Dependable, reliable, easy to maintain—the words used to describe a Sherpa mountain goat and not exactly the most dramatic descriptions you’d want to hear during a car launch.  But here it is: the automotive equivalent of the mountain goat—the Isuzu Alterra.  Launched for the Thai market as the Mu-7, the Alterra is the company’s take on the highly lucrative pick-up based SUV.  The entire trend started with the short-lived Toyota Hilux Surf and Mitsubishi G-Wagon in Thailand.  It was soon followed by the successful Ford Everest and the Hilux Surf’s replacement, the Fortuner, both models of which made it to the Philippine market.

But while there was glitz and glamour amidst the black and white theme at the Makati Shangri-la, the Isuzu Alterra offered nothing substantially new versus its chief Ford and Toyota rivals.  Instead of buckling the entire industry with a highly stylish people mover like the Fortuner, the Alterra ends up as a mere engineering duplicate of the Ford Everest.  Taking a page off Ford’s design book, the Alterra is more than heavily based on the D-Max—it actually shares components such as the hood, B-pillar, headlights, fog lights, door handles and alloys.  Equally off is the awkward C-pillar and rear design of the Alterra, which look like the bastard child of the Chevy Trailblazer (good) and SsyangYong Rodius (not good).  Whereas, the Ford Everest is functionally styled with a tough squared-off body style (though the CR-V lights are definitely not original), the Alterra looks like a bag of mixed nuts, thrown up and scattered about for good measure.

Inside, the Alterra does have the upper hand versus the Everest thanks to a more modern parts donor.  That said, there’s simply no originality given that anyone who has seen the D-Max’s cock pit will recognize the steering wheel, center cluster, door handles, switch gear and most probably, even the seats.  Modest changes though were done, to all things, the gauges—giving it more flair.  Usually, it’s hard to comment about seating during a vehicle’s launch simply because not enough ‘bum time’ was spent testing it.  However, the Alterra’s an exception.  Although the front seats are certainly comfortable with ample adjustment (the driver seat lacks height adjustment though), the two other rows drew mixed reactions.  Though spacious, the second row is comfortable only for two since the middle “pass through” seat is cushioned much like an ironing board.  The last row lacks adjustable headrests and the flooring is unleveled, causing the knees to slop upward and the feet to point downward; certainly not making things that comfortable back there.  Like any SUV, the Alterra’s seats can contort: second row slides, folds and tumbles 45/10/45 while the third row folds 0/100. 

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