Mazda BT-50 Thunder review 2021: Perfect for off-road driving?

CarExpert

This is Mazda's more hardcore version of the BT-50 dual-cab ute. It adds a single hoop steel bull bar, flared wheel arches and a sports bar to toughen up its look. The 2021 Mazda BT-50 Thunder competes with things like the Ford Ranger FX4 Max, Nissan Navara Warrior and the Toyota HiLux Rugged X. Paul Maric tests it out to see if it's any good.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the full review: http://car.expert/mazda-bt-50-thunder-review  More Mazda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda More Mazda BT-50 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda/bt-50  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:50 Interior 04:01 Infotainment 05:18 Safety Tech 06:50 Practicality 07:41 On-road 10:22 Off-road 14:24 Verdict 16:32  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mazda #review #bt50 #bt50thunder

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So Mazda has finally rolled out the special edition of the BT50 that we

00:04 spoke about last year. It's not quite as hardcore as what we predicted it would be, but it's

00:10 close enough. This is called the BT50 Thunder. So it's priced at around $69,000 for the automatic,

00:18 the manual can be had for around three grand less. This is going to compete with things

00:21 like the Ford Ranger FX4 and Toyota Hilux Rugged X, so picture those cars that have

00:27 some of these mechanical changes on the outside, but are still very much the same beneath the

00:32 skin. Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car. If you want to skip ahead to

00:36 other parts of the video, use the time codes up on the screen, or if you're on YouTube,

00:40 just scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, make sure

00:43 you press the bell icon and subscribe to our channel so you can find out every single time

00:47 we drive a new dual cab ute.

00:50 Let's talk exterior. Before I run you through the external changes, what about the colours?

00:54 So seven external colours to pick from, they're all free, which is great news. Now what actually

00:59 changes here with the Thunder? Well, it all starts down the front here with this single

01:02 hoop steel bull bar. You can hear that is very much solid. You've got a light built

01:07 into the side there along with the indicator. You've also got this dual row light force

01:12 LED light bar, so this is going to give you really nice projection at night time, so you

01:16 can see straight down the road there. It's quite an aggressive looking steel bar. I actually

01:20 really like the look of it, especially from side on, it cuts in nicely. So this is going

01:25 to be good if you're doing any off-road driving, any bumps and things like that, you're not

01:29 going to damage any of the plastic panels on the car. The rest of that is all fairly

01:33 straightforward. Over here you've got your standard headlights, full LED arrangement

01:36 there. The thing I don't love about this setup though, they've got this rubber here that

01:40 protects damage from the car as it flexes, but behind there you can see all the plastic

01:44 moulding for where the bumper normally joins, so I think they could have concealed that

01:48 a little better. Now down here you have 18 inch alloy wheels and this is a dark coloured

01:54 wheel. You can get this as an accessory on the BT50 as it is, but it comes standard on

01:58 the Thunder. There are wider wheel flares here, so you can see they stick out a whole

02:02 lot more than the standard setup. Not really a huge fan of how that just starts there,

02:05 would have been good to have a little lip or something there to stop it looking like

02:08 it was just bolted on, which it kind of was. All of this work was done here in Australia.

02:13 This is a pre-production car, so this may not look exactly what the final car looks

02:18 like, but all the work that they actually did to create this was done in Australia and

02:21 there's a chance they might even sell this overseas eventually as well, which is pretty

02:24 cool. Around the side of the car you have your indicator built into that wing mirror

02:28 there, the chrome section on the top. These side steps are new, so plastic side steps,

02:34 they're going to prevent you from damaging things when you go over rocks. They feel nice

02:38 and sturdy as well. Big side bolsters there, they match the front there in terms of how

02:42 much they stick out. The Thunder decal, and if you didn't know it was Thunder, you could

02:47 just have a look behind there because they've got clouds and stuff, which is cool. Sports

02:51 bar, this looks interesting, so this gives it a really aggressive stance. It sticks up

02:55 a little higher than the car though, which is interesting, I would have thought it would

02:59 sit flush with the roof, but it's raised a little bit and I think it's because it's attached

03:03 to this rail here as opposed to the body of the car. Then you've got these little flares

03:08 on the side as well. Now, come around to the rear, I'll show you what else has changed.

