2023 Isuzu MU-X LS-T review: Family haulin' up the Highway

Wheels Media salesman Paul McCaig spends a few days with the popular Isuzu MU-X to give us his Regular Everyday Bloke "I'm no journalist" take on the popular SUV.

As one of many Wheels Media staffers not tasked with reviewing Australia's latest new cars, I often ogle longingly at the wide variety of exciting vehicles in our Mulgrave car park. So, when the opportunity arose for me to snag the keys to an Isuzu MU-X LS-T just in time for a family getaway, I jumped at the chance.

The plan was to head from Melbourne to Sydney with my wife and eight-month-old baby, bound for my brother’s wedding – and the prospect of tackling the long drive in a vehicle that is larger, safer and more modern than my older Renault Koleos was very enticing.

I’d heard very good things about the MU-X from my colleagues over at 4x4 Australia, I so was keen to see how it would perform not only on the Hume, but in the tight, narrow and meandering streets of Balmain East where we were to be setting up base for the fortnight.

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JUMP AHEAD

• The Car
• First Impressions
• Comfort
• Technology
• On the road
• Safety
• Parking
• Last Impressions

The car

First impressions

The styling of the MU-X is pleasant, its Magnetite silver paint and dark chrome grille being the first element of its exterior that struck me as impressive – especially when compared to the less athletic, bulkier looks of the previous generation.

I’d managed to score the top-spec grade, the LS-T 4x4, which included Magnetite front bar trim along with 20-inch, two-tone alloy wheels.

This was to be our first road-trip with the baby, and my wife had spent the previous couple of days listing all the items we would need to bring along with us – travel bath, travel cot, baby bouncer… the list was never-ending.

If you add my wife’s (inevitable) four suitcases on top of all that, I was beginning to think I’d need to ask the good people at Isuzu Trucks for one of their prime movers instead.

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2022 Isuzu MU-X

Thankfully, my fears were eased upon entering the cabin, when I was surprised by the hugely spacious feel within. On initial inspection, the MU-X feels roomy, comfortable and very pleasant.

With the third row folded down, there looked to be a ton of space in which to fit all our road-trip luggage – more than a family of three should ever need – and so I was looking forward to packing up the car and putting that to the test. And boy, did my wife put it to the test.

After playing a bit of Tetris and ditching some items (when she wasn’t looking) we finally got it all in with room to spare. There was no chance we would have fit all of this in the boot of our Renault Koleos, so I was quietly relieved we’d snagged this MU-X for the journey. (Although it's possible our manifest swelled once the bigger boot was spied...)

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Comfort

For a vehicle in this class, the MU-X has a refined interior with plenty of creature comforts.

In LS-T trim it comes with leather-accented upholstery, and the leatherette across the interior door trims and centre console is a nice touch. The seats themselves are comfortable, particularly the driver's position, thanks to the eight-way power adjustable function and adjustable lumbar support.

The LED interior lighting also provides a pleasant ambience within the cabin when driving at night (or early morning!).

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On Christmas Day, my brother-in-law over from the UK was desperate to head to the beach for a traditional Aussie experience. The opportunity to watch on as he underestimated the strength of the Aussie sun seemed like fun, so we packed the vehicle with our beach gear, copious amounts of sunscreen, and seven happy bodies.

There’s a great amount of space there for the second-row occupants to sit back and relax, with air vents and reclining seats ensuring a comfortable ride.

I persuaded my aforementioned 188cm brother-in-law to jump in the third row, not just for my amusement but to get an idea of how suitable the rearmost seats are for adults.

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2022 Isuzu MU-X LS-T second row

He was very happy with the legroom afforded him, although did note that it would be better if the second row could slide forward to provide him with better knee room – particularly given the passengers in front of him had more than enough space to work with.

I should also mention that it was very easy to install the baby’s car seat, thanks to the space on offer in the second row and the ISOFIX anchors ensuring an easy and quick experience.

As a new dad at Wheels Media, I’m now a self-anointed pro at installing car seats due to the decent amount of practice I’ve had recently; I often find myself being lured into our garage by colleagues to comment on a vehicle’s suitability for the little ones (they're nothing if not thorough!), and naturally this involves fiddling around with some car seats. In this regard, the MU-X passes with flying colours.

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Technology

I was delighted to see that the MU-X supports wireless Apple CarPlay which, as always, is effective and easy to use. Avoiding an annoying charging cable laying across the console is now essential for any new vehicle, in my opinion, but it's a lesson many brands are still to learn.

I did give the built-in infotainment system a crack and while it wasn’t as messy and hard to navigate as some systems I’ve encountered from other manufacturers, it didn’t offer too much beyond the familiarity and functionality of CarPlay. It just felt a little dated in its feature set and appearance.

