Mazda has just overhauled the design of the BT-50 with a revised interior and exterior design. Unfortunately the engines and drivetrain remain unchanged - but has it improved enough to make it worth adding to your shopping list? Paul Maric finds out.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2025-mazda-bt-50-review-2
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:05
Interior: 04:52
Infotainment: 06:14
Safety tech: 07:45
Practicality: 08:21
On the Road: 10:48
Acceleration & Braking: 16:05
Off the Road: 18:16
Verdict: 24:32
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.
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#mazda #bt50 #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2025-mazda-bt-50-review-2
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:05
Interior: 04:52
Infotainment: 06:14
Safety tech: 07:45
Practicality: 08:21
On the Road: 10:48
Acceleration & Braking: 16:05
Off the Road: 18:16
Verdict: 24:32
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:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#mazda #bt50 #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:0043.5 meters that is a long long stopping distance one more shot with rough road mode
00:08look at that did i speak too soon no there you go it's genuinely amazing
00:14g'day i'm paul mazda they've updated the bt50 have a look at this looking very stylish now
00:22so bt50 shares a platform with the isuzu d-max and uh mazda was given the opportunity to influence
00:29front a little bit of rear styling and interior now it's been subject to a facelift we'll run
00:35through that in a second plus all the other details you need to know now this one here is the
00:39top spec it is called the bt50 sp it's priced at just over 71 000 the whole range has gone up in
00:46terms of price manuals are dead now as well if that is too expensive the entire range kicks off at around
00:5236 grand so there's something in there for everyone uh today we're going to do a detailed review of
00:58this so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review you've got time codes on the
01:01screen or if you're on youtube you can scroll down and use the chapters below we're going to do a bit
01:04of light off-roading as well let's talk about design so optional colors around 700 bucks not the end of
01:09the world the design i really like what they've done here they've really just differentiated this
01:15from the previous model whereas isuzu with the d-max did the slightest change you can barely see what
01:21the difference is whereas here they've really gone to town on giving this a mazda family face with
01:25that sort of enormous grill there this red highlight which you see featured on the cx5
01:30so i think in terms of the update it is quite a substantial one love the color as well they've
01:34really gone down the path of giving this a lifestyle appearance this is more for the person
01:39that perhaps isn't a tradesman it's more for someone who wants this as a lifestyle vehicle and
01:43that's why you got variety in terms of colors and some of the accessories that you can get on here as
01:47well they've spent a fair bit of time developing so that is an enormous mazda logo it's like
01:53hand-sized i've never seen anything that big that's crazy uh piano black around the rest of those parts
01:59and then darker elements around here and down the bottom partial led headlights so the indicator is
02:05uh just a standard sort of globe a little bit of aero down here with a fog light as well
02:10around the side here you're getting highway terrain tires and that's fitted on an 18 inch alloy wheel
02:17nice finish on that so basically a matte finish with a plastic hub cap in the center there
02:22piano black wheel arch guards not sure i love those if you're going to do a lot of sort of
02:27off-roading you know scratch the crap out of those and this car's actually just come from the launch
02:31and you can see already that the scratch mark cover this section as well so it's going to be hard to
02:36keep scratch free over time indicator built into the wing mirror still no 360 camera which is pretty
02:41disappointing uh side steps they've got a metallic finish to them which is good means they're a little
02:46bit more robust than just the plastic stuff that you find on some cars today black grab handles
02:50this one has proximity sensing no privacy glass which is a bit of a weird one roof rails look at
02:55the sail plane so can't really sort of do much with that rather back here retains drum brakes so
03:01they didn't bother doing any sort of major mechanical updates on this same story with the wheel arch
03:05guard there piano black by the way this works i know that we said in our prado video that these
03:10enviro safe things don't work we bought this with our own money it just does such a good job of
03:15just taking flies away and it means that they're not sort of all over my face for most of the time
03:21this is a bike carrier i think i'm not really sure how it works but you sort of place bikes on it and
03:26it's available as an accessory come around to the back with me i'll run you through the rest of this
03:29stuff now back of the bt50 not a great deal has changed here so you've got partial led taillights
03:344x4 badge bt50 over here offset camera i've said this before countless times they just need to be
03:40central it just makes hooking up a trailer much easier i don't know why they persist in doing this
