The BT-50's interior is typical of a ute, regardless of variant. Built for function, the Mazda parts of the interior are the small things that make the BT-50 feel more like an SUV inside than its Isuzu D-Max relative.

Controls are simple and mostly physical, save the somewhat dated touchscreen. There are places to keep things like phones, drinks and bottles secure in either the centre console, door cards, or either glovebox in front of the passenger.

The Mazda BT-50, based on the Isuzu D-Max, also shares the Isuzu's choice of two engines: a 1.9-litre or 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel.

The 1.9-litre unit makes 110kW and 350Nm, while the 3.0 boasts 140kW but a bigger jump in torque at 450Nm.

Mazda's claimed efficiency for the BT-50 with a 1.9-litre engine is 7.7L/100km with automatic transmission or 8.0L/100km for the 3.0-litre engine with an automatic as the only option.

It’s got a 76-litre fuel tank, which theoretically should mean a range of around 950km for the latter.

The Mazda BT-50 has a standard seating layout, with two front seats and a three-seat second-row bench seat in dual-cab or freestyle-cab form.

As a single-cab, the BT-50 of course only features two seats.

The BT-50 is available with a choice of two Isuzu-sourced engines, but neither is able to get the ute to 100km/h particularly quickly.

At an estimate, the ute should hit 100km/h in about 10 seconds from stand-still.