Spotted: New 2025 Isuzu mu-X seen on STAR Tollway

Refreshed Isuzu mu-X coming soon?

With the holidays in full swing, our natural course was to get busy... unwinding ourselves.

As we prepared to close the year and set our sights for 2025, we got a series of photos from an eagle-eyed reader. Ardel Joe Mark Magnaye sent us an image and a short video of a car transporter loaded with what appears to be the updated 2025 Isuzu mu-X.

As you may know, Isuzu Philippines has always had a strategy of regularly updating and upgrading their vehicles. That's the game plan that works for their segment, as the company really only has two models intended for private family use: the D-Max and the mu-X. Well, they also have the Traviz, but utility vans generally don't need updating given the purpose and pricing.

With this sighting, we expect the updated Isuzu mu-X to debut sometime in early 2025. We saw this updated mu-X at the 2024 Thailand International Motor Expo last month and did a quick walkthrough.

While the Philippine-spec model will likely differ in some ways, what we can expect is that the exterior changes here will be quite similar, if not identical. The 2025 Isuzu mu-X RS refresh in Thailand features a sportier face with a black honeycomb grille, fender "vents", dynamic-blade LED DRLs, and a new set of horizontal bar-type taillamps. It is finished off with a set of 20-inch aggressive-looking "turbine-inspired" alloy wheels.

The interior of the Thai-spec mu-X gets refreshed with a new massive multi-info display, redesigned seat cushions for a more comfortable ride, and new ambient lighting on higher-grade models for that added appeal.

There's a new infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay & Android Auto available in the range, a smart tailgate, a 360-degree camera system for extra security, and a suite of intelligent driver aids. Given that Isuzu already offers ADAS here, we can expect adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning & automatic emergency braking, automatic high beam, lane-keeping assist, lane departure warning with prevention, traffic jam assist, rear-cross traffic alert, and blind-spot monitoring in the top-spec models.

What is really a mystery is whether Isuzu Philippines will offer the new 2.2L DDi turbodiesel "MaxForce" powerplant under the RZ4F-TC code which succeeds the 1.9-liter RZ4E-TC BluePower engine. The new engine has a displacement of 2164cc, a compression ratio of 15.9:1, and an electronic variable geometry turbo (E-VGS). The result is a total system output of 163 PS at 3600 rpm and 400 Nm of torque at 1600 – 2600 rpm.

Isuzu Philippines officials have been tight-lipped when we talked to them about the updated mu-X recently. We'll update you as soon as we know more about the Philippine-spec mu-X update for 2025.