03:45sort of stuff but it is what it is three and a half ton brake towing capacity on versions of this
03:50with a three liter engine the 1.9 gets a lower towing capacity i'm hoping that we're going to see the
03:55the updated uh version of that entry level engine which they released in thailand a little while back
04:00so hopefully that comes to australia soon just to give us a bit more variety because that 1.9 i reckon
04:04just lacks a little bit of punch so a little sticky beak in here oh that is dusty like someone
04:11must have forgotten to close that when they were off-roading and sorry about the marketing stuff on
04:15the back like i said this has just come from the launch so it's still got all that stuff uh on it
04:19uh manual uh tonneau cover there so use the rope here to pull it back uh they've got hydraulics now
04:25on this uh tailgate as well which makes it easier to drop down and easier to lift as well which is
04:31which is pretty good let me run you through the dimensions and payloads so you get a load length
04:34of just over 1500 mil 15 30 mil load width and 11 20 between the wheel arches in terms of payload
04:42it's about 900 kilos now let me know in the comments section below what do you reckon about
04:47this what do you think about the pricing would you get something else instead of this let me know what
04:51you reckon about the design as well right oh so we're inside the bt50 this is what the key looks
04:56like you've got remote start lock unlock and then on the back you've got the mazda logo it's a
05:02proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your pocket get a push button start just down here
05:06now let's chat about some of the design changes so it's a bit of a weird one but i love the fact
05:10that the uh the knobs are back now and it means that you can actually adjust uh volume and all that
05:16sort of stuff very easily without needing to just deal here with steering wheel controls which was
05:20always the i don't know it was just a bit annoying you know so just having that back that system works
05:25much better that way um outside of that the rest sort of looks fairly similar have a look at these
05:29seats though they are pretty impressive so you've got alcantara down the middle there with red sort
05:34of leather highlights around the side so this is a sort of really uh premium looking setup and you
05:40know for this kind of money you expect it to be to be nice and premium as well in terms of your
05:44touch points nice and soft there in the center and what big reach soft on the door as well how soft
05:49are they we've got our durometer we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin if you want to see how
05:54this car compares to others that we've tested before look at the link in the description below
05:58now build quality what is it like tiny bit wonky in the center there do you own a bt50 or a d max
06:05what has it been like for you they sort of hold together nicely let me know and this is what the
06:10door slam sounds like so let's chat infotainment nine inch infotainment screen you have inbuilt
06:17satellite navigation uh the home screen is different now too so go on just a sort of slightly clumsy
06:23layout you've now got the option of uh basically putting uh your auxiliary controls on the screen
06:30as well such as your four wheel drive controls which we'll have a little play with later on as
06:34we got here electrical so this is where you can change some of the settings and the adas settings
06:37as well the fact that you can also see tire pressure on here as well is pretty good and then which
06:42four-wheel drive mode you're in um audio am fm dab digital radios uh carplay android auto both
06:48wireless now so click on that very nice i've got it plugged in at the moment but it basically works
06:54over wireless and actually quite nice and and quick too the old one used to be a little bit laggy but
07:00that um that seems to work much better i'll show you what android auto looks like it's a full screen
07:04there as well hey let us know if you want us to do another apple carplay versus android auto video
07:09because we did one a while ago and it sort of did pretty well so i'd be happy to do it again now that
07:13we've got a pixel and uh an iphone as well so um we can we can run through that screen ahead of the
07:18driver seven inch display look these are they have these sort of same displays on sort of lower ford
07:25ranger models and i just think they're a little bit of a cop-out especially on your top spec one you
07:30really want to just have a full digital display there but here they mix analog with digital and
07:34it looks fine but it's sort of just a little bit um a little bit chintzy i reckon but uh you do have
07:40configurable options there in the center and you can change between different displays as well fairly
07:44easily now safety you have an auto dimming rear vision mirror blind spot monitor built into your
07:50wing mirror front and rear parking sensors you have radar cruise control with a semi-autonomous
07:57steering system that doesn't really work that well and a reverse view camera i'll show you what that
08:02looks like there it is there so quality of that is improved way better than the last one and i think
08:06the limitation on the last one was screen resolution but that is much better there and the reason this