03:12 So similar to the Hilux Rogue, you've got this electric tonneau cover, so one push of

03:16 that brings it forward and clicks it into position. There's also an LED light off to

03:20 the side. This is a pre-production car, so granted this probably isn't what it's going

03:25 to look like when it's delivered to the customer, but have a look at all the cables that are

03:29 just sitting there exposed and over on that side as well. It's the same story under the

03:33 bonnet with the battery terminals, just looks a bit thrown together and doesn't really look

03:37 like a proper installation. So let's hope that's fixed when they do have the production

03:41 vehicle and it's not a pre-production model. Now in terms of dimensions, you've got about

03:45 1500 mil of load length, around 1500 mil of load width, almost 500 mil of load depth and

03:51 1120 millimetres between the wheel arches. If I close this up, you've got a step here

03:56 to retrieve things from the tray and you also get a three and a half tonne braked towing

04:01 capacity. So we're inside the VT50, let's start off with the key. Here it is here, you

04:05 have lock, unlock and then a remote start function which will turn the car on and run

04:10 the heater or the air conditioning, which is a handy feature. Then the Mazda logo on

04:14 the back, it's a proximity sensing key so you just leave that in your pocket and then

04:17 you have a push button start. Now let's talk styling, one of the things I like about the

04:21 VT50 and the D-MAX is that they've gone to a bit of effort to make it feel nice and premium

04:26 inside. Now this car's nudging $70,000 which is a whole bucket load of money but I feel

04:31 that it looks classy enough to justify that price tag. So you've got these soft sections

04:35 along the top with the stitching, you'll notice that the D-MAX has storage up here whereas

04:40 the VT50 doesn't and the other difference is the VT50 doesn't get cup holders under

04:44 the air vents but for the most part this looks the same. I like the brown highlights

04:48 in between here and also on the seats and the padding on the sides. This is all unique

04:52 to the VT50 and it just gives it that air of luxury to it as well. Now what about all

04:57 your touch points? They are nice and soft, we have tested them all with our gyrometer.

05:02 If you want to see how this car compares to other cars we've tested before, click on the

05:07 link in the description. Now what about build quality? It feels OK, a little bit of movement

05:13 there on the sides and around that centre console but for the most part this all feels

05:17 well put together. Let's talk about infotainment. So 9-inch infotainment screen, you have shortcut

05:23 buttons down the bottom too. This is one of the better ones in the segment simply because

05:27 it comes with some pretty advanced smartphone mirroring features. So if you do want to have

05:31 a detailed look at this infotainment system, click up here to watch one we recorded previously.

05:35 I'll take you through just some of the basics here. So satellite navigation, you can turn

05:39 those annoying beeps off by the way. There it is there. It's an OK satellite navigation

05:44 system, it can be a tiny bit laggy but it does the job. Where it really shines though

05:49 is with smartphone mirroring. So I'll show you Apple CarPlay, there it is there. So wireless

05:53 which means every time you jump into the car it just connects on its own. Big screen integration

05:58 there. It's good, the only thing to keep in mind though when it is wireless, it drains

06:02 your battery pretty quickly so you kind of have to plug your phone up anyway because

06:05 there's no wireless phone charging so it's just something to keep in mind. And this is

06:09 what Android Auto looks like. Click on that one there. So connected with a cable and then

06:14 again full screen integration, smooth scrolling. Then on the radio front you have AM, FM, DAB

06:22 plus digital radio and that's all sent through an 8 speaker sound system with live surround

06:28 sound. Ahead of the driver is another LCD display that has your trip computer details,

06:33 your fuel levels, engine temperature, the works. That's also where you enable and disable

06:37 some of the safety functions as well. It's good but I just wish there was a shortcut

06:41 on the steering wheel or somewhere else that allows you to disable some of the safety features

06:45 because it takes a while to rifle through that menu and you can't do it while you're

06:49 on the move. In terms of safety some of the notable highlights include autonomous emergency

06:53 braking, there's a lane keeping assistant, a lane departure warning, a semi-autonomous

06:57 steering function, blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror, there's an auto dimming

07:02 rear vision mirror, radar cruise control, you've also got a junction assist which basically

07:06 prevents you from driving across an intersection when other cars are coming and finally you

07:11 have rear cross traffic alert. There's also front and rear parking sensors and a reverse

07:16 view camera. I'll show you what that looks like. Pretty decent reverse view camera and

07:19 then you've got guidelines there as well.

07:21 OK I'm going to stop for just one second. I'm going to ask you guys a question. So $3,000,

07:26 I mentioned at the start that that is how much extra you pay for the automatic transmission.

07:31 So many people buy the autos. Why are you not buying the manual? Is it just because

07:35 you're in the car all day long? Tell me what the appeal is of an auto over a manual, especially

07:39 for $3,000. Let's talk practicality and we'll start with connectivity. So you have one USB

07:44 port, one auxiliary input, a 12 volt power outlet. Then on the storage front you have

07:50 storage for your phone down the front here. No wireless phone charging but you can see

07:54 it slides in easily down there. You can also pop your phone in there if you want. What

07:59 about your coffee cup? Now I mentioned before that this doesn't have the cup holders in

08:04 front of the air vents like the D-MAX does. That means when you have a me-sized coffee

08:11 it literally just can't even touch the bottom of that because it's far too deep. So you've

08:14 got to wedge it up with a key or a durometer or something like that. So yeah, not a great

08:19 design and I wish they had the cup holders inside the doors. What about bottles though?

