Mazda BT-50 test drive since 2006-

New Mazda BT-50: We master the RESTURE Rules

Mazda BT-50 was born in 2006, replacing the old B-2500 old woman. The pickup has reached Russia in the spring of 2007, but for a long time it was not destined to be sold in its original form. The car was updated. Yes, so nimble that since the middle of this September in the new appearance it has become available not only in Europe, but also with us. What changed in the car and how much it became better, we learned, grabbing on it along the crushed coast of the Adriatic Sea near the Croatian Dubrovnik.
So! The first thing we see, approaching the parking lot with new cars prepared for us, are new colors. You just look. Among them are cherry, and beige-brown, and bright blue, and turquoise! And two-color what beautiful! .. Already, they did not expect to see the hard worker BT-50 in such carnival robes. We get closer and notice, the designers filled the physiognomy a little: they changed their eyes, put a new grill, hood and bumper so that the former rightlessness does not even smell here, the pickup gaze has become much more mature.
We load things and sit down. Everything seems to be in their places. But there is something fresh. The lighting of the devices has changed, now it is not homely comfortable and green, but red-amber, like aggressive representatives of the Zoom-Zoom clan. The audio system was able to work with external audio devices thanks to the AUX connector built into the console. Several new options for performing the cabin and tinting the rear windows (on expensive versions) were added.
The front seats are convenient and have quite adequate lateral support, but in height they, as before, unfortunately, are not regulated. So good! I move back almost as much as possible, I raise the steering wheel to the extreme upper position (adjusted only in the vertical plane), fit, stick the first, let go of the clutch. And then I will stall. I forgot to let go of the handbrake, muddler! Second confusion, where is he? Ah, remembered. On the BT-50, it is installed not like everyone else, but to the right of the steering column. If you want to fix the car, pull the club on yourself. If you want to let go, turn the handle clockwise, after which the drive under the influence of return springs will return to its original position.
The material part of the change did not affect. Almost. As before, the fifth is based on a staircase for a stairwell frame. The front suspension is independent torsion on parallel A-shaped levers, the rear dependent spring. The same farm pulls the same four-cylinder MZR-CD diesel with the Common-Rail fuel supply system. The engine, by the way, is very technological. It has a VSCV (Variable Swirl Control Valve) air flow control system and also has an EGR recirculation system EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation). The latter made it possible to achieve the ecological standard of Euro 4 even without the use of anti -dry filters in the exhaust system.
From its 2.5-liters, a 16-plastic equipped with two balancer shafts and an intermediate cooler, it gives out 143 hp. (at 3500 rpm) and truly tractor 330 Newton meters. And this peak, thanks to the turbine with a variable geometry of the guide apparatus, reached at a frequency of only 1800 rpm. So the engine pulls as it should, and at the same time, it requires very little diesel fuel: in mixed mode, only 8.9-liter consumes in the skin of a five-seater BT-shchi on a five-seater BT-shki stroke. Diesel rock in the cabin is practically not heard. The merit of the Mazdovsky engineers, who, finally, ceased to save on noise-absorbing materials.
Mazda BT-50 is surprisingly comfortable. Even in rocky crossed areas, pickups are with dignity. Defender would have been shaken out for a long time, and the fifty is well swimming, swallows with its pendants threatening the size of the boulder and not even choke. Of course, the rear riders are not as comfortable as the front, they are almost at the rear axle (the amplitude of the oscillations is larger), but it is still not the worst option. Shock absorbers engineers put new ones, with an increased diameter. Their replacement on the habits of the car did not affect in any way, however, it should be assumed that the increase in the volume of the liquid should go for the benefit of the stability of the characteristics and increase in the service life.
Prepared off -road with a mud bath, verified arcs and irregularities of BT passed with a bang. But for that, he is a man-made off-road that it is impossible to get stuck on him. And how do you like the provocation in the form of an evasive beach with a small pebble away from instructors? That's the pickup and sat down. Wait until he touches the soil with a crankcase and we will moor on the bridges, but immediately leveled the ruts, put a couple of boards under the buried wheels. And, thanks to the connected front axle, reducing gear and such and such a mother, a pickup on the firmament was calmly erected. Even the pressure in the cylinders did not have to be shaken. We left almost at idle, and everything is due to the fact that the lowering increases the torque compared to the upper number two times. Straight tractor, not a pickup! The rear -blocking differential of LSD on the merits is usually not too effective with diagonal hanging, behaved well done. He practically did not allow him to twitch the unloaded rear wheel in free rotation. So there was enough traction reserve to overcome the pebble trap. In the transmission, by the way, the activation system of wheeled hubs is used, which allows you to connect and disconnect the front bridge in motion at speeds up to 100 km/h. Very comfortably!
The BT-50 asphalt is also not a mistake. Of course, the 1.9-ton high pickup is far from the C-segment hatchback, but it holds the trajectory very reliably, and it is moderately rolling in corners. The same L-200 on the way swims much more. The steering wheel from the stop to the stop makes as many as four turns. The gear ratio is large, so the car is not a sharp and responsive car. Is it necessary? Still, an SUV with a high center of gravity ...
For the vast smoothness of the course, in order to increase the comfort of the spring suspension to the proper level, I would fix a couple of centners of ballast at the rear edge of the cargo platform. Dynamics from this it would suffer slightly, but controllability and stability in addition would noticeably improve. After all, the empty BT-50, especially under the traction, and strives to start the unloaded rear axle into the skid. An additional clamping force would be especially useful on a slippery winter road. Let me remind you that the contrasting system is not provided here, only ABS with the EBD brake forces regulator.
Of the three Ford Ranger (Ford Ranger from there), the bodies of the bodies to us, as before, will only be imported by Double Cab with a five -seater four -door cabin. It will only be equipped with a transmission with all -wheel drive. Modifications of Regular Cab (with a double two -door cabin) and one and a half Freestyle Cab (with an elongated four -door four -seater cabin), however, like the rear -wheel drive, will remain the lot of Europeans and Asians. The Russian market longs for automatic transmission, but so far Mazda cannot satisfy this need. When asked why technical specialists answer evasively. In Australia, there are automatic BT-50! Is it all in production facilities?
With restyling, the pickupian has risen a little: the initial variation of Direct at a minimum costs 626 thousand rubles. (plus 7 thousand). The cheapest Touring will cost 684 thousand rubles already. (plus 14 thousand), and Active is 814 thousand (plus 18 thousand). Of course, farmers could do without modernization, and without increasing costs of goods. But there is one but, with an indistinct clumsy appearance and Spartan equipment in the battle for the hearts of young and active, eager to roll out into nature with a pair of motics, a tent and kayak, you will not go out. And there is anyone to fight Mazde. Competitors are not asleep. Here you have Nissan Navara (from 936 thousand rubles), and Mitsubishi L-200 (from 639,528 rubles), and Ssangyong Actyon Sports (from 592 thousand rubles).
 
  

Vitaly Kabyshev
 

 

Source: Auto.mail.ru