Mazda BT-50 VS Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

On-road, the updated BT-50 is a smooth drive, and it’s refined inside – though diesel engine clatter still creeps into the cabin, especially when you accelerate hard, but that’s the Isuzu connection – and I don’t mind a bit of noise anyway.

Overall, noise, vibration and harshness levels have been appropriately subdued. 

Steering has a consistent weight to it and one which feels right for this ute. Turning circle is a listed 12.5m, so not insubstantial, but this BT-50 never feels too cumbersome to manoeuvre along busy suburban streets or bush tracks.

There’s adequate power and torque on tap, and acceleration is crisp, as long as you’re pushing it hard because this ute is more truck-like than dynamic, but that helps to make it an even-handed, considered driving experience overall.

Front suspension is independent (double wishbones and coil springs), and a live axle and leaf springs at the rear. Ride is firm but generally well sorted, even over chopped-up back-country bitumen.

When it comes to high- and low-range 4WDing, the BT-50 did well, mostly courtesy of the Isuzu mechanicals under the metal.

The engine became noisy when pushed hard, but otherwise the BT-50 did a good job of bush tracks at speed.

It yielded a comfortable and settled drive along the gravel and dirt tracks that lead to our unofficial 4WD proving ground for this test.

The Mazda’s suspension soaked up most of the shallow ruts, potholes and bumps along the track, but the rear end skipped a little here and there as we traversed harsher lumps and ditches. 

It also once again proved quite capable at the low-range 4WDing.

The BT-50 has a listed 240mm of ground clearance, a wading depth of 800mm and approach, departure and ramp-over angles of 27 degrees, 17.9 degrees and 24.3 degrees, respectively. These are not rock-crawling off-road measurements and angles but they check out for a 4WD ute that will spend much of its time on city and suburban streets.

And, even though its power and torque figures are down on what it had when it was based on the five-cylinder Ranger, the D-Max-based BT-50 does fine.

In low-range 4WD and with the rear diff locked, the BT-50 could tackle most challenges, even a steep rocky hill, but it needed plenty of encouragement (i.e. heavy throttle).

Off-road traction control is effective, hill descent control works well, restricting downhill speed to a controlled three to four km/h, and the BT-50 has reasonable wheel travel.

Driver-assist tech (such as rough terrain mode) aimed squarely at improving the off-roading experience is a neat fit in this package. This mode operates like a boosted off-road traction control, and is claimed to kick into action at a point of less wheel-spin than a standard off-road traction control system, transferring torque to the wheels that have the most traction, sooner rather than later.

Like many modern 4WDs straight out of the showroom, the BT-50’s standard tyres – Bridgestone Dueler H/T 684 II (265/60 R18) – are fine for the blacktop and some light-duty off-roading, but you need a decent set of all-terrains. If you plan to anything tougher than those surfaces.

Otherwise, the BT-50 is impressive off-road without being exceptional. It has a tractable engine, good low-range gearing, and a well-calibrated off-road traction control system, now bolstered with rough terrain mode.

Maximum payload is listed as 924kg, Gross Vehicle Mass is 3100kg, and Gross Combined Mass is 6000kg.

For those looking to tow with their ute, the BT-50 has an unbraked towing capacity of 750kg and a braked towing capacity of 3500kg.

Large handles on the doors and overhead shelves assist climbing aboard and there’s enough adjustment in the well-bolstered seat and leather-rimmed steering wheel to find a comfortable position.

Driver views from all angles are excellent thanks to well-designed mirrors along with cameras supported by active aids like blind-spot monitoring etc.

The cabin, with its high roof relative to seat height, has a spacious and airy feel and all controls are reasonably intuitive and easy to reach.

Unladen ride quality is surprisingly supple for a vehicle with a 6.0-tonne-plus GCM rating, combined with excellent steering feel that strikes a fine balance between minimal turning effort at low speeds (for loading etc) and firm handling response at higher speeds.

The drivetrain is also energetic, pulling strongly and cleanly from 1000rpm even though its maximum torque is tapped higher in the 1700-2400rpm zone. The automatic transmission has admirable refinement, with near-seamless shifting between its nine ratios.

The Sprinter is also impressively quiet at speeds up to 80km/h. Tyre and wind noise (the latter mainly around the large door mirrors) naturally increase at highway speeds, but remain far from intrusive. And with the engine requiring less than 2000rpm to maintain 110km/h, it’s well-suited to highway work.

To test its load-carrying ability, we forklifted 1.3 tonnes into the cargo bay which with driver equalled a payload of 1.4 tonnes. That's still almost half a tonne less than its limit.

Not surprisingly, it handled this load with ease, as handling and braking were largely unaffected and the ride quality became smoother thanks to such a big increase in sprung weight. Even so, the rear springs only compressed about 30mm.

It easily conquered our 13 per cent gradient, 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h with this load onboard, as the auto downshifted to fourth gear to tap maximum torque when hauling this load to the summit.

Engine-braking on the way down, in a manually-selected second gear, wasn’t as robust but not unexpected given a 2.0-litre engine trying to restrain 1.4 tonnes of payload on a steep descent. Even so, the quartet of disc brakes efficiently kept speeds in check.

Overall, it was an impressive performance. However, we did note that the speed sign recognition function was not working for the duration of our test. And some welcome enhancements would be a driver’s left footrest and a fold-down inboard armrest for the driver’s seat, as fitted to its smaller Vito sibling.