Isuzu D-Max vs Renault Trafic

What's the difference?

There’s a fairly big change hiding under the metal of one of Australia’s favourite utes. The Isuzu D-Max has a new 2.2-litre engine, replacing the 1.9-litre unit, and it brings a couple of other things with it.

A bigger engine designed to be more powerful and more efficient can only be a good thing, surely, especially with Isuzu looking down the barrel of stringent emissions laws with only two models in the line-up, both diesel powered.

But is this new 2.2-litre engine any good? Isuzu’s gone to the trouble of a new gearbox and some new tech to go with it, so we check it out to see if it stacks up against the increasingly strong competition.

After more than four decades in production and global sales exceeding 2.2 million units, the Trafic has established a loyal following in Australia.

In fact, according to Renault, Australia is the largest market for its popular mid-sized van outside of Europe. Perhaps this is not surprising given our thriving light commercial vehicle market, in which the 2.5-3.5-tonne GVM van segment is one of the most competitive with eight brands vying for buyers.

The current (third) generation Trafic, which was given a facelift and upgraded equipment/safety in 2022, is available in eight configurations. These include a crew van variant plus two wheelbase lengths and three equipment levels comprising Pro, Premium and Lifestyle.

We recently became reacquainted with the Trafic, in base model workhorse guise, to see how it compares to the current crop of rivals from a tradie’s perspective.