2022 Isuzu MU-X Official Pricing Rip-Off: Full Details.
Isuzu Ute is intelligence testing you. Will consumers pay full price for the mid-spec MU-X 4WD wagon? If you do: Fail.
In my last report on MU-X I detailed the likely outrageous ramp-up in price for what is by any objective estimation still a pretty average seven-seat SUV, spun off the back of a ute.
Here’s that MU-X report for background: 2022 Isuzu MU-X: Will the $9k price rise stop you from buying? >>
This has come to pass, and it’s worse than first predicted.
MU-X drive-away prices have since been confirmed, and they are up outrageously, between $9000 and $15,000, depending on the model grade. That COVID-flation.
If you buy the new MU-X - especially the mid-spec LS-U, at the undiscounted, recommended price - then you fail Isuzu Ute’s intelligence test.
They must be be having a lend. Check this out, a screenshot from Isuzu Ute’s online pricing calculator.
This image is the launch discount drive-away offer for the range-topping LS-T 4X4. Drive-away at $63,990, which is a discount of just over $7000 compared with Isuzu’s arbitrarily irrelevant undiscounted drive-away price, allegedly.
Kinda shows you how much fat there is in the pricing, right there. But it gets worse.
This is the same exercise, same day, but one model grade back. MU-X LSU 4X4 - $64,921. Recommended drive-away price. Today.
The mid-spec car is, today, roughly, $1000 more expensive than the top of the range. That’s bizarre and ridiculous, in my view.
And the news gets worse if you’re sharpening your dealer negotiation axe, ready to slash thousands off when you march into the showroom to go toe-to-toe with the sales manager…
That’s what one Isuzu Ute dealer allegedly told Josh Dowling over at Peter Costello’s CarAdvice. Of course, the dealer’s name was withheld, because Isuzu Ute would have the head of any dealer who speaks out in this way.
This contrived pricing structure might fit better in a work of fiction. But even in Australia, this kind of pricing is absurd.
The real pandemic in this country is high-level incompetence. MU-X pricing is just another brick in that incompetent wall. You front up for the range-topping LS-T, and you drive away for $63,990 - you’re a walk-up start for a $7000 discount.
Or, it’s extortion everywhere else in the range, especially if you don’t want all the extra ‘toys’, because adding toys like sunroof, bigger wheels, seat heating and so on, all adds weight and takes away from usable payload. Some people genuinely want the mid-spec to both save money and increase capability.
You buy the lower-grade LS-U for $1000 more, because “every one of these is going out at full freight”. And you don’t get the fat 20-inch alloys. You also miss out on the front passenger electric seat adjustment, the extra electric adjustment in the driver’s seat available to LS-T, plus there’s no seat heating.
And there’s no tyre pressure monitoring, no LED ambient lighting inside, no remote engine start, no auto dimming rear view mirror (on a $64k car - you cheap pricks). You pay more, and you get less.
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Isuzu Ute’s Dire Straits: LS-M is more money for nothing
In my view, carmakers need to spend substantially less time in the corner office talking about ‘DNA’ and ‘narratives’ in their marketing campaigns, and more time engaged with real people in the real world, spending real money on actual cars.
Car company executives, the big ones, they never actually buy a car - they just use company cars, with free fuel, tax deductible insurance and sometimes even a driver who replenishes drinks in the cupholders.
This is how out of touch they are.
But this is the first time I have ever seen car buyers expected to pay more for a substantially lesser model grade. It’s absurd. Paying more for less is an inversion of commercial reality. That’s how high-end brands like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini sell lighter, faster special versions of their supercars.
If you want the mid-range LS-M, you’ll spend the same as the LS-T, despite looking rather gaunt on the spec sheet.
Even if Isuzu Ute Australia does start to discount LS-U and LS-M at dealer level, it’s still a high starting price for LS-T buyers, but whatever discount you do get in the base model, it will be down to your skill as a negotiator. And let’s face it, the dealer is virtually always better at this than you.
You, John and Jane Public, have to be in the know and somewhere on the sociopathy scale to beat a car dealer at his own game, which is why I wrote a book about beating the dealer, here >>
This is of course why you must do extensive research before ever setting foot into any car dealership:
A) It’s an ambush, and you’re the meat standing on the ‘X’, constantly playing catch-up with a trained assassin, and;
B) You must never presume the underlying foundations of the upcoming deal are in any way equitable, or even rational. Certainly not in this case.
You might just be going in there to browse. Okay, but to a dealer you are a soft target of opportunity, and they are weapons-free, metaphorically. Carmakers and dealers pay a lot to get you in the door, to get you interested, to make you notice their products.
Therefore, to them, you are not leaving without a fight. You’re in the ‘browsing’ business; they’re in the money-making business - and you’ve got plenty, otherwise you wouldn’t be in the dealership looking at all the shiny cars. You’re lunch.
It’s also asymmetric, because in the very least, neither yours or their objectives are aligned. And it’s not just Isuzu Ute, this is buying from any brand in any dealership, generally. Sure, they’ll be happy for you to ‘just look around’, but take every gesture as a tactic - offering you their business card, having a casual conversation, inviting you to use the coffee machine. It’s all premeditated.
