variants of the pickup, lots of additions especially in the styling department e.g. the front guard which literally surrounds the grille and headlamps, extended wheel arches and even Kevlar ceramic brake pads, it's 25 mm higher and sports bespoke Pedder suspension.
 
Powered by 1.9 turbodiesel engine and a six speed automatic gearbox, it offers responsive throttle response, yet has short first few gears, makes sense they are made to be work horses primarily. You can also get a manual if you prefer it has on the fly four-wheel-drive and four high four low and descent control.
 
When offroading you want beastly tires, you get 17 inch wheels and 32 inch Pirelli Scorpion tyres, the sidesteps are designed to glance off rocks and there is lots of underside protection too.
 
When it comes its capabilities, on road feels well planeted and we'll find out when we go offroading in the next few days.
 
In a nutshell it can tow upto 3.5T and carry 1.24T on the bed, it comes with a fourcab allowing your passengers to travel in comfort, for this model including VAT it is around £43,000 and you can choose from four colours and they're all complimentary.
 
If this isn't quick enough you can even tune your vehicle for £800, which makes it as fast as a Raptor, it has 161 brake horsepower and 360 nm of torque, granted it's not the quietest engine in the world and its not that fast either hiting 0-60 in around 12 1/2 seconds but that's not what it builts for.
 
It's a very capable pick up with decent economy, superb looks and exceptionally good offroad, and if you want to something less sporty or something more sporty there's a range to choose from.
 
Watch out all this week on our YouTube channel to see what we get up to with the XTR.
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Northern Group of Motoring Writers NGMW

Northern Group Of Motoring Writers

Annabelle Quirk Vice Chairwoman
Ben D T Quirk Member