Buying bakkies a matter of the heart

SOUTH Africans who want a new bakkie, (or pick up or ute) can choose from 27 brands, ranging from the plucky little Changan 1,3 half-tonner to the beastly 6,7-litre RAM trucks imported by US Trucks in Richards Bay.

But mostly, we don’t choose.

Instead, we stick with a Hilux, SA’s best selling vehicle overall and the bakkie that enjoys over a third of local sales for two reasons — lots of dealers and high resale values.

Last month, Toyota sold 3 366 Hiluxes, compared to Ford’s 2 535 Rangers; and just three Boarding

For captains of industry

The Ranger's sales in July 2017 leaves all other bakkies far behind..

IT used to be that South Africa only had two types of bakkie drivers — those in a Toyota Hilux and those in other bakkies.

But with the Ford Ranger being SA’s top-selling bakkie since January, we must now update this list to three types of bakkie drivers — the oke in the Ranger, followed by the bloke in the Hilux, followed by those in an Isuzu or Nissan NP300; and then came the lesser-selling bakkies, which range from the Amarok to the Tunland.

Of note among these other bakkies are the Mazda BT-50 and the JMC Vigus, because they are, of

A stylin' bakkie that can deliver

The 2,2 Ford Ranger with an automatic box hits the sweet
spot among workhorse pickups

SO, you want a strong workhorse bakkie? Well, for a lot of low-down power you need look no further than Ford’s single cab bakkie equipped with the 2,2 auto drivetrain.

At Wheels, we rate this bakkie for its 385 Nm, which is more than you need to pull a boat or carry a load, and its sweet 118 kW power delivery makes highway driving a pleasure.

Alas — we hear you say — you can’t afford the R321 900 recommended retail price of the auto Ranger? Well, then your obvious choice is either of the hardworking Indians — Tata’s Xenon

Lil' bakkies' big deal

Elvis Naidoo has seven reasons to smile, and they are all sold.

METRO Cars in Pietermaritzburg has sold its largest yet consignment of cars to a single client — seven half-ton bakkies to Unilever.

Unilever traces its company history back to 1887, when William Lever registered the Sunlight trademark in South Africa, and estimates over two billion people choose a Unilever product from a store somewhere in SA every day.

Naidoo said the Changan bakkie is the Chana bakkie with a new name, and cited a

For city slicker loads

WHEELS received the new Mazda BT-50 bakkie to test, courtesy of Mazda’s media fleet, and had an auction bargain hunter, orange farmer and shepherd test it.

It is common knowledge that the BT-50 shares a platform, engines and transmissions with the Ford Ranger, but the big smile on the Mazda’s nose makes the big Ford look rather square.

With everything below the bodywork basically the same, we wondered why they badge-engineered two bakkies?

The short answer is that the marketers aimed the Mazda BT-50’s more vulnerable lights at city

Overberg précis

The Bolero Maxitruck, now stripped of all creature comforts.
Why, Mahindra, why!?

Mens kry bakkies en bakkies. 

Party is net goed genoeg om rice crispies uit te eet, ander kan lorries sleep. Vandag op Overberg Wiele hoor ons watter bakkie tans die heel minste bied, en watter ene die verrassende wending is.

--

Watter bakkie bied die minste?

Sonder twyfel is dit die Mahindra Maxitruk -- dis werklik 'n ironiese naam daai, want daar is die absoute minimum in die sg. maksi bakkie.

Nou is dit vir my amper pynlik om iets teen die Bolero te sê, want die Maixtruk is eintik die uitsondering op die reel -- soos daai drug addict nefie in 'n andersins goeie familie met die waardige oom Mahindra Scorpio wat steeds Suid-Afrika se bargain bakkie is.

This cover just needs a book

The Steed 6 has the looks, but will it keep you warm at night?

I recently had the privilege of driving the new Steed 5 and Steed 6 bakkies, thanks to Bosch Diesel Works in Durban that sells 'em.

Both these big Chinese pick-ups turned heads everywhere I  went and everyone who poked and probed around inside the neat cabins agreed the interiors lived up their handsome styling outside.

So the big Chinese bakkies have the looks, but has it got the goods?

Having driven these Steeds’ main competitor — the JMC Vigus — over the same routes, we deem

Steed vs Vigus

The GWM Steed 5 Excape offers a lot of bakkie for the money. 

I HAVE long been impressed by Great Wall Motors (GWM), a company I had described as “China’s equivalent of Toyota”.
Just the Research and Development division at GWM employs 6 500 people, many of whom are working on post doctoral research, and GWM plans to increase the R&D staff to 10 000 in the next few months.They use the latest digital design tools to quickly make and implement feedback from clients. Compare this to the

Radio Overberg précis

10-times World Rally Champ Sebastian Loeb lost the Monte Carlo leg
by spinning off into the snow, but won the hearts of all his fans when he
wasted precious time with a little speech to thank them for the push.