Unfortunately, people are walking into Isuzu Ute’s 162 dealerships right now and are paying the full freight for the over-priced mid-spec MU-X. They’re driving home an MU-X that costs more but offers fewer features. And dealers (and Isuzu Ute) are making more money out of them - because they’re un-discounted.
You shouldn’t have to fight for every cent off just because you’re not buying the range-topper. That’s just unfair. There should always be a retail advantage to buying a lower grade of any product.
An MU-X LS-M base model offers an extra 40kg of payload over the LS-T, and 20kg additional payload in LS-U over LS-T. Those lower model grades achieve this weight advantage by having smaller wheels, manual tailgates, no electric motors for seat adjustment, cloth seats, and so on. But Isuzu Ute wants you to pay more for what they lack, instead of saving you $5000-$7,000
The salesman is just walking you through the process, unable to offer you a discount. And they’ll say things like ‘the vehicle has been so popular’, ‘it’s COVID this and that’, ‘computer chip shortage’, or whatever.
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It’s an intelligence test. If you buy the MU-X LS-U, in particular, at full freight, you fail. Isuzu Ute used to have decently transparent, somewhat equitable drive-away discounts across the board, but the price of the new MU-X, and this pricing strategy, is reprehensible.
It seems to me they think this vehicle is so much better than it actually is. They’re completely out of touch with the fact that this is a middle-of-the-road upgrade for a geriatric predecessor. The only thing making it look good is the old MU-X, which was as rough and bare-bones as you could possibly get - even a Suzuki Jimny is comparable in quality and refinement.
And I further suspect they’re expecting you to accept the ‘COVID-flation bullshit’ on the chin, as a justified explanation for this exorbitant price hike. This new model is objectively not revolutionary. It’s a little bit better, at best.
And tragically, they’ll probably get away with refusing to discount the lesser grades for a while, because of latent demand from rusted-on Isuzu Ute buyers rushing in to upgrade. That can’t last, however.
If you’re seriously interested in an MU-X, I urge you to wait until that demand dies down, at which time you’ll have a greater opportunity to negotiate.
This is also true of people who just don’t shop around, like people who buy Toyotas in this way, not because they’re the epitome of automotive excellence, just because they’ve always bought Toyotas. Isuzu Ute is a bit like that, so is Subaru, except Isuzu Ute had a following previously, in part, because the product was cheap.
That quote was from Ben Jaeger, the boss of Isuzu Ute Australia, talking to Josh Dowling, again in CarAdvice.
To me, this pricing strategy is an insult, and you’re a fool if you let them take advantage of you, however unwittingly.
MU-X is just not that good, because it’s okay, it’s average. All these utes converted into wagons are a fundamental compromise unless you want to tow more than two tonnes frequently, or drive on really challenging off-road terrain. No, not just dirt roads, I mean the actual rough stuff, where you engage 4L.
These ‘transitioned’ utes are agricultural and unrefined compared with a Mazda CX-9, Subaru Outback, Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe, which are all objectively better for the conventional transportation of large families, or average-size families with lots of stuff and whom like to go on driving holidays way.
Note: All the above mentioned SUVs will two a moderate size caravan or camper trailer to caravan parks, on dirt roads and light loads to and from Bunnings. You don’t need an MU-X for this moderate work when a seven-seat SUV will take two tonnes and the family in genuine comfort.
And the Isuzu MU-X has several notable omissions in this regard. It’s still running without AWD for high-traction surfaces, using a 1980-style transfer case with only 2H, 4H and 4L - all 4WD settings, locked at 50:50 with the prop shafts mechanically synchronised. That’s disgraceful, in a vehicle Isuzu Ute calls ‘extraordinary’, ‘exquisite’ and which it alleges is ‘coupled with the latest technology’. That’s just not accurate.
Mum driving the kids home on some second-rate bitumen road, in the rain, would definitely benefit from proper torque-distributing AWD. And you even get that in a Pajero Sport, for about $1000 less, undiscounted.
Mazda’s 2.5 petrol turbo makes 170kW and 420Nm, Sorento/Santa Fe 2.2 diesel: 148kW/440Nm.
Isuzu Ute, of course, has a three-phase marketing generator installed in-house and claims MU-X is ‘fully equipped for your next off-road adventure’ as well as being ‘muscular’, ‘modern’ and ‘luxurious’.
‘Luxurious’ is a bold claim, despite lacking ventilated/cooled front seats, even on the highest grade. You certainly get that on a CX-9, Sorento or Santa Fe. Sure, Subaru Outback lacks cooled seats, but you get proper AWD (likewise CX-9, Sorento and Santa Fe). Isuzu Ute doesn’t chill the centre console bin with the HVAC either. And there’s no extendable sun visors on MU-X. That’s just penny-pinching writ large.
A mid-grade Mazda CX-9 GT offers more luxury, comfort, legroom and boot space, 567kg of payload, and two-tonnes’ towing, for the same price as a top-spec MU-X.
