Has any body bought a bt50 3.2 manual.I am thinking about a 2012 single cab ute. I have a courier, but would like more power. Your thoughts , please. Thanks, Bill
I have a 2013 BT50 manual, extra cab, 3.2. It has towed my 20 foot Paramount all round Oz without a problem. I was probably a bit overweight but the Mazda never noticed. I can recommend it as a good and reliable towing machine.
I cannot say whether it is better than any of the others out there but it suited my requirements perfectly.
Sister has 2014 BT50. Its towed a large CV fully loaded. (and I mean FULLY LOADED with rocks and I mean rocks (opals)) Just from following them for close on 5000ks out to Birdsville and back and all around outback QLD, I would say it did extremely well. There were plenty of testing roads.
Oh, and I was pretty pleased with my Transit's performance too!
-- Edited by msg on Tuesday 3rd of November 2015 11:30:18 PM
I have a BT50 3.2 Auto Twin Cab and have just returned from caravanning for some 16.000k's and it performed brilliantly. I started with 5,000 on the clock, towing the van all up weight about 2.2 ton returned average of 14.2 per 100k's. No trouble with power, I have spoken to a few owners with manuals and they don't like the gearbox and would rather an auto. I have always driven manuals and this vehicle is the cat's whiskers.
Bill, we bought a manual BT-50 in 2008 for our 5th-wheeler and were very happy with the way it purred along with no apparent strain. However, in 2013 we did have to replace the clutch with a heavy-duty version. I suspect that the 'official' GCM of 5.5 tonne is just a little high - and we hover pretty close to that mark (difficult when it's our only home!).
Then we had a major problem in early 2015: the engine light showed on the dash - meaning 'check engine'. We took it to Ford initially in Port Pirie (Mazda was a lot further away, and the Ford Ranger was virtually identical). The computer read a specific fault, which they said they'd fixed, but 20 km down the road it recurred. This went on for several weeks, many visits to Port Augusta Mazda as well as a Pirie diesel mechanic, a new sensor and even a new computer. No joy - and still the same fault reading. Mazda eventually suggested we go back to the Piire mechanic, virtually washing their hands.
Said mechanic (Viv Coe, also auto electrician and highly recommended) eventually discovered that compression was down by nearly half on all cylinders - a totally unrelated fault which surprised him as the engine was quite clean with no evidence of burning oil, etc. He found a replacement engine (only 40,000 km on the clock) and installed that. Since then no problems, but we're pretty disgusted that the old engine had only done 118,000 km, and less than half that with the van.
I think your rig is considerably smaller than ours so maybe the BT-50, particularly the later versions which have a greater GCM, would probably be OK. Others seem to have no problems with them.
Good luck -
Andrea
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Free-ranging, in a Southern Cross 5th wheeler, in between property-minding (to save money!).
We have 2013 BT 50 and love it. The 2013 model has an upgraded chassis and a 3.5 tonne towing capacity compared to the 3.2 tonne of the 2012 model. We've now completed almost 50 000 Km dragging a van weighing in at 3.4 tonnes up hill and down dale without a murmur of complaint. Ours is a 6 speed automatic that includes adaptive control and we're looking at installing a 3" or 3.5" exhaust system to gibe a little more grunt on uphill stretches of road. Bit of an upgrade on the suspension would also help given what we're towing.
We have a 2014 BT 50 3.2 lt extra cab auto tray top. I originally was going to get a 5 wheeler that's why I chose the tray top. I chose the BT 50 because I liked the one we had at work, the biggest motor in the class, I prefer a plodder rather than a small hi rev'er. One of the problems I have had, and no doubt a lot of other owners, is the lack of dash space to install accessories. Most of that has been solved by using remote type units such as Tow - Pro etc. Put a bit of a tow load on it yesterday and it managed OK. the back dropped 70mm with a 270kg draw bar weight. I am yet to install a canopy on it, but my spread sheet shows the CVM is creeping up to max. In regards to the extra cab, I chose that because I wanted the vehicle load as far as possible forward, dual cab utes the cargo weight over hangs on the back. With the extra cab the passenger can lean the seat back and have a snooze while traveling, we have an area for secure storage. The rear main crankshaft oil seal is leaking so its a warranty job for next week. So far I'm giving it a 80% tick.
-- Edited by iana on Friday 6th of November 2015 09:52:25 AM
