If you wanted an indication of just how far behind Malaysia’s automotive industry is, get this: Isuzu is about to launch an ALL-NEW D-Max there in about a week. Meanwhile, Malaysia only got the facelift of the current model less than a month ago!
A few days ago, Isuzu Thailand’s official Youtube page uploaded this video:
The 15 second clip teased the an all-new Isuzu D-Max with the tagline ‘Infinite Potential’. From what we can gather, the all-new Isuzu D-Max will be shown tomorrow, on the 11th of October 2019. It will also be the basis of the next Mazda BT-50, which is currently based on an older variant of the Ford Ranger.
From the clip, we got shows of the front fascia, including the grille, part of the bumper, hood and headlamps with their LED DRL pattern.
We also got a shot of the rear LED taillamps.
A peak inside reveals a new two-tone dashboard, what looks like Apple CarPlay (which is already on the current D-Max), and a new centre console design.
No mechanical changes are expected as the 1.9L DDI BluePower engine is still just a few years old in Thailand and very modern. There will be a new engine cover though.
Much fancier looking compared to the all-black cover on the current 1.9L
A new instrument cluster design ought to be expected, but the redline looks unchanged, indicating no tuning changes to the all-new Isuzu D-Max.
What’s really mind-boggling is why Isuzu Malaysia chose to introduce the facelift model in Malaysia when an all-new model was right around the corner in Thailand. We know that Isuzu Malaysia is locally-assembling this D-Max and that has helped it attained its status as the first EEV pick-up truck in Malaysia. If Thailand was phasing out production, perhaps some of that tooling was transferred directly? In any case, if they’ve already committed to locally-assembling the current model D-Max here, it’s unlikely we’ll see this NEW model in 2020 or even 2021.
