Spy Shots: LHD Isuzu D-Max caught in Midwest snow
by Dan Roth on Dec 29th 2008 at 4:29PM 
What the heck's an Isuzu test mule doing banging around the Midwest? There's no hope that this D-Max, based on the GMT 355 platform, will ever see a North American showroom, since the company recently folded up its tent and left. What's most likely is that an OEM is doing some development work on the big 3.0-liter four pot turbodiesel. Pickuptrucks.com speculates that Bosch or AVL's Detroit-area outposts might be fiddling with the engine under the ill-fitting hood, as the vehicle has been seen going to and fro some engineering facilites. So, while the idea of a GMT 355 with a torque-tacular turbo-diesel is exciting, it's likely not likely that consumers here will ever get the chance to buy one. Darn.
[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Torrent 4:42PM (12/29/2008)
I see a VW Pickup, Ranger Concept and a Hilux smashed into one... fitted with Prelude headlights. Not too bad though. I thought Isuzu stopped makin' cars in NA? Maybe they'll make a comeback? With real cars- and not GM's with different grilles.
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Tourian 5:30PM (12/29/2008)
It says in the article that it is based on the GMT-355 platform, the key letters being "GM". So it is still a rebagded GM product in a sense.
Torrent 7:32PM (12/29/2008)
I'm fine with them sharing platforms, but if they are in fact planning a comeback, I just hope they don't have obvious rebadges of the cars they are using ( ex: Equator/Frontier).
The Luigiian 5:11PM (12/29/2008)
I don't really mind the Colorado/D-Max not getting a diesel in the U.S. I've never quite liked the five-banger, but it does get 242 hp/242 lb-ft at 17/23 overall, which is pretty decent. Plus the four's got around 190 hp at 18/24. And it's the only truck you can buy that's a four-cylinder crew cab.
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ale 7:43PM (12/29/2008)
23 mpg is good? for a five cylinder... kind of a stretch i guess, but 25- 26 would be more respectable, 29 or 30 if it was a 4 cylinder.. A diesel would be nice here, but doubt that we'll get it..
The Luigiian 7:51PM (12/29/2008)
Have you been looking at pickups recently? The best you can get is 26 mpg, and that's if you get Ford's anemic little 2.3 liter and a manual gearbox. The rest hover around 23. I want 26, but I've learned that asking for fuel economy from American vehicles is like asking kids to do better at school. We throw money at them, we beg them, we plead for more fuel-efficient trucks, and they never do any better.
Frankly, if Chevy's Colorado, even in four-cylinder trim, got better than 21 mpg overall, I'd be ecstatic. But we'll never get a good compact truck in the United States at this rate, so I've given up and am just generally willing to deal with the crap we've got.
imoore 5:18PM (12/29/2008)
The D-Max was/is a much better truck than Canyon/Colorado. This is the truck Isuzu should have sold here instead of the I-Series. They can still sell it here through the Commercial Truck division.
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The Luigiian 5:23PM (12/29/2008)
I was under the impression that the D-Max and Colorado were basically the same truck with very minimal changes in drivetrain and perhaps interior.
Do you have any information on the differences between the two? I've never known what the exact differences between the two actually are.
imoore 6:11PM (12/29/2008)
Isuzu was the team leader in the D-Max/Colorado/Canyon project when it was conceived in 2002. The same architecture was used for the trucks, but the D-Max was designed (as to chassis, engines, interior, etc) to suit the tastes of its intended markets (Africa, Asia, Australia) where trucks are considered as workhorses, whereas here in the US most trucks are viewed as street cruisers and motorized parade floats (see Southern Comfort and Show Trucks USA). In most countries where the D-Max (or Rodeo) is sold, the reviews were more favorable than the colorado. On a side note, when GM-Holden and Isuzu finally parted ways earlier this year, Holden replaced the Rodeo with the South American-built Colorado, and my understanding was that Holden considered the US-built Colorado, but found that the South American truck was more closer to the Isuzu specifications rather than the US truck.
G-Meister 11:51AM (12/30/2008)
IIRC, the D-Max and GMT355 are different vehicles: the frame Isuzu developed initially required far too much assembly labor to be built cost effectively in the States. It was subsequently re-engineered at GM for their use. Some BIW parts might match, but I wouldn't expect anything underneath.
Jason 5:50PM (12/29/2008)
That "ill-fitting hood" is just a dent in the top of the right front fender. If you look at the other photos on Pickuptrucks.com you can see the left hand side fits just fine.
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Mr. Skot 7:29PM (12/29/2008)
i saw this in Jacksonville, FL the other day on a car carrier and wondered what it was
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RLQ 3:56AM (12/30/2008)
Isuzu is pretty much dead here.
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G-Meister 11:53AM (12/30/2008)
I thought diese D-Max's had a hood scoop for the intercooler.
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chyan 1:31AM (12/31/2008)
What truck needs is to be frugal. & this is.
Not like *please state*
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whoknowsisuzu 12:01PM (1/03/2009)
You all have it backwards. Isuzu engineered and designed this platform first for their Thialand market. GM then wanted to borrow it and bring it to the US market. Isuzu and GM signed an agreement (heavily weighted to GM) and GM did some cosmetic changes and emissions requirements and brought it to the US. If it wasn't for some idiot GMPowertrain (GMPT) executive who had a vendentta against diesels, this would have made it to the US market in the Colorado/Canyon/H3 platforms a while ago. Because all of GM's diesel program is Isuzu, the GMPT executive feels his gas powerplants are in direct competition with the diesel platforms, and you know how "kids" can get when one gets something the other didn't. Anybody remember the GMPT 5.7L diesel conversion? The 6.2L diesel disaster? The anemic 6.5L diesel all produced by GMPT? No wonder this executive has a diesel complex.
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