TRUCKS ON TEST
DRIVING DOWN THE
SAFETY HIGHW A High levels of electronic safety systems are now becoming the normality in all new truck launches as we continue driving down the safety highway. Tim Giles drives this year’s model to check out the latest technology in the new Isuzu N Series range.
W
hen the latest iteration of the Isuzu N Series was announced last year, the headline feature was not a new cabin shape, or a new engine, or transmission. The headline was the fact that the top selling model, in the top selling brand in Australia was getting the latest state-of-the-art safety technology as standard. As market leader for the last 33 years, the Isuzu Trucks organisation in Australia
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POWERTORQUE May/June 2022
has developed a conservative approach to truck development. Invariably, it is rarely the first to introduce any major innovations, but when it does, it gives those developments the stamp of approval and, on the evidence of the last three decades, gets it right. The major features of the design of the light duty N Series range need little updating. The exhaust emission rules will not change for at least three years, and probably longer. Therefore there is
no need to update the engines in these trucks. Similarly, the cabins in N Series are modern enough to suit Australian needs for some time to come. Safety systems are one aspect of truck design which has changed at quite a sharp rate in recent years, after they started to appear in the heavy duty European prime movers, some time ago. Europe will always be ahead of Australia in these matters, but the North American truck makers picked up on the trend relatively quickly, after
