FEMI OWOEYE
South Africans love bakkies. As revealed by Gumtree South Africa recently, top selling passenger vehicle in 2017 was the evergreen Toyota Hilux, which topped even the massively popular VW Polo Vivo and Toyota Corolla.
But, according to Gumtree, the Ford Ranger wasn’t far behind the Hilux and even managed to outsell it in five months of 2017.
Nissan, Isuzu and the VW Amarok also reportedly hold solid niches in the local bakkie market. But the Hilux and the Ranger are the gorillas and debate rages across the country about their relative merits.
Jeff Osborne, Head of Gumtree Autos, has analysed the data on both vehicles from the country’s biggest virtual car showroom and has come to some interesting conclusions.
He explained:“They go toe-to-toe on Gumtree with an almost identical number of listings – around 1700 each – and are widely available in every province with a significant predominance of diesel over petrol, and white as the overwhelmingly favourite vehicle colour.
“In both cases, around 40% of listed vehicles have done over 100,000km, so longevity is clearly not a problem especially given that one Hilux owner recently turned over his one millionth kilometer.
“Even though their retail prices are very similar, we do notice that among pre-owned vehicles the Ford Ranger seems to be markedly cheaper. Obviously pre-owned prices are dependent on the quality and specs of the individual vehicle but, in the case of 2012 models as an example, the Ranger average sits closer to R200k compared to around R240k for the Hilux.
“Gumtree listers sing the praises of both vehicles with almost religious fervor, so they are clearly superbly engineered and deliver on their promises.”
Verdict
Osborne’s take is that the Ford Ranger is marginally stronger in the interior comfort areas while the Toyota Hilux remains the king of workhorses.
