For years now bakkies have remained a popular choice in South Africa, with their excellent ground clearance and sturdy structure they are the perfect choice for the rugged urban lifestyle.  The selection has grown greatly over the years and we now have many excellent vehicles to choose from, but which is the best? Well, that’s the question we’re going to try and answer.

This is an obvious front-runner and my personal favourite, not only does it have amazing hauling capabilities but it also has an array of comforts inside. It comes with as standard alloy wheels, auto climate control, sports seats, a leather steering wheel, Bluetooth, cruise control, sat nav and a whole range of features and equipment you can have added to your vehicle. For a bakkie, it drives really well on the road too so you won’t have to awkwardly manoeuvre when driving around town, not only that, but it looks great from pretty much every angle. Now this is all well and good for a regular car but there is a reason you buy one of these, carrying capacity and hauling. It really delivers in this aspect; the double cab version can carry a payload of 1117kg with a loadspace length of 1549mm. The engines hauling capacity doesn’t disappoint either with 300lb ft of torque available between 1300rpm and 3300rpm from the top-of-the-range 3.2 Litre Diesel. Unfortunately these impressive figures do lead to some poor fuel economy with only 28.2mpg and 265g/km of CO2 emissions, if that’s a concern of yours then you may want to opt for the smaller 2.2 litre diesel.

This was once considered by most as the very best bakkie you could get your hands on until the Ranger recently stole the spotlight. Starting at the top with the ‘invincible’ model you get a 3.0 litre diesel which produces 171hp and maximum torque of 360lb ft between 1400rpm and 3200rpm. With an engine that big you would have no trouble hauling all your luggage around. There’s room for your stuff too with 1545mm of loadspace length and a payload of 1045kg, although you can get more room with less payload on the ‘active’ model if that suits you better. That is one of the best features of the Toyota, much unlike most of its rivals you can customise it until it fits your needs perfectly. People often talk about the extensive equipment in the Ford but don’t be fooled into thinking the Toyota disappoints in this area; as standard with the invincible model you get automatic air conditioning, cruise control, sport front seats, Bluetooth connectivity and many more safety features and chrome details on the exterior. A lot of this information sums up the Toyota, it’s all very impressive but just not quite as good as the Ford.

Finally we have the Nissan, this is a capable bakkie with up to 1100kg payload and 1511mm of loadspace it can definitely carry a lot but just not as much as its rivals from Toyota and Ford. Its engine is a 3 litre v6 diesel which delivers 231hp, this makes it by far the most powerful of all three of the vehicles looked at, however, this does show in the price as it is well over R400,000 for the better models. Nissan claims you can get up to 33.6mpg and emissions of 222g/km on their smallest engine (which is still a whopping 190hp). If you compare this to Fords engine of a similar size this Navara actually comes out slightly better off. This is all well and good but the cons outweigh the pros with this car, there is no option for a single cab, it’s the most expensive, it can carry the least amount of weight and the interior just feels basic, especially when you compare it to the other two and that’s before you consider the price! All in all, I would say the Navara has potential to be one of the best, but Nissan are just not quite there yet.