Mazda BT-50 test drive since 2006-

City and village

Ba-TE-TITHETY, EN-PE-trista can cars with such names be unhealthy? Nissan does not even try obviously a freight and clearly iron. Mazda is a slightly different story.
 
At the end of last year, both cars cuffed the debut in our market. The NP300 was lit up for the first time, and the BT-50 appeared in an updated form. I must admit that it was an excellent preemptive blow to the Mazdovites, because after restyling, the utilitarian pickup was once reached for a pinch. Especially the option that has visited the test so popular now white, the aggressive shape of the front bumper with an accented lower air intake, new lighting equipment in front and behind. By no means a utilitarian picture was complemented by dashing chrome strokes, this arc in the back and protective double pipes launched along the lower perimeter. How do you like the chrome mirrors? Never utilitarian!
Nissan has no choice but to get confused. He was pleased with a pleasant cherry color and flaunted a brilliant radiator grille, but with a further examination of the presence of trump cards in the sleeves did not show. Modest steps, a naked body that is scratched with the first transportation of the cargo, but if all the Mazdovsky decorations are discarded (which the business executive is unlikely to go broke when ordering a pickupa), then an approximate parity will need to be recognized as an obvious in appearance. This is ordinary freight cubism.
Inside the advantage of an updated Mazda is more obvious. The car itself is fresh, and even after the update. NP300 is also an updated version (appeared last spring), however, much more ancient Pickup model. This is what can be justified by the fatal unpretentiousness of the salon. When you sit down in Nissan, as if you are flying into the past, smooth contours, super -burning plastic, simple fabric chairs, ancient control of the stove, simple devices.
BT-50 is prepared much better. Here, the architecture of the front panel is modern, and the seats are leather, and the devices in the wells (well at least the arrows do not hang down). The steering wheel and lever of the gearbox at the Mazda is covered with leather, the climate is controlled by means of comfortable twists, and the radio does not look in the cabin by an alien growth. Chairs are leather classes, beauty, but what does pickups have to do with it? If you open the hoods, it will become clear that by the traction characteristics of Mazda ahead. Unlike an opponent, which is equipped with a high -pressure fuel engine with a high -pressure fuel pump, there is a much more frisky engine with the Common Rail system. Both in numbers and in the sensations from acceleration, an obvious advantage behind the Mazda. However, the antiquity of the diesel from Nissan has one great advantage when operating away from megacities with their more or less high -quality diesel fuel, reliability, and ease of maintenance.
Parity in the gearboxes. Mechanical five -aisles here and there. There were no special advantages and shortcomings in the work. Unless on both machines the levers are located behind the lever of the handout, which turns into some inconveniences when turning on the fifth gear, it is necessary to stretch. You won’t write anything, initially these were right -handed cars. Mazda turned out to be clearer in control. Its chassis is collected, and it is easier to control the car at high speed. Without loading, both trucks obviously goat, and quite unpleasant. If the body is filled, then the situation is being straightened. But here you need to be prepared for vertical buildup. Nissan has a little more. And do not forget to pump up the wheels if you decide to use at least half of the carrying capacity.
The rudders of opponents are similar, if you need to actively maneuver, each has to be wound on the steering wheel, each makes more than four revolutions from the stop to the stop. With such settings, it would be foolish to dream of intelligible feedback. So she is not here. If we talk about the steering wheel, you can not pass by the obvious dignity of Nissan. This pickup has a small radius of a turn only six meters!
By default, both cars are rear -wheel drive, but the differences in the design of the systems are obvious. The front axis is rigidly connected to Mazda. NP300 has automatic couplings in the front wheels, which are closed at the command of the selector. Turning on all -wheel drive unanimous, you leave the couplings in a closed position. In this case, you can choose between 2WD and 4 WD right in motion. To disconnect the couplings, you should stop a small ritual, select a monotive mode, cut off the rear gear and drive a few meters on it. Why are there such troubles if you can ride with the clutches on and in the rear -wheel drive mode? To the fact that in the latter case you will be accompanied by a transmission rumble and fuel consumption will increase.
When you move off the asphalt to the lane, all the disadvantages of manageability of pickups easily turn into pluses. A long steering wheel eliminates unnecessary sensitivity, and soft pendants magically smoot the bumpy Russian countryside. It’s immediately obvious, now these cars are in the usual habitat. They can confidently and unshakably carry the load and farmers in the right direction. Moreover, their possibilities are such that this very farmer at the wheel, most likely, will begin to panic from a terrible off -road lawlessness that is going on under the wheels of cars, and they will only calmly crawl forward. Judge the permanent all -wheel drive, large corners of the congress, thick and rather toothy tires, reducing gear, and painful diesel engines.
For slippery coatings, Mazda also has a self -block in the rear axle, but with diagonal hanging it may not save, since it does not allow itself to be tightly blocked. However, what diagonal hanging can we talk about if in the back of the luggage? It would seem that all the basic characteristics of the machines are checked, but we, scumbag-journalists, found another funny application to these pickups. At first it was a modest drift on the path bordering the field, then we came to taste and went to the virgin soil filled with a thick layer of snow. And went and went!
Rhythmic drifts of different steepness and speed are given to these machines incredibly easily. Well, the technique of high -speed steering with parallel operation of gas only was only honed. The suspensions, by the way, have never struck. We respect that in advance that amicable farmer, fisherman or hunter who will repeat our venture. Or maybe it will be a mushroom pipe? Working sinks, who gave us two clean pickups, opened their mouths in surprise when, after an hour and a half, we returned along the ears in our ourselves, you know what.
In this form, Mazda and Nissan are very similar. But it is worth washing the dirt, and the car shares the set of nuances again. Mazda won in the test does not look towards a bearded farmer from a remote province. She is cute an active individual from the city, which will fill the body not with wheat, potatoes or sheep food, but an ATV, picnic luggles or fishing rods. Then all this leather-cut-krom will take their logical place in the formation of the image of an updated pickupa. Well, Nissan can console himself with honesty and pronounced utilitarianism. If you need a pickup in its pure form, without some options imposed on marketers, and even more so jewelry, you know where to find it.
Nikolai Ilyin
 
 
 
 
 

A source: Motor magazine [January 2009]