There are 10 dual-cab utes on sale right now with enough room for the kids and all their stuff. But you can’t possibly test them all…

Choosing the right ute can be tricky, especially if you need to put the kids in it over the weekend and hitch a tool trailer before the sparrows rise on Monday.

The dual cab ute has become an Australian favourite because you can do both of life’s primary tasks with one vehicle, work and play.

While the boots and electronic all-wheel drive systems on sedans and SUVs are good for most of life’s to-do list, you can’t do it all in them without butchering their interiors, scuffing their paint, ripping off stone trays and gauging alloys wheels on curbs.

And you can’t take mum’s Kia Cerato camping. Nor can you tackle rocky inclines in a Toyota RAV4, and your luxurious Mazda CX-9 is not designed for routine hard yakka.

The only vehicle capable of doing both the suburban crawl and getting the hell outta dodge, is a dual cab ute.

Here’s the shortlist of mainstream utes you’re most likely to consider buying for your mob and to use during the week - in no ranking order.

• Toyota Hilux - The biggest selling vehicle in Australia; does a lot right and plenty of the mundane jobs okay. No CarPlay/AndroidAuto.

  New model coming for 2021, so wait for that and give it about six months for any faults or recalls to be ironed out. Really good resale value on the outgoing model, keep in mind.

  Higher-spec Rogue, Rugged and Rugged X are best for using solely on their own with plenty of adventuring extras included (snorkel, bullbar, LED lightbar, towing kit etc). However, Hilux is quite expensive at over $60 grand (for SR5) and still drives the same way it always has, which is average unladen and okay with a full tray.

  2.8-litre diesel is decent on power (130kW / 450Nm), but higher-spec models with additional accessories just add weight which, unless you’re actually going to use them, are money wasted. Power-to-weight ratio 63.6 kW per tonne (SR5).

  Toyota does have the biggest dealer network in Australia, so almost every major town has a service department should you need support. Towing capacity is quoted at 3.2 tonnes for the auto and 3.5 tonnes for the manual, however, you definitely shouldn’t put this much on the back unless it’s for rare occasions and short distances, for safety reasons.

  Servicing is still at six months or 10,000km (whichever comes first), and costs $250 per service for the first two years/40,000km. We’ll see if any of that changes with the new one.

• Ford Ranger - The main rival keeping Hilux in check, routinely outselling Hilux in 4x4 dual-cab form, despite also being quite expensive (all things considered). Wildtrak is very appealing, but not the best case for heavy towing and payload assignments (much like Hilux Rugged X) - only 222kg of payload allowed with 3.5 tonnes on the back (again, unadvised). With XLT, it’s 322kg (because its GVM is 100kg lower).

  Ranger is also about to be succeeded by a new model built in partnership with Volkswagen doing the new Amarok. Give it about six months to find out if it’s got any recalls or problems. The new one should be good, but it won’t be cheap.

  I recommend, if you’re keen on the outgoing Ranger (which I suggest, with the most service life and fairly proven 3.2-litre, and 2.0-litre twin-turbo, diesels), you can haggle pretty hard to get a good deal on a runout, if you’re firm on what price you want to pay. It’s also got the longest wheelbase of these four utes here, at 3.22m, so over longer trips you’ll have the most legroom.

  Servicing: (first interval) 2 months / 3000km; ongoing 12 month / 15,000km.

  Ranger XLT ($60k) is better for really heavy towing, albeit with less features. If you’re spending more time driving around moderately laden (tools, people, supplies, medium trailer), the Wildtrak might be the better all rounder, bank account permitting. Otherwise, if you can’t afford that, keep reading…

• Mitsubishi Triton - Excellent value for money, especially in the mid- and upper-range, good payload capacity with a moderate towing load, clever ‘Super Select II’ 4x4 transmission which allows 4WD on high-traction surfaces like wet or icy roads. (Most utes can’t run in 4WD on regular roads without breaking).

  Triton GSR, with all the features of a Wildtrak or SR5, including auto emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring and 360-degree camera, and the mis-acceleration mitigation feature (which cuts engine power if the car detects you’re accidentally accelerating into something) - but it’s $10k cheaper. Better power/weight ratio (66.5kW/t) than SR5 and Navara N-Trek) - don’t just go off the outright power figure of 130kW, because Triton’s lighter.

  Triton is a bit hard to look at, aesthetically, at the front, but driving it you don’t have to see the front. And in practical terms, which most ute buyers should be focused on, it’s not important how it looks. Although, the GSR looks better with blacked-out grille. Triton gets a dedicated transmission oil coller, which matters for proper off-roading. Just watch out for loading heavy items too far rearward of rear axle, so weight doesn’t hang over the back, or use a trailer.

