Isuzu MU-X 2025 first impressions

[dylanharbour]

Hi Everyone.

Yesterday my 2025 [demo] Isuzu MU-X arrived. I thought I'd share some quick info on first impressions and the reason I finally chose the MU-X, and parted ways with the trusty Grand Vitara.

First off, let me explain My needs: 2 toddlers and a wife mean we filled up the packing space of the previous Grand Vitara, filled up the roof with camping gear and still had stuff to "fit in" somewhere. When I gave in to the idea of towing, the car did not inspire much confidence with a test tow of a small Echo3. That was the final nail in the coffin and the reason I sold it in Jan. I've had Grand Vitara's over 14 consecutive years, so it was a big call to make to finally give in to a brand and model swap.

The GV, once lifted, with some underpants and with real AT tyres on, was a beast in its class. Wonderful value for money, and still under appreciated in most corners of the country. I had a love/hate relationship with it, and tried for the last 2 years to eek out more than I should probably expect from the platform. The biggest failings in my view are an underpowered (and thirsty) engine and a 4 speed auto gearbox. We were getting 17l/100km on the school run down the road, and 11l/100km on the open road if I drove at 100km/hour max in perfect conditions. Combined consumption was 15l/100km. The manual transmission models are better, and the v6 option is not as under powered, but the 2.4L auto has these frustrations that just come with the territory. As a gravel/dirt and moderate 4x4 car it is still a wonderful option to consider, especially if your budget can't stretch to the bigger SUV price points.

My wish list was:

1. Bulletproof reputation for reliability.

2. 7 Seats (for when extended family are in town) , with enough boot space to fit the 4 of us with all of our stuff if we are in 5 seater mode

3. A comfortable tower. Nothing heavy, 750kg for now, up to 1.5T in my future goals. But it should be able do it with ease.

4. Low theft risk: I'm based in the Western Cape, but plan to travel nationally/Southern Africa and don't want this to be a significant concern while I'm on an adventure. This pretty much rules out the Fortuners, Land Cruisers and to a certain extent, some of the Fords. I personally know of too many horror stories here to budge on this, as much as I tried to convince myself "it will be fine!". In the end, peace of mind is worth more to me than wider vehicle options.

5. Reasonable re-sale value, in case life or plans change! I hope to make this a 10-20+ year car and drive it into the ground, but hope that it will still retain some reasonable value along the way to keep options open.

6. Leather interior: Possibly a silly requirement, but if I'm paying a significant portion of my salary towards this, I'd like it to at least feel a little fancy. I also found my first GV with leather handled the grime of life much better than my second one with cloth. That being said, I'll relegate the kids row to seat covers as soon asap.

7. Some level of Safety: Mainly around the airbags, where so many cars in recent years have gotten away with only doing 2 airbags. i do fear that other safety tech would make me a more complacent driver, but blind spot monitoring would have been nice.

8. Competent 4x4: One day I'll own a rock crawler or a Unimog. For now, I just need it to handle gravel, rough mountain passes and the average overlanding routes.

9. Budget: I was hoping to keep this at R500k, but ended up pushing into the higher R700's once I walked the ladder of value justification. There are reasonable options in Gauteng for R580k that tick all of the boxes except for Leather. In Fortunerland, the 2.4 2020 can often go for R499k with low enough km to justify looking at.

The MU-X LS ticked all of the above boxes with an under stressed 3.0TD engine, plenty of power and enough tech to do what I need while not getting too much in the way. It also helps that the selling price is currently significantly lower than the recommended retail price, so 2025 models look much more appealing than a 2022-2024 in the used market, especially in the Western Cape where stock levels are very low and prices are usually higher. This could be because dealers are trying to meet targets on new cars or clear stock before financial year end, or because of the imminent release of the new facelift in SA which is already available in other markets... or just because recommended retail prices are just a lie to sell new cars :flips-coin: I'll prob never know, but I'm happy with where i landed for now.

Initial impressions

The Good:

• The ride height, and presence on the road is wonderful. It is bigger than the GV and you can feel that. However, not too big that it feels cumbersome or out of place.
• I love the amount of tech. It prob has equivalent tech of a modern car from 10-15 years ago which is all I need. Airbags, Cruise control, Parking sensors, rear view cam, car play and drive mode switching. Most of the beeps I've found can be turned off. Nothing feels out of place
• I love driving it. I may still be in the honeymoon period, but I have no regrets. It ticks all of my boxes and puts a smile on my face at the same time.
• Isuzu Truck Center (Epping/GoodWood?) were great. I've hated most of my interactions with dealers in the last few months of shopping. Jason was professional, knowledgeable and didn't give BS answers like most other dealers I spoke to. 10/10 would go back, and would recommend anyone buying an Isuzu Passenger vehicle to not discount the Truck Center as an option. You may end up with a better deal because they are a truck center and not a Passenger sales shop.
• Open road consumption is 8L/100km. Wonderful!

