Compare · 2 vehicles

Cheaper to buy isn’t cheaper to own

Comparing the Isuzu MU-X (R973 700) and Toyota Fortuner (R970 000) – see how price, engine, warranty and safety stack up below.

The instalment, the fuel bill and the five-year figure — worked out on your deposit, your rate and your driving. Every specification below comes from a verified record.

The five-year figure is finance instalments and fuel only — it does not include servicing, insurance, tyres or depreciation. It is a cost-to-buy-and-run comparison, not a full cost of ownership.

Fuel costs aren't shown — and that's the finding, not a gap in our data. Isuzu MU-X reports NEDC; Toyota Fortuner does not state which test standard was used. Figures from different test standards can't be compared directly, so we withhold the fuel cost rather than publish a misleading one.
Your numbers
Isuzuphoto not yet added
Isuzu

MU-X

3.0 DDi LSE 4x4 AT
R973 700
Price as at 18 Aug 2026 · price unverified
Total per month
R17 019/month excl. fuel
20/23 verified
Full specifications
Lowest instalment
Toyota Fortuner
Toyota

Fortuner

2.8 GD-6 4x4 VX 6AT
R970 000
Price as at 4 Aug 2026
Total per month
R16 954/month excl. fuel
20/23 verified
Full specifications
+Add a vehicle
Cost to own
Purchase price
R973 700+R3 700
R970 000
Monthly instalment
R17 019+R65
R16 954
Still owing after five years
R191 799+R729
R191 070
Fuel cost and total cost-to-own are not shown for this comparison — see note above.
Engine and drivetrain
Fuel type
Diesel (50ppm)
Diesel (50ppm)
Engine
3.0 L
2.8 L
Power
140 kW−10 kW
150 kW
Torque
450 Nm−50 Nm
500 Nm
Transmission
6-Speed Automatic
6-speed automatic with paddle shift
Drivetrain
4x4
4x4
Gears
6
6
Fuel and range
Consumption
7.6 L/100km
7.9 L/100km+0.3 L/100km
Tank size
80 L
80 L
CO2 emissions
200 g/km
Not published
Space and practicality
Seats
7
7
Doors
5
5
Boot (all seats up)
Not published
200 L
Boot (seats folded)
Not published
1 080 L
Braked towing
3 500 kg
3 300 kg−200 kg
Ground clearance
235 mm−44 mm
279 mm
Length
4 850 mm
4 795 mm
Most manufacturers don’t state which measurement standard they use, so boot figures are approximate for comparison.
Ownership and cover
Warranty
5 yr / 120 000 km
3 yr / 100 000 km
Service plan
5 yr / 90 000 km
9 services / 90 000 km
Service interval
15 000 km / 12 mo
10 000 km / 12 mo
Spare wheel
Full-size
Full-size
Service network
~96 authorised service points, as at 18 August 2026 In all 9 provinces. Counted on Isuzu's own locator via its bakkie_service flag; about 142 including truck-only sites.
~179 authorised service points, as at 18 August 2026 In all 9 provinces. Service-manager contact present per pin in Toyota's own dealer locator.
Safety and off-road
Airbags
6
Not published
Differential lock
Yes
Yes

What we haven’t verified yet

Blank cells are figures the manufacturer doesn’t publish for South Africa, or that we haven’t confirmed against an official source. We leave them empty rather than estimating them. A third kind of blank is different again: some fields don’t apply to a vehicle at all — an electric car has no fuel tank — and those are named separately below and left out of that vehicle’s verified count, which is why the counts on the cards above can be out of different totals.

Other comparisons people are making

Cost-to-own figures are illustrative only: a standard reducing-balance loan calculation using the deposit, trade-in, balloon, interest rate, term and driving assumptions above, plus fuel at the price you set. They exclude insurance, licensing and servicing, and are not a loan quote — get a real quote from our Finance Calculator. Specifications shown are the fields we’ve verified against official South African sources for each vehicle; anything not shown is marked “Not published” rather than estimated.

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