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The 9.0-inch infotainment display is fine, but I would love to see a much larger screen in future updates – especially when you look at what Ford is doing with its new Everest (our Wheels 2023 Car of the Year). Infotainment aside, the two USB ports for the second row are really handy additions to avoid any ‘charge anxiety’.

Worth noting is that I found the small screen for the trip computer behind the wheel fairly hard to read while driving, and it was packed with too many symbols and information for a display sized at only 4.2 inches.

I'll add, however, that I may have been able to simplify some of the information being presented to me if I’d had a more in-depth play around with the settings.

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On the road

On this particular trip, we wouldn’t be taking the vehicle off-road beyond some mild stone tracks and bumpy roads in the lovely regional towns we stopped off at on our journey up to Sydney; Rutherglen, Gundagai and Goulburn to name a few.

My wife was already anxious about embarking on the first road trip with our precious cargo, so I decided to pick my battles and resist the urge to bush-bash this beast. Besides, my colleagues at 4x4 Australia had already put the Isuzu through its paces during the press launch, so I was looking forward to assessing the MU-X as a daily driver and road-trip companion.

The 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine provides plenty of grunt – 450Nm to be precise – and the light steering is responsive and agile, ensuring easy manoeuvrability for this size of vehicle.

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Its ride was consistently comfortable, absorbing the majority of bumps effectively without transmitting much noise or vibration into the cabin. Pretty good for an SUV based on a ute chassis.

On one particular leg of the journey, as our eight-month-old approached the three-hour sleep mark, I couldn’t help but feel affection towards the vehicle that had gifted us a big ol’ block of peace and quiet. The MU-X is totally comfortable when cruising at highway speeds, with the 140kW engine barely breaking a sweat.

There is some engine noise that presents itself in the cabin when pulling away from lights, but it’s mild enough that it didn’t bother me at all and is no different to other diesel vehicles.

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Safety

The MU-X comes with an excellent stack of safety features, which provided us with plenty of peace of mind as we embarked on our journey.

I was pleased to learn that Isuzu’s Intelligent Driver Assistance System (IDAS) is included across the entire MU-X range, and includes a forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning (and prevention), blind-spot monitoring and eight airbags. The full five-star ANCAP safety rating is no surprise, here.

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At times the extensive safety capabilities did result in, perhaps, some overzealous warnings as the Isuzu took its job of keeping us safe very seriously. I found the blind-spot monitoring in particular to be too sensitive on occasion, and the lane-keep assist was fairly robust as it pulled me back into the middle of the lane with a decent amount of force.

Is this really something I can put in the ‘cons’ column, though? I’ll happily take some mildly annoying warning tones from an overly sensitive safety suite from time-to-time if it’ll keep me and my family safe.

The adaptive cruise control was a very handy piece of kit as we navigated our way past numerous trucks and caravans on the Hume, comfortably cutting our pace as we approached the slower-moving vehicles in front and then easily resuming the set speed once we were clear.

While we wouldn’t be putting the towing capabilities of the MU-X through their paces in this particular review, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert systems will now deactivate when towing; no doubt a welcome addition to the 2023 model for those that are hauling-inclined.

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Parking

Once we’d navigated the family safely up the Hume, we had the very tight and borderline impractical streets of Balmain to contend with.

Upon pulling into the street where our accommodation was located, I noticed that the majority of residents had opted for far smaller vehicles than ours, with barely a large SUV to be seen.

After navigating the MU-X around these streets over the course of the fortnight, I went from merely follically-challenged to Phil Collins. (We think of you as more a Jason Statham type, mate - Stevo.)

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The MU-X does its very best to help out, however, with rear parking sensors and an excellent reversing camera. The camera is effective and easy to use, with an impressive screen resolution guiding me into those tight spots, ably assisted by the sensors clearly alerting me of any obstacles in my way.

Apart from some kerb rash on the front wheels (sorry, Isuzu!), we managed to avoid any collisions, scratches or dents over the course of our loan – for which we’ll attribute a decent amount of credit to a great parking experience, thanks to both the aforementioned features and the generally excellent manoeuvrability of the MU-X.

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Last thoughts

I have to admit that I was sad to hand back the keys to the MU-X. Not only had it safely transported my family and me to Sydney and back without a hitch, it was also a thoroughly comfortable, delightfully spacious and all-round enjoyable to drive.

There’s no denying that this is a whole lot of vehicle for under $70K, and if you’re happy to forgo some of the cosmetic upgrades, 20-inch wheels and additional features on show in the LS-T model I tried, then you can even bring this home under $55K (excluding on-roads).

No doubt, Isuzu has served up an impressive offering here with the MU-X; perhaps I’ll find myself popping into an Isuzu dealership one day soon.

For the thoughts of some more widely experienced motorers, see our other MU-X reviews at the link below.

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