The Musso’s turbodiesel four-pot makes the slightly gruff, crotchety first impression you might expect of it on start up and at low speeds; but it soon settles down to an acceptable standard for cruising refinement, considering the territory we’re in here.
Our six-speed auto test car’s engine had some clatter and thrash about it, but little more than a Toyota Hilux or Isuzu D-Max might make. The auto box eases the car into motion smoothly and without any shunting or uncouthness, and keeps the engine working in its torque-centred sweet spot even at wider throttle openings.
For outright torque, the Musso doesn’t quite feel as strong as the gruntiest ‘lifestyle pickups’ – but it has plenty of usable, accessible pulling power, and a gutsiness about it that makes for an assurance under power that you don’t get from every flatbed. An equivalent £40,000 diesel SUV would be quicker, needless to say; but, considering its brief, the Musso’s certainly no liability or embarrassment.
Whichever version you buy, however, the Musso is sufficiently heavy for the UK’s specific light commercial vehicle speed limits to apply to it; which means 50mph is your limit on single carriageway roads, and 60mph on non-motorway dual carriageways. Not all pickups fall foul of this speed limit threshold; only those with a homologated kerbweight greater than 2040kg.
We didn’t have occasion to test the car’s offroad capabilities; but it comes on all-terrain tyres which ought to make short work of muddy tracks and wet fields.
The standard-bed version has approach and departure angles both around 20 degrees, and ground clearance of 215mm, all of which are competitive for a pickup. The ‘long bed’ stretches both the wheelbase and rear overhang of the Musso, however – and, we’d expect, compromises some rear suspension travel for its necessarily firmer rear coil springs – so it probably shouldn’t be the version you choose with tougher offroading in mind.
For real-world economy: in unloaded condition, our short bed test car returned an average in the low 30s, dipping into the 20s in urban running, and rising to around 35mpg in steady cruising; which is what you’d expect of a vehicle like this.