TECH-HEAVY
Like it or not, any Chinese imported ute is
always going to start life on the back-foot. To
get on any sort of even keel with the traditional
manufacturers, they’ll have to either slash
prices, or greatly add features. LDV figured
they’d do both. Starting from the bottom the
T60 in Luxe and Pro both sport four wheel
disc brakes which is only currently found in
the big-buck VW Amarok. There’s alloy wheels
all-round, as well as a bunch of safety systems
like LED daytime running lights, blind spot
monitoring, and even adaptive headlights that’ll
track the road as you spin the tiller as well as
heated mirrors for defrosting on cold mornings.
On the inside and the Luxe picks up full
leather trim as well as electric front pews but
the big ticket item is the infotainment system.under license from Italian diesel-experts VM Motori
who currently produce the diesel burner in both the
Jeep JK Wrangler as well as the current generation
Holden Colorado, although in the Colorado’s case
it’s re-branded as a Duramax. Despite being under-
powered from factory, the 2.8L donk should be
easily upgraded through tuning as both the Jeep and
Colorado punch out 33 per cent more power at 147kW
with the Jeep making 460Nm and the Colorado
pushing all the way to 500Nm.There’s plenty of touches to add a level of comfort
UNDER THE BONNET
Under the LDV’s aggressive front end is a
2.8L turbo-diesel pushing out 360Nm from
1600rpm right through to 2800 rpm with
peak power coming in at 110kW at 3400rpm.
It’s one of the lowest power outputs in its
class although with such a wide spread of
torque does make it usable, especially when
teamed with the six speed auto ‘box. If the
engine looks familiar it’s because it’s built