08:23 So you can see there the bottle fits fairly easily. You've also got storage for the bottle

08:28 inside the door. There's also this storage down here. There's a centre console here that's

08:32 fairly deep as you can see in there. You also have two glove boxes. Well, one glove box

08:38 down here that you can't really fit much else in once you have your manual in there. Then

08:42 you have another one up the top. You can slide a bottle in there fairly easily. And then

08:48 finally you have a sunglasses holder at the top of the cabin. Moving on to comfort. So

08:52 you have dual zone automatic climate control. You also get headed seats for the first row.

08:57 In terms of the seats themselves, I really like this design. They hug you in nicely.

09:01 You've got the perforations on there as well. So if you do get sweaty in summer, you're

09:04 not going to get permanently stuck to the seat. The driver's seat is electrically adjustable

09:09 as well. Steering offers both tilt and reach adjustment. And then finally all of these

09:14 controls are easy to reach.

09:17 Okay, back seat. Let's have a look at it. So before I hop in and show you how it all

09:21 works I want to show you a secret hiding spot. So under here you have two secret hiding spots.

09:26 They are pretty generously sized so you can pop your little bits and pieces in here so

09:31 no crooks and thieves see them from the outside. And then behind here is where you'll find

09:38 a jack and also two top tether points. We'll hop in. Got a grab handle for grabbing. All

09:46 right. So this is how much room I've got back here. Knee room is okay. Amazing. Toe room

09:53 is okay but not amazing as well. Headroom is pretty decent where we are.

09:58 Now what about storage for your bottles? So you have a center armrest here with two cup

10:02 holders so you can pop your bottle there or there. You've also got storage inside the

10:07 door. You have rear air vents, USB charging, a little slot for odds and ends, a hook there

10:13 for your groceries and probably other stuff that you've bought that you don't need. Two

10:17 map pockets and you also have two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats as well.

10:24 So we've hit the road in the BT50 Thunder. Now this is probably not going to be all that

10:29 much of a revolutionary review because this is effectively the exact same car as the regular

10:34 BT50 which we've already reviewed but I'll take you through it all anyway just in case

10:37 you haven't seen that review. Powering this is an engine shared with the Isuzu D-MAX.

10:42 It's a 3.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel. It produces 140 kilowatts of power

10:48 and 450 newton metres of torque and that's made into a six-speed automatic transmission.

10:53 Now what does all that feel like behind the wheel? Yeah it's good. I like that it's eager

10:59 to respond but it doesn't have to dive back through gears. I've often found with some

11:04 of these diesels that they have to snap back through gears especially in the Fords with

11:07 the 10-speed autos whereas this with the six-speed it's confident enough to lean on the torque

11:11 band when it needs to and then other times when you do need a bit of poke you just bury

11:15 your foot, slingshots you forward and away you go but it would be nice to see a 500 newton

11:20 metre option available. Our understanding was that this vehicle that they were developing

11:24 would actually come with more torque as well but it looks like they've just stuck with

11:28 that original arrangement. In terms of fuel economy Mazda claims an official figure of

11:32 8 litres per 100 kilometres. We're currently sitting on 12.8 which is considerably higher.

11:37 I wonder if all of the components that have bolted onto this have affected this. We have

11:41 been doing a lot of low-speed driving so obviously that figure will be higher but that seems

11:45 unusually high for something like the D-MAX or the BT-50 that we've tested previously.

11:50 Mazda doesn't provide an official 0-100 time but we thought we'd put it up against the

11:54 stopwatch to see how it goes.

12:08 Now let's talk about road noise. It's pretty quiet in here. The thing I am noticing though

12:12 is wind noise and it appears to be coming from the wing mirrors and potentially at the

12:18 front there so obviously a very different front end to the standard car and you can

12:22 notice that as you're travelling along the 80-100 kilometres an hour and feel it infiltrating

12:26 slightly. Keep in mind as well that that sports bar sits slightly higher than the roof as

12:30 well so that will be catching some of the wind also. So what's the ride like? Given

12:34 they haven't changed any of the suspension tuning, the only difference is the weight

12:38 over the front there with that steel bar. It feels pretty much exactly like the BT-50

12:42 felt previously so it is nice and smooth but it has a little bit of sharpness over bumps

12:48 especially here at highway speeds. You can hear the jitteriness in my voice there but

12:53 it does feel a little more settled at the front end so having the weight so far forward

12:57 means that you're trying to distribute that a little further to the front and obviously

13:02 the rear is unchanged. So yeah I think it does feel a little better but there isn't

