LSU D-Max First Impressions: https://youtu.be/xohznc5RLsI

0:00 Intro
1:00 Engine Specs
2:17 Going Off Road
3:15 Rock Step Climb
5:30 Undulating Ground Climb
6:30 Mud Section
7:35 Conclusion

For our off-road journey, we’ve come west of Sydney to the forests surrounding the Lost City.

The first thing I noticed when we hit the dirt road was how stiff the suspension is. You tend to feel every bump in the road and in some cases, we did experience a bit of bump steer. We did have an empty load and so you can expect the suspension to act differently once you throw some luggage and a bit camping gear in the back of the ute. These vehicles are designed to carry a load, so it’s not surprising they’re not ideal empty, but we have driven other new utes, that in my opinion are better in this area.

There’s a few things I like about the 4WD design elements of the new D-Max. One of them is the steel under-body protection with a sump guard and a transfer case guard that are a good size and well positioned to provide good protection.

One of the things that always concerns me when driving any new car in the bush are side steps. The ones on the D-Max look great and match in well to the vehicle styling, but I was pleased to find that on our first track we were well clear of all of the obstacles and not once did we scrape them.

The ground clearance is a decent 240mm, which is more than most Utes and will help keep the side steps in good condition.

The front approach angle on the X-Terrain is 30.5 degrees. The ramp over angle is 23.8 degrees and the departure angle is 24.2 degrees which is comparable to most utes in this category.

The hill start assist worked a treat when climbing up a few of the tracks and we tried out the hill descent control and it too was easy to use and kept the car at a nice even pace coming down the section we drove it. Sometimes the hill descent can be a bit too fast, but the travel speed of the D-Max hill descent was ok for my liking.

Traction control in the D-Max worked well over the undulating ground and small rock climbs. It’s not quite as good when it lifts a wheel and sometimes struggled to get forward momentum and I think the traction control isn’t as good as other cars I’ve driven off road, including some much older model 4WDs.

But, there is a rear diff lock and when we had it engaged, it climbed up all of the obstacles with ease. The rear diff lock is also a standard feature on all of the 4 wheel drive models in the range.

Low range is easily selected with the dial on the centre console and this disengages the traction control. The low range capability of the D-Max is very good and we felt exceptionally comfortable over all of the ground we covered in our short off-road drive.

In this model, the wading depth is 800mm which is a good depth for most 4-wheel drive trips that the average family will do. We didn’t get to drive it on a water crossing, but the specifications state that this wading depth is only applicable when the car is moving at 7km/h or more. Otherwise the depth is just 350mm. So, this is something to consider if you decide to stop or you get stuck, in the middle of a river.

The standard tyres on this model and across the 4wd Range is a Highway Terrain tread. Obviously, this isn’t ideal for serious 4 wheel driving and your first purchase after buying a DMax will probably be a decent set of all terrain tyres.

We’ve only had one day to try out the all new D-Max X-Terrain off road, but it felt very capable, comfortable and stable on the tracks we covered. The suspension on this ute is the only thing that I didn’t like, but it is very similar in feel to one of the most popular utes on the market.

As I mentioned earlier, this D-Max is a 6 speed auto, but there is also a 6 speed manual option. The gearing works well off road, but you can put it into manual mode to select the gears yourself if required. But for our whole off-road trip, we didn’t feel the need to change into manual mode and left the electronics in the gearbox in charge of gear selection.

In conclusion, the off-road capability of this 4WD ute is very good and perfectly suited to most tracks and conditions that the average 4WDer is likely to tackle. If you’re looking for a 4WD Ute that is feature rich, with an extensive list of safety systems, handles well and looks great, then you should definitely add the D-Max to your test-drive list.

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