2022 Isuzu MU-X LS-U review: Family-friendly off-roader

Anybody reading this has made it through the last twelve months relatively unscathed and congratulations to you. It hasn’t been easy.

The Isuzu MU-X is coming up on surviving its first twelve months on sale in Australia, the second-generation large SUV weathering the travails of the chip shortage, labour force illness and whatever else we’ve had thrown our way.

That said, calling it mere survival is under-selling the MU-X’s performance because it can and has cracked a thousand sales per month. That’s pretty good going for a company that doesn’t have the muscle of Ford or Mitsubishi or Toyota.

Earlier this year, Isuzu announced price rises for the MU-X range but, crucially, didn’t de-spec the rugged seven-seaters to keep them rolling onto the boats and on their way to Australian driveways.

36

Pricing and features

There are three levels of specification in the second-generation MU-X, with a choice of 4x2 and 4x4 drivetrains across all three. Prices have gone up between $1000 and $1500, with the lowest-spec LS-M 4x2 and 4x4 getting off lightest while each of the LS-U and LS-T models cop a $1500 price rise.

It means the top-of-the-range LS-T is now $67,400 before on-road costs but more importantly, the introductory $63,900 drive-away price is now $65,900. That looks good next to the list price and I maintain it’s to make the top-spec one more attractive than perhaps the MSRP suggests.

Drop down a step to the LS-U 4x4 and you’re now over the sixty grand mark at $61,400 before on-road costs courtesy of the $1500 price rise. However, once those on-road costs are applied, you are potentially looking at paying more than you would for an LS-T under the drive-away offer.

36

The LS-U tested here ships with 18-inch wheels, a 9.0-inch media screen, LED interior lighting, leather-trimmed steering wheel and gear selector, cloth seats (underselling it slightly – the cloth seems very durable), dual-zone climate control, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, keyless entry and start, remote start, sat-nav, auto-locking, auto-levelling bi-LED headlights with auto high beam, auto wipers and a powered tailgate.

As I said twelve months ago and maintain – especially after having an LS-T on my driveway for a few months – were it not for the drive-away offer it would be hard to justify the extra expense of the LS-T unless you really want what it’s got.

Once that offer expires, it would not be difficult to call the LS-U a sweet spot in the range.

The stereo and media system features eight speakers, DAB+ digital radio, USB Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay. A lack of wireless charging pad kind of takes the joy out of the cable-free CarPlay.

36

Isuzu calls its extensive safety pack Isuzu Intelligent Driver Assistance System (IDAS).

It offers:

• eight airbags (the curtain 'bags reaching all the way to the third row),
• the usual stability and traction controls
• forward auto emergency braking with turn assist
• forward collision warning
• post-collision braking
• traffic sign recognition
• misacceleration mitigation
• lane departure warning
• lane-keep assist
• lane departure prevention
• driver attention detection
• blind-spot monitoring
• rear cross-traffic alert
• hill descent control
• trailer sway control
• rollover mitigation
• reversing camera
• tyre pressure monitoring

Only the middle row features child seat anchoring, with two sets of ISOFIX points and three top-tether points.

The MU-X scored five ANCAP safety stars in 2021.

36

36

Comfort and space

The MU-X is huge and in its second iteration, is roomy and more importantly, a better-packaged car than the old one.

Its middle row flips and tumbles with the pull of a lever and once you’ve hoisted yourself up and in, it’s reasonably easy to step into the back row and choose one of the two seats.

Both seats score cup holders, a bit of storage and air vents. There’s also a footwell so your knees aren’t right up in your face so it’s actually reasonably comfortable for a third row.

36

With the third row in use, boot space measures 311 litres, which is larger than many small hatchbacks. And some compact SUVs, as it happens. Folding the third row is easy – pull the tapes on the seatbacks and they flip forward and hinge down to create a flat floor and 1119 litres.

There is also a storage box under the aft section of the floor at the loading lip, which means the spare is under the car.

Fold everything flat and you have 2138 litres, which is a tremendous amount of space.

36

Middle row seating is pretty firm but you get cup holders in the armrest and bottle holders in the doors, as well as air vents and hefty grab handles. Once you count up all the cup holders, you’ll need two extra fingers, because there are twelve of them.