  The cabin is a little bit narrow and cramped, especially if you have four adults on board, but I wouldn’t be trying to traverse the country in any dual-cab ute anyway. If you’re buying a ute to put kids in the back, cabin space for them won’t be a big issue. Also, towing is capped at 3.1 tonnes, which is much more reasonable (safer), with really good payload when towing is maxed: 743kg. 901kg payload when empty, not as good as XLT (1000kg), SR5 (955kg) or Navara N-Trek (917kg). Servicing: 12 months / 15,000kms (whichever comes first).

• Nissan Navara - Should do the job for most road-going only families not intending to tow anything particularly heavy (because of coil springs in the rear), but this does make it comfortable. A new Navara is coming for 2021 too, so haggle hard for a runout model if you can’t wait.

  New N-Trek Warrior model gets lots of cool off-road gear, designed and made in Australia, similar to the Rugged Hiluxes, but it too is $64-grand-plus, so you’ll have to want one to justify the price. And it does look awesome, in addition to getting 32.2-inch Cooper All-Terrain Tyres on 17-inch black alloys, suspension raised by 1.5 inches, integrated LED lightbar, 268mm of ground clearance (SR5: 225mm, XLT: 237mm, GSR: 220mm). N-Trek is a good option if you’re a serious camping family who like to find the harder-to-reach campsites. Navara gets a dedicated transmission oil cooler, which is really good for off-road.

  But most buyers will probably look at the ST-X 4x4 at about $55k with auto, offers heated powered seats, a 360-degree camera and rear parking sensors, rear diff-lock, full-size spare and LED auto headlights - but no crash avoidance features, and only basic cruise control. In this regard, it’s a lot more money for a ute that’s behind the rest of the market on what’s called ‘active safety’ gear.

  Servicing: 12 months / 20,000 km (whichever comes first).

• Mazda BT-50 - The new BT-50 looks one billion times better than the old one, based on the Ranger (but styled from Mazda’s old designs).

  Uses the Isuzu 4JJ truck engine which has been around for about 20 years and, in previous D-Max and MU-X, was loud and rattly. But we have to wait and see what refinements Mazda or indeed Isuzu Ute (partly Nissan-owned) have made to the engine and drivetrain. The Isuzu brand builds trucks. Trucks which work long, hard lives with the premise of downtime costing money to their owners. So when a truck breaks down, it’s a costly exercise. Which means reliability is the top priority, even if it means sacrificing refinement.

  But Mazda has endured years of criticism for the old BT-50, which never got much in the way of creature comfort. Sure, it was awesome for hard work with big towing and off-road guile. It just lacked driver-focused niceness.

  So I would expect Mazda has made its case to Isuzu that it gets to design the interior, which is excellent. Mazda’s homemade vehicles are, frankly, brilliant right now. SUV, hatch or sedan - they’re great.

  Here’s hoping they also made Isuzu lift its game and possibly offered some of its own engineering prowess found in Mazda’s SkyActiv program to make the driving experience less truck and more cushion. No doubt it’ll be good off-road, because I drove the old D-Max several times, including through a 4x4 course and it was pretty effortless, just not comfortable especially on corrugations.

Towing, payload and safety

It’s really important to look at the payload you’re expecting to carry and the trailer you’re potentially going to tow - and obviously this can’t always be foreseen, I understand that. But you need to be realistic about what you’re going to ask of your ute.

Triton is rated to 3.1 tonnes, Hilux 3.2, Ranger, BT-50 and Navara are rated to 3.5 tonnes of braked towing capacity. But you should never strive to tow that much. It’s just dangerous, especially long distances, in a vehicle weighing two tonnes.

If you’re a full-scale tradie with tool bags and seriously heavy gear to move constantly, the Triton is definitely going to offer the best value. It’ll do all the hard hauling work you need it to do, but you’ll keep thousands in your own pocket. That’s more money to spend on better tools, the family, beers - whatever. There are a thousand different things you can use the saved money for.

That’s not to say the Ranger or Hilux won’t be any good. They absolutely will. They’re both proven vehicles, although they haven’t been entirely fault-free in their lifespan. The Ranger’s 2.0 twin-turbo diesel is pretty highly strung, and the Navara’s twin-turbo has to work pretty hard to use all its available power. And the Hilux will also be a pretty strong option all things considered, if you pay extra for it.

I can tell you that a Ranger with 400kg of raw payload in the tray will take a while to come to an emergency stop, like most utes, but it takes a long time for the suspension to dampen the reverberations when it does. With this in mind, I recommend looking for the lightest vehicle to start with. Less weight means less kinetic energy in the vehicle if you need to swerve suddenly or stop in a hurry. Triton GSR (and the rest of the range) has a 75L fuel tank, and weighs 1.99 tonnes (call it two). Ranger XLT: 2.2 tonnes. Navara ST-X: 1.97 tonnes. Hilux SR5: 2.08.

