By: Brendan Seery
Johannesburg - This is a note for women: if your man is thinking of buying a double-cab bakkie, get him to take you shopping in it at the Rosebank Mall and use the underground parking.
No matter his level of skill behind the wheel, I guarantee he will start sweating through the 27-point turns needed to park and to get out at the exits.
In Ford’s massive Ranger Wildtrak 4x4, I was cursing my luck in having a coffee meeting at the mall. And I wondered: why the hell would you buy something like this? Because no matter how macho this thing makes you look, it is seriously compromised as urban transport.
Two days later, as the rumbling, five-cylinder, 3.2 litre turbodiesel engine hauled the 2.3-ton beast up Breedt’s Neck Pass in North West, I said more than a prayer of thanks to Ford. With an impressive 230mm of ground clearance and a fully-capable 4x4 system (including low range and a rear differential lock), the Ranger made short work of what used to be a road but is now a rock obstacle course. In 4x4 high range and with its 460Nm of torque, the Wildtrak was, despite the bouncing and heart-stopping moments, a pleasant place to be.
And, as transport, at that moment it made perfect sense.
RANGER vs HILUX: IT’S WAR!
The same applies exactly to Toyota’s legendary Hilux, which is facing its strongest challenge yet from the Ranger. In April, the Ford bakkie outsold the Toyota for the second time. Both brands have their ardent fans who will buy nothing else – but both are also looking for sales among those who may not be bakkie-mad but like the flexibility a pick-up offers, to say nothing of the “I am the Camel Man” image.
Toyota has refreshed its top-of-the-range Hilux by bringing out the Legend 45 edition, which celebrates 45 years of the model in our market. We recently had one on test and then asked Ford if we could re-acquaint ourselves with the Ranger to assess whether the blue oval car has the potential to depose its Japanese opponent as the country’s best bakkie.
There is little to choose between them in the looks stakes. Both are big and muscular, but the Ranger seems to be slightly more modern-looking. Toyota’s all-new Hilux makes its appearance only next year, so we will have to wait to see if it gives the Ford a run for its money in the looks department.
FIVE-CYLINDER PUNCH
Both have a range of diesel and petrol engines – and Ford also wins the powerplant race by a whisker. The top-of-the-range 3.2 litre packs a 147kW punch compared with just 120kW in Toyota’s top 3.0 litre D4D turbodiesel unit.
The Wildtrak with this engine would make mincemeat of the Legend 45 with the top turbodiesel (in a sprint). But, with less power, the Toyota also uses less fuel. Expect to get about 12 litres per 100km from the Ranger in town and a litre less with the Hilux, and about 9l/100km and 8.5l/100km respectively on the open road.
The reality, though, is that the powerplants enable these bakkies to reach highly illegal speeds. And both are responsible for the emergence of a new breed of roadhog on our highways – for want of a better term, I call this person the “double-cab bakkie man”.
The double cabs – and the Hilux’s SUV sibling, the Fortuner – which have the more powerful engines are the ones that belt down highways, sometimes towing trailers or caravans, at speeds in excess of 150km/h.
What those drivers fail to appreciate is that, despite the improvements in dynamics and refinement to all double cabs over the past two decades, they are still bakkies. Which means they don’t brake or handle as well as a sedan – and, because they have a higher centre of gravity than a conventional sedan, they will also roll over more easily. But that is another can of worms…
HOW DO THEY HANDLE?
The Ford and the Toyota are highly capable in load-hauling and, if suitably equipped, for off-roading. Because they are bakkies, there will be limits to what they are capable of in road-holding and handling.
Yet, subjectively, the Ranger feels just a little more planted and responsive than does the Toyota. The nose seems to answer the wheel just that bit more quickly and there is less body roll when cornering hard (which is not recommended in either of them – that’s just not what they are made for).
There will be those who point to the success of the Hilux bakkies in the gruelling Dakar Rally – but those bear little relation, other than the profile, to production-line vehicles. Ford has a hot Ranger competing in South African off-road racing but, again, it is nowhere near standard. Nimble sports machines these are certainly not.
THE BATTLE MOVES INSIDE
Inside the cab, the Ranger inches further ahead because it is more modern in design than the Hilux. It feels more like a car (despite the overall bulk of the vehicle) than the Hilux does. I felt like I was sitting in the Ranger, whereas I felt I was sitting on the Hilux.
Where the Toyota claws back many points, though, is in the area of toughness and reliability and having a dealer network that is the biggest in the country.
While the Ranger felt as solid, subjectively, as the Hilux – neither showed the slightest trace of a rattle (which was a feat in the Ford’s case because it had 25 000km on the clock, much more than the Toyota’s 4000km) – the jury’s still out on whether the Ford’s long-term reliability will match the Toyota’s.
VERDICT
Overall, the choice will boil down to which of the brands has the greater emotional attachment for you.
Both are excellent bakkies and if you were to put a gun to my head and force me to take one or the other, I would walk away with the keys to the Ranger.
Granted, at R551 900 there the Ranger Wildtrak is almost R40 000 more expensive than the Hilux Legend 45, although the Ranger XLT model is more competitive at R514 900.
But before you rush off to a Ford – or even a Toyota – dealer, ask yourself whether you really need the capabilities of a large bakkie, or whether you wouldn’t be better off with a big sedan or a medium SUV.
In a double cab, no-one looks macho in a car park.
Saturday Star
PRICES
Ford Ranger DC 3.2 Wildtrak 4x4 - R551 900
Toyota Hilux DC 3.0 D-4D Legend 45 4x4 - R513 000