08:11sort of doesn't work that well is it just sort of veers in and out of the lane quite a lot and it's not
08:15really all that accurate so i think that system could definitely do with a bit of extra work and that's
08:20what the horn sounds like okay practicality let's kick off with your connectivity uh down here usb c now
08:26you've got a 12 volt outlet beneath that no wireless phone charging pretty disappointing i would have
08:33liked to see that added in but anyway uh this is what it is uh you've got cup holders for phone
08:39storage there if you need them and two tiers of glove boxes one up the top there with some go-go juice
08:45in it from someone uh and then glove box down here with what is the world's thickest manual i reckon
08:51it's just i just yeah anyway massive manual uh you've got sunny's holder up the top here as well
08:58and next to the driver's knee a little slot there for coins and other bits and pieces and also you've
09:02now got a usb up here i don't think this was here previously but it seems like they've added that in so
09:08that is for fitment of dash cams and your comfort you have dual zone automatic climate control up the
09:12front here you've got heated seats for the front row but i wish they would have had some perforations
09:17here today today's been hot and i've been sweating bullets this thing it just soaks up all your sweat
09:24but it doesn't really sort of give you that sort of relief from the heat it'll be nice to see some
09:29perforations there just to make it a little more comfortable in in sort of oppressive heat like this
09:33in terms of seat adjustment electric for the driver so you can go forwards backwards your backrest can go
09:38forwards and backwards you can also lift the front of the seat and the back of the seat and you've got
09:42lumbar adjustment as well steering offers both tilts and reach adjustments and on our reach test
09:48all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving now before i jump in let me run you through
09:52some of the features here so you can pull this down to expose your jack and also top tether points
10:00then you've got storage beneath the seats as well look at this it's padded too
10:06very impressive all right let me hop in and grab handle up the top here shut this and see what
10:13space is like it's actually not too bad i've got my driver's seat sort of pretty far back and i've
10:19got reasonable knee room there toe room's not bad head room's not too bad as well usb charger up here
10:26let's have a look at usbc nice air vents down here little storage slot there hook there for your bits
10:30and pieces mat pockets here you've got a center armrest in here as well with a couple of cup holders
10:37live surround sound up the top here for the for the sound system and then the window test does it go
10:43all the way down oh ripper great stuff
10:46all righty so we've just hit the road in the bt50 it is hot out here today so you're going to hear a lot
10:58of the air conditioner running because i am schwetti so let me run you through the specs so
11:04this hasn't changed retains the same isuzu engine a three liter four cylinder turbocharged diesel engine
11:10140 kilowatts of power 450 newton meters of torque so not exactly you know amazing outputs when you
11:17consider that a lot of the the rest of the range here are really moving on pilax ranger you've got some
11:24of the chinese vehicles as well all with 500 newton meters of torque these guys are really getting
11:29left behind so hopefully there is a plan for them to fix that especially with the looming emissions
11:34targets we have here in australia that are really going to punish manufacturers that don't have
11:40the sort of emissions controls across their models so it'll be interesting to see how it goes for them
11:46specifically isuzu though because they're they're the ones with only two vehicles in their range so
11:51anyway what does this engine feel like behind the wheel so it's paired to a six-speed automatic
11:55transmission the transmission is a bit of a slug like if i bury it now there is a small eternity
12:01before anything happens so it takes a little while there for it to wind up and you know i just think
12:07that given you're already down on torque you probably want a transmission that just has a bit more
12:12eagerness to it and doesn't have to wait around as much so perhaps they've gone for robustness as
12:17opposed to that sort of outright speed and stuff but i just think they could improve that a little
12:23bit now let's talk about fuel economy so mazda claims a combined average of eight liters per hundred
12:28we're currently sitting on 9.6 so close-ish a fair bit of highway driving this literally came from
12:35the launch where they were doing off-road driving as well so probably higher average than what you
12:39would expect and expect it to creep up a little if you're if you're towing and doing predominantly city
12:44driving now sidewaves we do this at 130 kph which is maximum speed limit here in australia and it just
12:55gives us a good indication of what this will be like for overtaking and all the sort of stuff you're
13:00going to be doing out in the country with dodgy roads oh wow yeah that's not very good it just has
13:08a lot of bounce to it doesn't have that body control at the top end so while it is sort of
13:14fairly comfortable in and around town it's sort of softened off a little bit you pay the penalty
