Publications
Partners
South Africa - Bakkies remains the best-selling vehicles in South Africa. There’s a logic underpinning consumer behaviour; work and play.
Bakkies perform than any hatchback or SUV. And if you are a young South Africa, who is going to build Mzansi and make a better place to live and play in, you’re probably considering a bakkie as your vehicle of choice.
Which one, though? Well, we are here to assist. By considering the demands for leisure and business, we’ve found the perfect intersection point of those two trend lines on our best-bakkie graph, and compiled a list of the five superior bakkie options for young South Africans.
1. The deal
Yes, Chevrolet is leaving the country. So why are we recommending the Chevrolet Utility? Because if you buy one now, it’s the equivalent of a Black Friday sale. At the moment you can one new for last years price – and truth be told, GM SA is desperate to wrap-up its local business, there’s probably margin for further discount negotiating at the dealership.
This is a bakkie with indisputable heritage in South Africa. Originally launched as an Opel, before it evolved to the amazingly successful second-generation Corsa utility, the current one isn’t as fantastic as its predecessor but still the best of South Africa’s half-ton bakkies.
With thousands having been sold, you can be entirely confident that there will be an inventory of part suppliers around to ensure your Chevrolet Utility runs for a very long time.
2 The other deal - workhorse
When you are establishing a new business, over-capitalisation on vehicles are a cost that many young people struggle to recover from. It’s best to start small. Suppose you must start with something big, requiring the carrying capacity of a proper 1ton bakkie? Well, make sure it costs the same as something small...
It’s here where the Indian bakkie brands are unbeatable. Especially Mahindra, with its Bolero dropside. It’s awfully slow, but that will save your burgeoning business speeding fines and with its clever commercial vehicle loadbin, with droppable sides, you’ll never struggle to unload even the bulkiest of items.
3. The expensive choice
There aren’t many ways of affordably going very quickly with a bakkie in South Africa. Toyota are the only brand who still build V6 petrol bakkies (Hilux and Land Cruiser) and you are looking at more than R500k for one of those. But if your start-up delivery courier business depends on speed, we have just what you need.
A bakkie that will make sure all your deliveries are both timeous to customer and provide excellent oversteer tutoring – the like of which can never be learnt playing Gran Turismo 6. The bakkie in question is of course Nissan’s D40-series Navara V6. Makes a terrific circa 1990s Japanese Touring car championship noise and where else can you buy something with 198kW for R150k? Yes, that’s what 2009 Navara 4.0 V6 double-cabs are trading at.
4. The hipster option
We know there are hipsters who constitute part of our Wheels24 audience. And those of you who subsist on a diet of fair-trade everything, with your boutique glasses, handmade leather shoes, moonbags and film SLR's slung over the shoulder – we have a bakkie option for you too.
The hipster youth need bakkies, because their lives are primarily a metronome of human movement to and from organic markets in Braamfontein or Cape Town’s CBD. They require the loadbin to move their awful handmade furniture and nauseatingly bland organic food ingredients. And to do all of this, they need a bakkie which is deliciously retro in its being. A classic. The Champ.
Noise, characterful and unfailingly reliable, the Nissan 1400 is your only choice if you are given to wearing suspenders with skinny jeans. For the rest of us? Well, it gifts great entertainment trying to see hipsters get that clutch and cable-linked throttle control coordinated on a bitterly cold winter’s morning, when a Nissan 1400’s carburettors can be so very unpredictable in their jetting.
5. For the individualist
Amongst the youth there are always those who wish not to confirm. People who are not sheeple. Individualists. But as with all South Africans, even individualists need to move furniture and garden bits. Or like the idea of loading up a bakkie and adventuring.
For those youngsters amongst you who desire the practicality, but wish to assert your individualism too, what could be more apt than the Alfa Romeo of bakkies. Yes, an Italian option, would you believe.
Criminally ignored, despite its tidy styling and liveable ergonomics, the Fiat Strada is the stylish half-tonner nobody ever bought. If you do manage to get hold of one, you can be sure to never encounter another in the neighbourhood. For the youth who suffer no FOMO and value their sense of distinctiveness, a Strada is worth the search.