13:06 a great deal of difference between this and a standard BT-50. Let's talk handling for

13:10 a second so yes I understand this is a dual cab ute but let's see how it goes through

13:16 around corners here. Tip it in, a little punch, yeah look it's fine. Remains fairly flat

13:24 and settled there. It's not going to be a sports car any time soon but in terms of handling

13:28 it's perfectly fine. Let's talk visibility, it remains virtually unchanged from standard

13:32 BT-50. You can't actually see that bull bar at all down the front there. The other good

13:37 thing as well is that because these components were I guess engineered by the manufacturer,

13:42 the front parking sensors and all the safety systems still work perfectly fine. If you

13:46 do go aftermarket often a lot of those things either need to be recalibrated or they just

13:50 don't work at all so the advantage of buying this package is that this has all been fitted

13:55 to work with all the standard safety systems. And then in terms of rear visibility, the

13:59 vision is good out the back there, you don't really have any blockage from those headrests.

14:04 The wing mirrors are also massive as well with blind spot monitoring so you get good

14:08 vision down the side of the car. Turning circle, 12.5 metres so it is on the bigger end of

14:14 turning circles but it is sort of pretty standard for a dual cab ute with all-wheel drive so

14:20 it's tight but you should be able to make your three-point turns. OK let's do a little

14:26 bit of light off-roading. Now because this is effectively the exact same as the BT50

14:31 with the addition of all these little bits and pieces on it, the off-road credentials

14:35 are the same. So that means a ground clearance of 240mm, you have an approach angle on the

14:40 standard BT50 of 30.4 degrees but here because of that different front end it is reduced

14:45 to 25.8 degrees. The departure angle remains the same though and that's 24.2 degrees. Now

14:50 in terms of the four-wheel drive controls themselves, this is a full-time two-wheel

14:54 drive and then it also has four-wheel drive high range, four-wheel drive low range, a

14:58 rear differential lock that only works when it is in low range and a hill descent control.

15:03 Now if none of that makes any sense have a look at our four-wheel drive controls explained

15:06 video where I give you practical examples of where you should and shouldn't use some

15:10 of these features. So let's try log mountain. So what I'll do, I'll put it into four-wheel

15:14 drive high range. It is really muddy around here at the moment so normally they walk up

15:18 here without any dramas at all but I'll be keen to see what happens today as we approach

15:23 and I'm going to kill that parking sensor as well. Alright, because it doesn't have

15:26 all-terrain tyres, the standard highway terrain tyres are just going to be filled with mud

15:32 but it is walking up here pretty effortlessly. We have the traction that we need. I'll turn

15:38 this corner to head down our hill. Okay so we don't have any extra ground clearance but

15:43 you will notice the front bull bar that they've added actually has a protective plate there

15:49 for the underbody of the car and we've got a rock right in the centre here that we're

15:53 going to nudge on the way down. There it is, just there. I can hear it scraping on that

15:58 plate. So that's going to be handy if you do go off-road or if you add a little bit

16:01 of extra lift to these because it should mean that you get more protection for the underbody.

16:05 Alright, crawling down here. Let me pop the hill descent control on as well. We'll give

16:10 that a little shot. There it is there, that is active. I'm going to go with the brake.

16:18 That's not too bad, it's not running away too much but like I've said in the other videos,

16:22 I think I just prefer to do that myself but there you go, not too bad. Doesn't feel any

16:27 different to the BT50 but you have the extra protection under the front there to keep things

16:32 safe.

16:35 Okay so Mazda BT50 Thunder, what do we reckon? Look I'm in two minds, I think it looks really

16:41 cool, they've done a good job with the styling at the front there. I think the flared wheel

16:45 arches kind of give it a bit of presence but it's like they ran most of the marathon and

16:50 then just stopped right near the end. It really should have all-terrain tyres, maybe have

16:54 a lift and also a snorkel and I really just am not a fan of the wiring and how sort of

17:00 unfinished it looks but like I said, this is a pre-production car so I'm going to reserve

17:04 judgement until I actually see a production car and hopefully by that point the wiring

17:08 will all look nice and neat and finished. So let me know what you think in the comments

17:12 section below. Yes you do get a lot of value with the extra stuff that they've bolted onto

17:16 it but do you think it's complete? Do you think it could do with just a couple more

17:19 bits and pieces to help it have that image? So let me know what you reckon in the comments

17:23 section below. Have you ordered one? Are you going to order one? And if you aren't going

17:26 to order one, what are you going to order instead? I always like hearing from you guys

17:30 and the people that actually buy these things. So if you did enjoy this video make sure you

17:34 share it with your mates, hit the like button and if you haven't done so already, subscribe

17:38 to our channel. But until next time, take it easy.

Category

Transcript

Recommended