13:20there when it comes to things like sidewaves and you've got to remember that the more people you
13:24have in the car the more load you have on the vehicle such as if you're towing the more that's
13:28going to be amplified so while it's bad at 130 the more load you have at a lower speed you're
13:33going to feel that same effect so probably something they need to improve on okey dokey it is bumpy road
13:40time we do this at 90 kph this is a shocker of a road and representative of corrugations potholes
13:46all the sort of fun stuff you're going to find given the ride is smoother it kind of just glides
13:51over this stuff without too many dramas we've got a condensed sine wave coming up here let's see
13:56how it performs through this it's actually doing reasonably well there for a vehicle with leaf
14:05springs they they tend to perform i guess at their peak when they have load on the rear whereas this
14:12is almost entirely unloaded at the rear so it is actually doing a pretty decent job
14:16okay let's go for a spirited lap around the track we test all cars back to back in the same way
14:25to see what their dynamics are like and where the flaws in the system are remember d-max having
14:31uh an overactive stability control i suspect this will be the same sort of thing
14:36yeah there it is biting and biting um you know what what is the the relevance of that to you
14:50as a consumer well the relevance is that if you do need to to step on it and and get moving a little
14:57bit through some corners you're going to find that when stability control kicks in there it's going to
15:02limit your torque delivery for several seconds until it sorts itself out that is one of the downsides
15:08steering actually feels pretty decent
15:10the brakes don't feel too bad either so i think it's just slightly overactive traction control
15:18some brands like toyota with the hilux forward with the ranger they fit like a sport mode or a power
15:22mode kind of just gives you that extra grunt behind the wheel
15:26this could definitely do with something like that just to ease it up a little bit and just give you
15:35a bit more control over it on the road so yeah only sort of criticism there
15:39now what about your road noise so typical dual cab ute fair bit of road noise on coarse chip surfaces
15:46it is to be expected and expect it to be worse if you go for an all-terrain tyre as opposed to the
15:52highway terrains that are fitted to this we put it up against our calibrated sound meter and
15:56this is how it went if you do want to compare this to other cars that we've driven before there is
16:00a link in the description below okay time to do a little bit of performance testing i'm going to go
16:09zero to 120 so that we can get our zero to 100 and our 80 to 120 overtaking time i'm going to switch off
16:17stability control just so we can get some wheels slip off the line if we need to all righty here we go
16:24probably a little bit too much let's just see how we go do it again if we have to so there's 80
16:37100
16:41and 120 all right took a little while all right let's have a look at how that went
16:48zero to 100 11 seconds wow 80 to 120 8.18 seconds there's a long time um yeah let's see how
17:04that compared to the old one well there you go just had a look at the old one 11.18 so
17:10marginally quicker i think the other car we tested had a bull bar so it probably weighed a little bit
17:15more but um yeah there you go okay let's do a stop from 100 let's see what the brake and tyre package
17:21is like all right there's 100 here we go all right so 100 to 0 3.25 seconds 43.5 meters that is a long
17:43long stopping distance um and if i compare that to the last car that we tested it's
17:48three meters longer in terms of the stopping distance with which uh it didn't really make
17:52any sense to me we did wet the skid pan earlier today but um it was a little while ago and it's 30
17:58what is it 34 degrees outside at the moment so yeah anyway yeah not the best stopping distance in the world
18:05now how quick does it go in reverse here we go
18:1248 kilometers an hour okay let's do a little bit of light off-road driving so i'll run you
18:20through the specs first so we're talking about a ground clearance 240 mil you have an approach angle
18:26of 30.4 degrees which is the angle of the face you can approach before you hit the front of the car
18:30a departure angle of 24.2 degrees which is the same but in reverse weighting depth of 800 millimeters
18:37which is pretty decent um inside the cabin uh i'll run through the infotainment changes in a second
18:42terms of the off-road stuff but you've got two-wheel drive high range which is predominantly for driving
18:47on sealed surfaces we actually shot a video where i explain how all of that stuff works you can click
18:51up there to watch that four-wheel drive high range which is for unsealed surfaces four-wheel drive
18:55low range you have a rear diff lock and also a rough road mode we'll see how well that works here
19:03compared to what it does in the d-max in theory it should do pretty much the exact same thing so we're
19:07going to kick off uh in two-wheel drive high range i just want to see how the traction control performs
19:12we do this same test in all dual cab utes and four-wheel drives that have two-wheel drive high range
19:19so i'll dip the front into here and then that will lift the rear right which is just there
19:25so i'm going to lean on the throttle now and we'll see how well the traction control