All five utes have nuances you have to accept. Triton unladen is pretty uncomfortable and bounces hard over sharp bumps, so perhaps if you have hip or back issues, it might not be ideal. You could even consider the Pajero Sport which has coil springs and is much more car-like to drive, but has the same 4x4 and diesel engine powertrain as the Triton, but in wagon form. It can also be used as a strict five-seater (or optional seven-seater) so you can still take the family about, but let’s stick to utes.

The current crop of utes I’ve mentioned here are pretty good and are at the far end of their lifecycles, which means pretty much all their issues are known and fixable now.

Make sure if you are going to being touring around with a light/moderate trailer, camper or caravan that you watch your GVM (gross vehicle mass), the trailer’s maximum permitted weight, and of course your payload which is easy to overload if you’re not paying attention. And I know how easy it is to take too much stuff, especially with kids.

You also have to deduct the trailer’s towball download from the ute’s payload, and therefore the GVM. Let me know if you need help doing that by clicking the red button below.

Also look for practical things like tiedown points in the tray, depending on what you plan to carry. Sometimes tiedown hooks or loops can get in the way if they stick out, some can feel weak and flimsy, some utes may your D-shape loops (which can be better for heavy items) rather than ringlets which can break at the rivets.

Costs, servicing, diesel and drawbacks

The Hilux had some DPF issues which Toyota says have been fixed by a manual DPF regeneration button installed on models from late 2018 onward, and the Hilux seems to have proven pretty reliable since. The Ranger had some early automatic transmission glitches which seem to have been fixed, while the Triton hasn’t really had any major bugs except for having to take care with its long tray and loading exceptionally heavy items (like with any ute). And the Navara, later in life seems okay in terms of reliability, unlike its earlier models, but it’s also about to be replaced so we’ll have to wait and see.

Toyota has the best dealer network across the country, in terms of availability of dealers - there’s a Toyota service department in almost every major provincial city - about 203 dealers and about 281 sites in total. Ford’s the nearest with 197, Mitsubishi has 180 dealers and Mazda’s 134 is decent for servicing and dealership coverage, with plenty of dealers. Nissan’s doesn’t have as many dealers at only 89 sites.

One of two big drawbacks with these utes is their comfort levels. In terms of engineering and design, you simply cannot have a hardcore workhorse and a soft comfortable ride - it doesn’t work like that.

So you need to keep in mind these vehicles don't have particularly supportive back seats like a bigger wagon 4or, or a sedan, or a softer SUV. The seats are a convenience factor, not a pillar of distinction. So if you want the family in supreme comfort for long periods, a ute isn’t the right fit.

But for lots of frequenting to the bush here and there and the odd big trip on occasion, make sure your kids come for a test drive to help you decide which ute is best. Without having tested it yet, I would expect the BT-50 might be okay, and the Navara with a coil sprung rear would be good. But if your family travels are infrequent, don’t write off Triton for the value plus standard safety gear; I'd expect most of the things you need it to do are done well in the Triton.

And the second most significant drawback is the diesel engine and their particle filter exhaust systems.

These systems require servicing and maintenance, and for the vigilant, conscientious ute owner to know and understand it in order to keep it in good working order.

Put simply, the particulate filter catches fine soot exhaust from the combustion process and they use a “DPF regeneration” process to squirt a bit of fuel into the system to burn those particles away, to stop them getting into the air and being breathed in by humans.

In order to do this regeneration, the engines need to run at a consistently high temperature on a regular basis - typically once a week or fortnight depending on the frequency of the vehicle’s use.

So if you’re buying a dual cab ute for family and work use, make sure you can maintain the upkeep in this way by driving on the freeway or a rural back road for about 20-30mins, allowing the regeneration process to happen. This is not optional, you must do this, otherwise you could be looking at expensive repairs.

Mitsubishi, Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Mazda have been doing utes for a long time and, generally, they’re doing a pretty good job. Diesel engine technology is quite good now, especially in light commercial vehicles such as these.

But you have to remember these utes are not hardcore trucks, they are not designed to haul enormous loads and rack up half a million kilometres every year. They’re light-duty, which is why they do such a great job and most trade-related work (builders, plumbers, auto mechanics, fitters and turners, etc) - because when it’s time for tools-down, they can also do a good job of getting you away from it all on weekends.

Treat your ute with mechanical sympathy and respect, keep it serviced and driven to upkeep the exhaust system, and don’t go crazy with the towing and payload assignments you force upon it.

If you can do this, your ute will give you and the kids a long service life taking you to lots of cool places - including some spots the SUV crowds can’t reach.

If there’s a ute you want me to test drive for you, or you have anything you want to know - get in touch.

Let’s talk family utes. There are so many on the market now and they make sense for the go-everywhere, do-everything transport. Email me.