Review: Can the Peugeot Landtrek conquer the left-field pick-up segment?

The Malaysian pick-up truck segment here has seen plenty of left-field entrants over the last few years but perhaps none of them have piqued our interest as much as the Peugeot Landtrek.

The French carmakers first foray into pick-ups here comes in the form of a sole Landtrek 1.9D Allure variant. Don’t be fooled by the alluring name though, it’s essentially a rebodied Kaicene F70 that’s been co-developed with Changan Automobile. Therefore, it’s CBU from China and distributed locally by Peugeot custodian Bermaz Auto Alliance (BAASB).

Cosmetically, it’s got a distinctive Peugeot design with unique LED DRLs positioned vertically against the grille below the LED headlights. Wheels are 18-inch rollers.

Also Read: Priced from RM 120k, 2023 Peugeot Landtrek launched in Malaysia as an alternative to Ranger

At the business end, the tailgate is unfortunately unassisted. The truck in the video might be missing its bed liner but BAASB assures us that customers units will have a bed liner. There’s a single 12V cigarette lighter socket in the bed and not much else.

Inside, the Landtrek does its best to impersonate a sedan’s interior and to be fair, it does a decent job at it.

You’ll get leather seats (powered for the front), a 10-inch touchscreen infotainment with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a 360-degree camera, rear AC vents and a multi-information display in the instrument cluster as well as keyless entry and start.

Also Read: 2023 Peugeot Landtrek for Malaysia: Est. price from RM 123k, CBU, French Ranger rival

While the interior is largely carried over from its Chinese counterpart, there are Peugeot-inspired design cues such as the two-spoke steering wheel and piano key-style switches on the dash.

Under the hood is a 1.9-litre turbodiesel engine making 152 PS and 350 Nm of torque with a 6-speed auto delivering power to the part-time four-wheel drive system. There’s also a rear differential lock as standard.

From a safety perspective, the features include 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, BA, traction control, hill-start assist, hill descent control and lane departure warning.

Estimated pricing puts it in the RM 120,000 region but isn’t inclusive of insurance.

Let’s not kid ourselves though, the Landtrek won’t be bothering the big boys of the segment such as the Isuzu D-Max, Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton.

However, it could very well give other left-field alternatives such as the Maxus T60 and JMC Vigus Pro a run for their money.

If you want to know how's the ride and handling, click on the video below to see what our own Greg thinks about the Landtrek.