19:29limits will slip to allow us to get over this obstacle okay so you can see the traction
19:33control light is flashing but it's ineffective in terms of getting us over there so i'll turn
19:38traction control off do the same thing again lean a little harder on the throttle
19:47it's funny even with traction control off the thing is still flashing there so okay um now watch this
19:54in the uh in the d-max pressing this basically transformed it so there's rough road mode is
20:00active there i'm gonna lean on the throttle now isn't that you can immediately hear it and
20:06look at it get over this obstacle it is like night and day in terms of how well that operates so
20:12really cool to see that mode just you know just makes it so much easier to drive over small things
20:17while you are off-road and not have to stress too much about having to switch
20:21uh into full drive modes and so on so yeah that's cool okay now let's pop this into full drive high
20:27range we'll see how this performs going back in the other direction now in this direction we're
20:33basically going to have limited traction on the front left so see how this performs in this position just
20:41here okay so there it is there no dramas at all so basically that rough road mode again is just
20:52limiting wheel slip and allowing it to climb over that without any dramas at all okay time to tackle
20:57our hill so i'm going to pop this into low range and we will also lock the rear diff um and see how we
21:06go so the hill has been regraded recently so this should be easier for the vehicle to climb but let's
21:14just see how we go it's quite soft around the edges constant throttle and then i'll come back again
21:19um there we go it's just not marking that
21:24that's a little bit disappointing all right we'll go back
21:29give that one more crack
21:30so i'm curious to see does rough road mode there you go it works in low range so give that one more
21:38shot with rough road mode constant throttle and just see if it makes any difference
21:47look at that did i speak too soon no there you go it really is genuinely amazing how much of a
21:54difference a good traction control system makes the difference between us getting up there and not was
22:00just one button so yes you can attack that stuff at pace and then get up there without any problems
22:05but the the lower the speed you have the less damage you're going to do to the vehicle so uh
22:09yeah that is uh that is pretty cool to see that it got up there so easily with that that mode engaged
22:15now hill descent control i'm going to switch that rear diff lock off look normally with hill descent
22:21control i'd be just using low range and just manually selecting gears because
22:27yeah it just gives you more control over the descent but just for the purpose of testing
22:32we'll see how this goes
22:36okay so hill descent is activated i'll just come to the top and come to a stop it is disappointing
22:42there is no camera that looks over the front there but anyway
22:47yeah it's okay just not not a super sophisticated system in my opinion doesn't give you the control
22:53that some other brands give you when it comes to sort of moving through uh hill descent control
22:58at different speeds but anyway it is what it is now i should mention as well uh the the off-road
23:03stuff that you see here you've basically got angle display shows you which direction your wheels are
23:08turned as well so pretty useful stuff if you are off-road and then it tells you whether your rough
23:14terrain mode is engaged in which full drive mode you're in so yeah pretty useful features okay take two
23:19this time what i'm going to do is basically come to a stop on the way up and then see how willing the
23:29car is to take off from there again so i'll come to about there we go to the brake onto the throttle
23:36rough road mode is active all right there we go
23:41nice nice very well done awesome so again rough road mode saves the day okay last thing we're going
23:51to do a little bit of rock driving see what the ground clearance is like so i'm going to ride the
23:57brake with the throttle here in four-wheel drive low range just to crawl over this stuff
24:01whoops as my phone goes all over the place
24:11yeah very nice the suspension is really nice and smooth over this little touch down there on that
24:16side step it all feels pretty pretty decent and i'm able to modulate throttle with the brake here as
24:24well it's not giving me a warning about pressing both pedals at the same time so very good all right
24:30cool there you go the updated mazda bt50 much the same as before but not such a bad thing you've
24:37got better infotainment system now with the knobs you don't need to just use your steering wheel
24:42controls uh comes with just all the extra stuff that it should have had to begin with i do like
24:46the new design as well so only question is is it too much money you're kind of really up there
24:52in terms of price when it comes to this sp grade whether it is too much i don't know but um
24:57yeah keen for your feedback let me know in the comments section below would you get this over
25:01a d max would you get this over a hilux or a ranger let me know in the comments section if you did enjoy
25:06this video please make sure you like it and share it with your mates and catch you next time
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