The Bad:

• The engine is noticeably noisy. Not too loud when you have a bunch of people shouting about in the car, or some music playing. But drive in silence and that 3.0TD engine hum is significant. I'm sure I'll get used to it, and so will my daughter when I take her out for a regular driving nap. I'm comparing this to life with petrol engines, so maybe not completely fair, but it has been an unexpected and noticeable thing.
• The rear tail gate does not go high enough. I've bumped my head on it 5 times already, (I'm 1.89m tall). I'm sure I'll bump my head many more times before I learn.
• The ride is stiff. It handles bumps and potholes with ease, but you still feel them. Probably similar to the Grand Vitara, although my wife believes it feels better as a passenger.
• Accessories are already difficult to find. I've just ordered a front runner roof rack (didn't find anything else worth considering!) and things like bash plates and other "standard" 4x4 accessories seem unlisted in SA. This was a major frustration for me with the Suzuki, but that did improve slightly over time. Hopefully local manufacturers and importers don't discount the need to cover the MU-X in their product strategies.
• The Engine has tons of power and gearbox is generally great, but i have found it can be slow to respond and sometimes feels like it has chosen the wrong gear, even sometimes "hunting" between them. I'd still take it over the 3 forward gears of the GV.
• Piano black plastic. In a 4x4. Why? I know its not a 70 series in utility, but it is still a utility vehicle. Much of the interior is going to get scratched to pieces, especially the nice shiny black parts.
• 4x4 is not available on tarred surfaces. I knew this, but it does make me a little sad. I have to find some dirt to test the high range 4x4, Gravel mode, and low range 4x4 modes out.
• The Highway tyres are fine, but I'd prefer to have AT's on them. I would also have preferred the option of the older 17" wheels over the newer 18" wheels. That being said, at least they're not the 20" which come on the higher spec models.
• The rear view camera is very dated, and the infotainment system seems at least 5 years too late. It'll work, but you have to lower your expectations for modern "tech" across the board.
• Traffic consumption figures went up to 16L/100km. That was one short, high traffic school run, so maybe not a fair test. It might mean we keep the Civic working school run duty.

Thats my initial impressions after 24 hours.

I'll try give you an update after a few months and let you know what changes.

Feel free to ask any questions, or request any pics.

[dylanharbour]

[PRA]

Enjoy the vehicle - it's great.
I've had my Onyx for just over two years and I love driving it.
It is as good as, and in many cases better than, the other vehicles in its class.

[Gungets Tuft]

Nice write up and congrats on the vehicle.

Don't worry about bash plates and stuff unless you're going really off road. Sounds like your travelling isn't that rough, so save your money.

Throttle response - check this thread. Mr Nell has a MUX, read what he says.

https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...tle-Controller

[Bushcourt]

Congrats! Many happy Miles! I really enjoy mine. I tow my Trailvan with ease! Our average fuel consumption hovers around 10l/km around town and goes up to 12km/l on open road.

Only gripe is that I rarely drive it due to Swambo having claimed it as her daily, sighting safety and loadspace for her and the 2 mini swambo as priority!

[Koebelwagen]

The Bad:

• The engine is noticeably noisy. Not too loud when you have a bunch of people shouting about in the car, or some music playing. But drive in silence and that 3.0TD engine hum is significant. I'm sure I'll get used to it, and so will my daughter when I take her out for a regular driving nap. I'm comparing this to life with petrol engines, so maybe not completely fair, but it has been an unexpected and noticeable thing

In the segment it is on the higher end of being noisy, having said this the 2.8GD6 I had before my current vehicle made a similar racket.

• The rear tail gate does not go high enough. I've bumped my head on it 5 times already, (I'm 1.89m tall). I'm sure I'll bump my head many more times before I learn.
• The ride is stiff. It handles bumps and potholes with ease, but you still feel them. Probably similar to the Grand Vitara, although my wife believes it feels better as a passenger.
• Coming from the Vitara, this is not really difficult to believe. The MUX is a different layout, body on chassis with solid rear axle.

