For years, Pakistanis had only one choice for an off-road pickup truck, the Toyota Hilux. When Isuzu introduced the D-Max in 2018, we had high hopes for the new pickup. But things never took off for Isuzu’s truck as Toyota didn’t give it a chance.
Sales of Isuzu D-Max
Isuzu D-Max did sway some buyers, just not enough to gain a footing in the market. By 2020, D-Max had acquired a 15% share of the pickup truck market. In just a year, the off-road vehicle lost so many sales; the market share dropped to 4% as of today.
During the first three months of this fiscal year (July to September 2021), Isuzu could only sell 131 units of the D-Max. The company sold 96 units during the same period last year.
Sales of Toyota Hilux
Toyota Hilux, on the other hand, was already a tried and tested market product, which only got better with time. As per the PAMA report, a total of 3,209 Hilux units have been sold during the first three months of this fiscal year. Last year, the number was 1,702.
On one side, we have 3000+ sales of Toyota Hilux. On the other, we have only 131 sales of Isuzu D-Max. See the big difference?
Toyota Hilux will continue to enjoy being the number one single cabin pickup truck in Pakistan, no question about that. Isuzu D-Max could not and would not be a threat to Hilux. Now, some other car companies have their eyes on this segment. MG and Changan are testing their pickup trucks, MG Extender and Changan Hunter, to launch them in the local market. Even if they do, it will take these newbies to do more than D-Max to take over Hilux.
Why do you think Isuzu D-Max couldn’t hold a place in the market? What could Isuzu do more to make D-Max a potential rival to Hilux? Share your thoughts in the comments.
DMax lags because:
No diff lock
No rear AC vents
No cruise control
Not a significant price difference.
I’d go for the Isuzu in a heartbeat if they upped their game and gave better value for my money. As of now, it’s not worth it.
You sound surprised author, given the thought process of our elite class, nothing else was expected. Moreover, I agree with Mr. Sohail but would like to add that D-Max also lacks the users experience based durability that Toyota Hilux has in full swing.
As for MG and Changan, well, in my view, these two vehicles do not even stand a chance, you see Isuzu failed even when it has a reputation our calculated elite class did not risked their money on, based on Isuzu’s fall, I doubt that they would waste their money on Chinese iterations of Toyota Hilux.
I think there are only 2 reasons for Dmax failure:
1. Price point, where it was priced very close to Hilux and hence was bound to fail (getting into details not reqd)
2. Very limited reach of after sales service network