Utes

Can the ultimate automotive battle in Australia be solved with physics? If you've read our comparison between Australia’s two favourite cars, you’ll know that the battle for the top sales position is being fought on many fronts, with each vehicle giving or taking ground depending on buyer criteria.

American Special Vehicles (ASV) – the Melbourne company responsible for converting US pick-up specialist Ram’s cars to right-hand drive for the Australian market – has issued a recall for 2540 of its 2019-2020 model-year 1500 pick-up trucks due to a defective windshield wiper assembly. The recall notice, lodged with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), says the defect relates to a faulty joint at the head of the wiper arm that may strip.

Chinese car giant SAIC has released an image of a concept vehicle that is believed to be the next-generation LDV T60 ute. Overseas reports claim the teaser image has been released ahead of an expected unveiling later this year. The concept sketch shows a double cab chassis with much sleeker styling than the current LDV T60, and a roof-mounted storage pod.

The new Mazda BT-50 is just around the corner and the good news is we won’t need to wait long before we find out what it really looks like. While this is an artist impression of the new Mazda BT-50 ute – inspired by Mazda’s recent design themes and an earlier pledge to make the new one more truck-like than the current model – CarAdvice understands it could be unveiled within months and in showrooms sooner than anticipated.

Isuzu Australia has issued a recall of 2323 of its D-Max utility vehicles affected by a faulty suspension component. UPDATE 20/3/2020: Isuzu Australia has confirmed the recall is voluntary and pre-emptive. At time of publishing, no Australian cars have had the suspension component fail. The issue extends to model-year 2018-2019 D-Max crew cabs sold between 27 January 2018 to 28 February 2020.