• Accessories are already difficult to find. I've just ordered a front runner roof rack (didn't find anything else worth considering!) and things like bash plates and other "standard" 4x4 accessories seem unlisted in SA. This was a major frustration for me with the Suzuki, but that did improve slightly over time. Hopefully local manufacturers and importers don't discount the need to cover the MU-X in their product strategies.
• The engine is protected wit a steel plate, albeit thinner than aftermarket. For the rest, try it out first, you may be surprised how much better it is off-road than the Vitara in terms of clearances.
• The Engine has tons of power and gearbox is generally great, but i have found it can be slow to respond and sometimes feels like it has chosen the wrong gear, even sometimes "hunting" between them. I'd still take it over the 3 forward gears of the GV.
• This I find surprising. If you think the transmission in the MUX is a bit dimwitted, the very same transmission in the Toyota would drive you nuts.
• Piano black plastic. In a 4x4. Why? I know its not a 70 series in utility, but it is still a utility vehicle. Much of the interior is going to get scratched to pieces, especially the nice shiny black parts.
• Paying a little bit of attention when interfacing with these surfaces helps a lot. You can also have the surfaces wrapped.
• 4x4 is not available on tarred surfaces. I knew this, but it does make me a little sad. I have to find some dirt to test the high range 4x4, Gravel mode, and low range 4x4 modes out.
• This is par for the course in the segment.
• The Highway tyres are fine, but I'd prefer to have AT's on them. I would also have preferred the option of the older 17" wheels over the newer 18" wheels. That being said, at least they're not the 20" which come on the higher spec models.
• Be glad they didn't fit General grabbers.
• The rear view camera is very dated, and the infotainment system seems at least 5 years too late. It'll work, but you have to lower your expectations for modern "tech" across the board.
• Agreed, especially the lag when connecting bluetooth.
• Traffic consumption figures went up to 16L/100km. That was one short, high traffic school run, so maybe not a fair test. It might mean we keep the Civic working school run duty.

Thats my initial impressions after 24 hours.

I'll try give you an update after a few months and let you know what changes.

Feel free to ask any questions, or request any pics.

[dylanharbour]

Overdue an update on this, but the TLR is pretty much the same. No issues, no significant complaints, no regrets yet! I still love the car and have pretty much complete peace of mind in the purchase.

A few more minor points to note

1. There have been a few "fit and finish" questions which irritated me. A slight rattle from the light above the rear view mirror at high speed, and a when I roll my windows down on a dewy morning, the gap between the rubber and the glass is so large that it doesn't clear the window. I've never had a car that completely misses at least some attempt at "wiping" the window clean when the window is lowered but this seems to be the same on both driver and passenger side. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has a tighter fit on the weather seal there?

2. There are a few things that they "cheaped out" on. For example, the right reverse light on the bumper is fake. There is only one in the left side. Such a minor thing, but someone clearly made an intentional decision to omit it on the right, design a fake one, and save a couple of bucks. I do wonder where else that has happened!

3. Fuel consumption (combined) is around 11.5L/100km. Thats with 50-60% city / school run driving in bumper to bumper traffic, with a roof rack

4. If anyone figures out how to disable the infotainment Safety acknowledgement on boot - every - single - time.... please let me know.

5. The Driver (and possibly Passenger) floor mats are terrible. I've never noticed floor mats before in the 10+ cars I've owned, I'm not generally a stickler for this level of detail but man, these things suck. They move around and often end up half stuck under the pedals. Definitely replacing them, definitely should not have to replace them!

6. I can't get the rear (middle) row air vents to blow warm air. Cool air is wonderful, but setting the temp to warm in the front does not change the temp in the rear at all. Granted, I haven't read the manual on this, maybe Its a user issue. But I'll give it a more dedicated test with the owners manual when I've got a gap again. The climate control system is very simple, so I would not have expected it to be something that requires looking up.

But thats pretty much it. I've done a bunch of trips (~2hours) with it fully loaded with the family in tow and it handles wonderfully. Everyone is comfortable and happy.

[JacoE]

5. The Driver (and possibly Passenger) floor mats are terrible. I've never noticed floor mats before in the 10+ cars I've owned, I'm not generally a stickler for this level of detail but man, these things suck. They move around and often end up half stuck under the pedals. Definitely replacing them, definitely should not have to replace them!

Wow, thanks for pointing this out, I only notice it now. That is poor, even the fortuners woke up and has clip in carpets.