Mazda BT-50 Reviews

Second model up the 2021 Mazda BT-50 range is the XTR. It forms the middle rung of the ladder for the now-based-on-the-Isuzu-D-Max ute.

At the very top of the launch range for the 2021 Mazda BT-50 line-up is the GT variant, which takes a bit more of a luxurious tack than some of its rival utes that chase the ‘sport’ market.

The all-new Mazda BT-50 is not longer based on a Ford. Nope - this time around it shares a lot with the new-generation Isuzu D-Max. And by shares a lot, we mean it. It has some unique styling inside and out, but retains basically everything else besides. Does that make for a good recipe? You bet it does.

The Mazda BT-50 had a difficult birth as a Ford Ranger clone in 2011, largely because its elaborate styling didn't seem to know if it was meant to be a car or a truck. However, over the near-decade that has followed, Mazda has done a commendable job through styling tweaks in making the BT-50 look more truck-like and pleasing to the eye.

Utes dominate the sales charts and top-spec premium dual-cabs rank among the most popular with ute buyers.The Mazda BT-50 Boss is one of the more recent in a long line of accessorised dual-cab utes. The problem is: these utes are often a triumph of style over substance, more flash than functionality.Is that the case with the Boss? Read on.

It's comfortable, capable and better looking than ever before, but is that enough to finally propel Mazda's BT-50 to a place in the upper echelon of Australia's dual-cab ute brigade?

The Mazda BT-50 is effectively a Ford Ranger with different (more car-like) styling and sharper pricing. So why does it struggle in the showroom, relative to the Blue Oval's 4x4 ute hero?

Australia’s lucrative dual-cab ute market is very much a two-horse race at the top, Ford Ranger against Toyota HiLux, but there is another competitor that deserves your consideration; Mazda's BT-50.

We were parked just outside the front door of the Marree pub, in the South Australian Outback, about 650km north of Adelaide, when a curious local strolled up to us.“You blokes testing the new Isuzu?”This fella had his badges mixed up, considering we were in Mazda BT-50s, three of them, parked in a neat line outside the watering hole from which he’d just emerged.“Nah, mate. Mazdas. BT-50s,” I said.“Yeah, they’re good too,” he said, vaguely impressed, and, after raising his eyebrows skywards, he loped away.There’s nothing new in this BT-50 beyond the 8.0-inch Alpine colour touchscreen entertainment unit, but Mazda reckoned it was as good a time as any to give their ute another solid test out in the bush – and what better test than the Birdsville Track? This iconic bush track, a must-do on any serious off-roader’s wish-list, is more than 500km of dirt and gravel, potholes, corrugations, searing heat. Great stuff. What’s more, it runs parallel to the eastern edge of the Simpson Desert – or “The Simmo!” to my bogan mates – which is another great Aussie adventure.The Simpson, covering more than 170,000 square kilometres and taking in parts of the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia, is the world’s largest sand dune desert and Australia’s fourth largest desert. It has the longest parallel sand dunes in the world, more than 1100 of them, some of them 200km long, running north-west to south-east.We wouldn’t be venturing too deep into the desert though, not on this trip, we would, however, have a chance to play on Nappanerica (aka Big Red), the Simpson’s biggest sand dune at 40m high, which is about 30km west of Birdsville.Our final destination for this run? Birdsville, for the annual Birdsville Races, when the sleepy bush town in Queensland’s far west, swells from 280 people to more than 7000 party-hungry race-goers. We’re in a top-spec GT dual-cab and were raring to go – no badge-confused bushie was going to ruin it for us.

Based on our experience, the best towing vehicle is either a full-size 4x4 ute or wagon with a turbo-diesel engine and automatic transmission.