Môre op Wiele gesels ons Sjinese bakkies, die Vigus versus die Steed. 

Daar's ook drie nuwe motors bekend gestel, 

van die Suzuki Celerio met sy 3-silinder-enjintjie, 

tot die magtige V12 van die Mercedes-Benz 65 AMG, 

maar in 'n verassende wending vertel ons trokdrywerskrywersvriend Alwyn Viljoen hoekom jy nie die motors moet koop nie, maar eerder moet huur.

En laaste maar lekkerste vertel ons hoe die verloorder van die naweek se World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo toe die wenner was van 'n dosyn ondersteuners se harte.

Overberg Wiele, skuins na agt op Woensdag oggend laat ons die dinge rol!

The Steed vs Vigus  

Luxury car dealers still smiling

Still South Africa's best-selling car.

TOYOTA sold 515 cars a day in the 24 working days of September, excluding the 6,458 cars which the Prospecton plant exported last month.

To put this number in perspective, GWM sold 230 cars all month. 

 Toyota does not, however, sell South Africa’s best-selling car. That honour still goes to Volkswagen, whose dealers sold 4,263 Polo Vivos and 2,151 Polos.

Toyota does still sell South Africa's most popular bakkie in the Hilux, having handed the keys to 3,907 new owners and exported another 5 917 units. The Ford Ranger is the second most popular bakkie in SA, with 2,629 units sold and 3 836 exported.

Taking a knife to gun fight, and winning

Despite being parked on the biggest axle-bender I could find, the
4x2 Tata Xenon drove off, (with a little help from gravity).

I’VE sung the praises of the Xenon for so long now that one auntie even accused of being “on that Indian dynasty’s payroll”.

While it is nice to be perceived in the same light as our President, my credit card shows neither Mr Tata, nor Mr Mahindra or even Mr Gupta want to pay me to say something nice about their companies

Thus, the points below are the unpaid facts of the matter, culled from a hot and dusty shootout of five affordable bakkies on the Hennops 4x4 trail in Gauteng’s wild west:

• The Xenon is the most power for the least money available in a workhorse bakkie in SA today.

wtf, Where did the Tunland go?

Roger Waters in 2013
(Photo:.chicaconow.com)

Who is the strongest, who is the best
Who holds the aces, the East or the West
This is the crap our children are learning
But oh oh oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning
oh oh oh, the tide is turning...

(Roger Water, from Radio Koas)

Because most of us have to compensate, we all it is important to know who is the strongest, who is the best, especially when it comes to our pickups. And the 4Q14 power comparison of the most affordable 4x4 doublecabs on sale in South Africa threw up two surprises.

Ten surprises on 4x4 pick-ups in South Afrcia

Ten dirty secrets of cheap 4x4 on sale in South Africa. 

Bargain hunting for a 4x4 to transport the family to adventursome places in South Africa?
Then look no further, for listed below are the cheapest 4x4 double cab surprises for those who don't want to risk getting hijacked in the best-selling Hilux; or fork out for the strong Ford Ranger.
Note these cheapies ain't your spartan workhorse 4x4 either, but comfortably appointed double-cabs with electric windows, aircon, MP3 playing sound systems (often with touch screens), ABS, EBS, airbags ... service plans, in short, the lot.
Sure, the finishing is somewhat plastic in places and as Hallo Peter shows, several of Tata's multi-franchises have to jack up (often literally) their after-sales service, but with this list you can "pays your monies" AND afford to eat your own cake.
For after you paid a lot less every month, you can smirk all the way through the mud, knowing the scratches and dings will not make your resale price any lower, while the marks will serve to remind you -- and your peers -- that you play hard.

Radio Overberg 89,4 FM précis

JMC's Vigus is a looker and a goer with a lot of Ford in it.

This talk covered
- the true news about Mazda South Africa,
- two brand new old classics in the Land Cruiser and Jaguar Mk II,
- we ask whether the latest pick-up from China is worthy of its premium pricing and scoop a test drive while we are at it, and
- reveal the seven things you want to see in the fine print of your insurance. 

All this only on Overberg Wiele, 89,4 FM each Woendnesday, quarter past eight.

JMC Vigus also vigorously priced

Another Chinese pick-up, another day on the dynometer.

JMC last month quietly slipped the Vigus into SA’s bakkie market and this week Metro Cars was not afraid to let Wheels test one.

Metro Cars is one of 24 JMC dealers in South Africa and the reason why the new Vigus is not punted more, erm, vigorously, is that JMC dealers are at the moment also running a slew of cleared-to-go discounts on all their bakkies. The single cab JMC Boarding, for example, now sells for R139 880, a discount of some R40k.

But back to the Vigus — I took the mid-level LX 4x4 diesel to the dyno at Diesel Works in Pietermaritzburg, where the previous generation Ford 2,4 Duratorq turbo-diesel engine tested 83 kW at 3 363 rpm and 286 Nm at 2 003 rpm.