Isuzu NNR 65-150: Review

Name: Isuzu NNR 65-150: Review
Brand: Isuzu

Perky, nimble and so easy to drive, Isuzu's NNR 65-150 will please operators and drivers in equal measure…

Truck manufacturers have been making trucks easier and more comfortable to drive for years, to the point that, today, it's hard to say exactly where any more significant gains can be made. Autonomous trucks, I suppose, will be the next generational shift to reshape the paradigm – driver comfort will eventually not even be a consideration, because drivers in the traditional sense may no longer be required.

Thankfully for anyone driving a truck today, that reality – which, if we can believe the experts, will eventually come to pass – won't confront us for many years yet. And in the interim, makers like Isuzu will continue to make trucks that take an increasing amount of the sting out of the driving task.

Mighty mouse

Take Isuzu's NNR 65-150 TC-AMT, for example. The subject of this review, the NNR might be devoid of some of the bells and whistles of its bigger brothers, but it's still a faithful companion on the road with a healthy payload and no shortage of technology lurking beneath its commercial exterior.

Our test vehicle came to us as a box van but the body is not part of Isuzu's Ready to Work range. Most Isuzu trucks are sold as bare cab/chassis, but if a Ready to Work truck isn't available, Isuzu dealers will work with customers to arrive at a specific body to suit their needs, and point them in the right direction to specialists who can be relied upon to get the job done.

In addition to the body, our test truck also sports an air deflector – a $1086 accessory.

Isuzu's N Series range was overhauled in 2015, with the latest generation boasting hundreds of improvements. Click here to read our rundown on the changes.

Our NNR was loaded up with a hefty concrete block in the back, which was certainly enough to settle its leaf springs and shocks at all four corners and give the 3.0-litre, four-cylinder '4JJ1-TCS' turbo-diesel a good workout.

This truck has a 6500 kilogram GVM and so it requires a truck licence to drive it (check with your state roads authority for the specifics), and it comes with a handy GCM of 8000 kilograms. This particular truck also sports an Anteo hydraulic tail-lift, to assist with the loading and unloading of heavier items.

From the tip of its bumper to the rear footplate of the body, this NNR 65-150 TC-AMT measure 6350mm.

Cabin comfort

Hopping behind the wheel is easy because there's just the one grippy step to help you enter the cab and the A-pillar grab handle is right where it should be. The seat is a basic affair – there's no height adjustment, lumbar support or armrest – but the seat back can be adjusted for angle and it slides forward or back.

A truck like this is largely a short-hop vehicle anyway, and with that in mind the cushioning is entirely adequate, although the lack of seat height adjustability does lead to a high ride position for taller drivers. At 188cm, I found myself looking through the top quarter of the windscreen.

The steering wheel can be adjusted for both tilt and reach, there's a dead pedal for your left foot and the instruments are clear and easy to read, with traditional analogue dials for the speedo and tacho backed up a small LCD display for the odometer and trip meter. There's no trip computer on our test truck and a more prominent clock wouldn't go astray, although small digital one is incorporated into the DAVE (Digital Audio Visual Equipment) unit.

DAVE is a factory option but it's well worth investigating. With a colour 6.2-inch touchscreen interface, it incorporates regular and digital AM/FM radio, truck-specific satellite navigation and, if desired, Isuzu Telemetry, the latter opening up new worlds of data and efficiency.

Pairing a mobile phone is simple and the system has voice commands too, although we've found this feature to be a bit hit or miss in its effectiveness.

The cabin is a pleasant enough space in general but there are only two cup holders – in a slide-out frame in the centre of the dash – and no bottle holders. Cab storage is largely limited to a modest shelf behind the seating, twin overhead shelves (with netting to prevent items from falling out) and a tray on the back of the centre seat, which folds forward to give a small workspace.

There are door side pockets but they're very slim – think clipboards and papers rather than phones and house keys.

Sturdy heart

This truck's engine is mated to the latest generation of Isuzu's six-speed automated manual transmission. Now with a torque converter, it makes the driving process no arduous than if it was a large car, with smooth, clean shifts every time. The AMT adds nearly $1900 to the this medium-wheelbase model's base $53,403 base price (plus GST and on-roads), giving a total recommended retail price of $55,270 (plus GST and on-roads). That's excluding the box body.

The transmission automatically elects to start off in second but a first gear start button is on the side of the shifter for hill starts and heavy loads. There's a kick-down feature too, allowing the driver to shift back a gear to better aid momentum in certain conditions.

The engine fires up with a pleasing growl and takes off smoothly and easily. With the engine's redline indicated at 3200rpm, a quick look at the specs below will reveal there's plenty of grunt available pretty much throughout the rev range. Certainly there's useable go from 1500rpm and up, and it's positively toey from 2000rpm to past 3000rpm, even with the weight out back.

At 100km/h on the highway the engine is ticking along at 2400rpm – a speed it feels like it could hold all day, every day.

Noise levels in the cab are thoroughly acceptable, with the noise of the wind whipping around the side mirrors more prominent than any engine noise, and the vision is excellent, thanks in no small part to those same mirrors and the skinny A-pillars.

The NNR displays a remarkably tight turning circle that will certainly endear it to metro drivers. It turns in 11.8 metres kerb to kerb, says Isuzu, a figure that will put some modern dual-cab utes to shame.

One notable omission here is electronic cruise control. It's not such a big deal in a largely city-bound truck, but it's still a nice thing to have on those rare occasions when the motorway isn't choked with traffic.

Tilting the cab is easy but you'll rarely need to – most vital fluids can be topped up either behind the front bonnet or even inside the cab, in the case of the washer fluid and brake fluid. With this box body in place the filler for the 140-litre steel fuel tank is a bit awkward to get to, especially for anyone on the taller side.

The drive itself is remarkably fuss free. The taper leaf springs and shocks do a good job of ironing out most of what our Aussie excuses for roads can throw at us, while the cab rides on liquid-filled mounts front and rear to further soften the blow.

The steering requires only minimal effort at the wheel and the truck rides just fine around the bends, with the usual degree of roll you'd expect of a vehicle of this nature.

Finally, it's quite a frugal beast too. Although this model doesn't come with a trip computer like many in the Isuzu range, a fill up at our journey's end delivered an economy of 5.2km/lt. Nothing wrong with that, and with the aforementioned 140-litre tank we're talking a safe range of around 700 kilometres.

Summing up

There's no shortage of choice when it comes to Isuzu's practical, pragmatic range of N Series trucks. In fact there are dozens of models on offer across a wide variety of GVMs, power ratings, wheelbases and more.

This NNR 65-150 is a reasonably Spartan affair, but it can always be optioned up if desired. However, even in its most basic trim, it's a sturdy, well made and capable workhorse, with all the backup you'd expect of Australia's top-selling truck brand, and it's available at a price that undercuts many a top-spec ute.

2017 Isuzu NNR 65-150 MWB AMT Specifications:

Engine: '4JJ1-TCS' 3.0-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo-diesel

Power: 110kW (150hp) at 2800rpm

Torque: 375Nm at 1600-2800rpm

Emissions: ADR 80/03

Transmission: Isuzu six-speed AMT with torque converter

Configuratin: 4x2

Front suspension: Leaf springs with shocks

Rear suspension: Leaf springs with shocks

GVM: 6500kg

GCM: 8000kg

Wheelbase: 3395mm