There’s only eight speakers in MUX’s sound system, compared with the Bose 294 watt amplifier and 12 speakers in the CX-9 for the same price, and a 10-inch infotainment screen. And MU-X runs the old bee-sting antennae instead of a shark-fin. Enjoy cabled Android Auto, too - no wireless there despite having wireless Apply CarPlay. Still not seeing the ‘extraordinary’. No wireless phone charging either. Oh, and only one USB input up the front (and none in row 3), so have fun arguing over whose phone gets plugged in.
I also can’t see row 2 or row 3 retractable sunshades to keep those harsh UV rays off the kids’ faces. Nor is there a 360-degree camera system like you get in the cheaper Pajero Sport.
You know Hilux and Ranger both have onboard inverters that turn the car’s native 12-volt DC supply into low-current 240-volt AC, like the electricity at home? Not on MU-X. If you want to charge your laptop, it’s off to Jaycar for an in-car inverter, if you’re an Isuzu Ute fan-boy. ‘Fully equipped’ - please.
Pajero Sport offers 240-volt charging, for under $60K.
If MU-X was some sort of massive leap forward for this category, you could almost excuse these absurdly pompous statements and the price hikes. But this MU-X is just the same mediocrity on a different day, somewhat upgraded - new implants, new lipstick, new haircut.
And the base model LS-M is so emphatically ‘poverty’. They have genuinely worked hard to make you look like a proper tight-arse if you buy one.
That base model grille is awful - it’s beyond awful. No front parking sensors, either, which is disgraceful cost-cutting, with a clear safety penalty attached to it. Rear sensors only in the base model. Did they save $10 per car doing that?
And, you’ll love this if you’re considering an MU-X, there’s a push-button engine start/stop button across the range, but it’s only paired with a proper proximity key on (top-spec) LS-T and (mid-spec) LS-U. You still have to unlock the LS-M using the key fob. A $40K Mazda 3 has a better features list.
There’s no LED daytime running lights, no rear privacy glass, no roof rails, no ambient door light, no overhead centre console light, a measly 7-inch touchscreen, I’ll bet the 4-speaker stereo sounds like a 1920s ham radio, and you get a plastic steering wheel.
It really is wholly cynical.
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TOWING
Isuzu Ute has thought so long and hard about the real towing proposition of this vehicle they thought mounting the rear camera off-centre from the towball, making it very difficult to line up the trailer’s hitch. Except to get that wrong dozens of times, possibly even scuffing the rear bumper.
You also cannot turn off the retarded lane-keeping driving aids without having to search through the touchscreen - there’s no button for disabling these functions, despite the handbook telling you to turn them off for towing. Well done, Isuzu Ute.
For a vehicle billed as “fully equipped for your next off-road adventure” as well as the “perfect travelling companion” for 3.5-tonne towing “whatever the terrain” then riddle me this:
Why has Isuzu Ute seen fit only to include tyre pressure monitoring only in the range-topping LS-T? That’s insane, given how vital tyre pressures are to safe highway driving, safe off-roading and safe towing. And after all the encouragement Isuzu Ute is giving prospective owners to go towing. Tyre pressure monitoring is not a big-buck feature, it’s an easy victory when you’re fitting it in a production environment. They just wanted to save money, I suspect.
And 3.5 tonnes ‘whatever the terrain’ - get real. In the real world, where people are actually killed or end up in hospital when they overstretch their abilities, tow capacity diminishes as terrain severity increases. If you are towing big heavy trailers on extreme off-road terrain, you’re endangering yourself and others who might be sharing the road with you, as well as the air medics who have to fly out to rescue you in remote, hard-to-access areas.
It’s this kind of bullshit propaganda in particular that leads normal people who lead ordinary lives to believe shitboxes like their MU-X can tow 3.5 tonnes anywhere, carrying anything, with their dearly beloved or their close mates on board. Sometimes with disastrous consequences. It’s therefore socially irresponsible to claim this kind of thing, in my view.
And if Isuzu Ute wants to take issue with me on this, here’s my challenge to them. Their claim is: ‘The perfect travelling companion for 3.5-tonne towing, whatever the terrain’ (and, based on Isuzu’s website, that’s certainly what it seems to be) then I invite Isuzu Ute to supply an MU-X with a driver and a 3.5-tonne caravan, and I’ll choose the terrain and bring a camera crew. That could be fun.
If it were to happen, I suggest you don’t buy a demonstrator for the next few months following.
Sorry Isuzu Ute fan-boys (not really), but it seems to me the MU-X has been carefully constructed to achieve the mediocrity status quo, and yet the pricing is one of the most cynically extortionate boardroom echo chamber exercises I have ever seen.
And, you know what’s sad about this test? For the first three months, with a line of fan-boys over the horizon, it’ll probably work. But if I were you, wait.
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Pajero Sport is an excellent value off-roader if you need a 4WD with a reliable diesel engine, good fuel economy and enough towing power. This tough 7-seater is a wise choice for adventurous families.