Front seat passengers also share a pair of cup holders and perch on comfortable – if firm – seats. The word perch is carefully chosen because you are a long way up off the ground in an MU-X, for the old-school 4x4 feeling.

On the road

The MU-X has a four-cylinder turbo-diesel, and it’s a bit of a whopper at 3.0 litres, the biggest four-pot out there since the Mitsubishi Pajero and its 3.2-litre diesel was discontinued.

With 140kW and 450Nm, the Isuzu unit is lazy in the good way you want when one wheel is deep in a rut and another waving in the air. This also makes it very relaxed on the freeway and, due to the way it delivers torque, doesn’t take much effort to get the MU-X moving.

It’s still really noisy, especially when cold. Once you’re on the move the sound pretty much vanishes, making it a quiet, long-legged cruiser. With the engine settled, you just hear a bit of rustle from the big wing mirrors.

36

Even with a determined prod of the throttle, it’s not quick off the line, rather getting on with the job of creating forward motion without getting too bothered about 0-100km/h nonsense. The Aisin six-speed automatic is a slicker, quicker shifter than the old car, handling the dollops of torque dispatched by the engine really well.

The new MU-X shares a lot of its ladder-frame underguts with the D-Max, which arrived late in 2020. The MU-X’s rear subframe is different, though, with a multi-link suspension set-up delivering a comfortable ride. It will tow 3.5 tonnes of braked load and Isuzu reckons more than half of MU-X buyers actually tow something pretty hefty.

Steering is a bit woolly, though, and achingly slow when you’re doing a three-point turn, but again, given owners actually do muddy, filthy stuff with an MU-X, it’s the right choice for the car.

The Aisin six-speed automatic is a slicker, quicker shifter than the old car, handling the dollops of torque dispatched by the engine really well

36

You'll obviously never escape the height and weight of the MU-X but the suspension does a good job of keeping the body in check. Along with the comfy ride, the way such a big unit can be made to handle in a predictable and secure-feeling way is pretty impressive. The MU-X holds the road quite well even in fuel-saving rear-wheel drive mode.

What it doesn't feel like is a ute in a suit, which some other ute-based SUVs can feel like.

A new 80-litre fuel tank extends the on-paper range, too, with a combined-cycle average of 8.3L/100km. If you can achieve the official highway figure of 7.3L/100km, you can comfortably get between Sydney and either Brisbane or Melbourne on a tank. 4x2 versions use about half a litre less in each measurement cycle.

The week I had the car, I managed a pretty impressive 8.5L/100km in a 50:50 highway and suburb split.

Off-road stats include 285mm of ground clearance, 29.2° approach, 23.1° rampover and 26.9° departure angles.

The 4x4 offers 2H, 4H and 4L transmission settings, a rear diff lock and rough terrain mode. None of your endless surface selection nonsense of some other cars.

Underneath, you’ll find 1.5mm-thick steel and 5mm-thick poly composite underbody armour and the fuel tank is wrapped in aluminium shielding.

The MU-X holds the road quite well even in fuel-saving rear-wheel drive mode.

36

Ownership

Isuzu offers a six-year, 150,000km warranty with up to seven years of roadside assistance if you return to an Isuzu dealer for servicing.

Following an initial inspection at 3000km, service intervals every 12 months or 15,000km. Capped-price servicing covers the first seven services and totals $3513 over that period, an average of $502 per service.

The cheapest is the 75,000km service at $319 and the most expensive is $769 for the 90,000km interval.

36

VERDICT

Its popularity is deserved and speaks for itself.

The MY22 is as good as the MY21 because it’s basically the same car, it just costs more. I know that saying it costs more seems a bit casual, but we’ve become so used to price rises and specification cuts that just having one of those things happen is almost a blessing.

Isuzu’s SUV seems to have had a soft landing over its first 12 months and there’s a good reason for that. It’s solid value, handy on- and off-road and has plenty of space for your things and family.

The MU-X used to be a bargain basement machine that got the basics right, while this second-generation model has proved to be a much more mature and safer choice.

Its popularity is deserved and speaks for itself.

36

2022 Isuzu MU-X LS-U specifications