Summarize

Afrikaans is a wonderful tongue in so many ways. Take this story headline for instance — two perfectly South African words brought together to so perfectly describe the story at hand. There's no way I could have better described it in my home language, but to those of you who do not understand, allow me to explain...

Bakkie is the diminutive of bak, which basically means box and in a vehicular sense, bakkie was applied to a light commercial vehicle by a fellow by the name of John Stanton, I believe as part of a late-‘60s Datsun ad campaign when the then fledgling brand was about to unleash its ‘bakkies’ to an unsuspecting South Africa. The rest is history and it certainly has stuck.

Bielie is a bit of a misnomer — there does not seem to be a single direct translation beyond describing a splendid example of something. I imagine a bielie in the context of Jan Pierewiet and the lyrics - defining a swashbuckling bushveld adventurer dodging the blackwater as he chased down another young maiden. So go figure what Bielie Bakkie stands for!

Anyway, this new 157 kilowatt 500 Newton-metre bi-turbocharged diesel ten-speed double-cab four-by-four Ford Ranger Wildtrak is most likely the pickup that best defines a bielie of a bakkie today, so how does that bakkie stack up?

As custodians of bakkie media in South Africa over the past twenty-five years, we've been patiently waiting to get our bums in this advanced new bakkie that joins the also new monoturbo 2-litre and the good old 2.2 and 3.2 TDCi turbodiesels on the range. We were already wowed by that 2-litre we drove a few weeks ago, but had to be a bit more patient for this one. 

Packing a variable-vane high-pressure turbo along with a fixed low-pressure unit, the two chargers work together to deliver a stunning, broad wedge of output right across the range. The smaller turbo pumps harder at lower revs to build a Table Mountain curve from idle and on to lower engine speeds, by when the bigger snail is all spooled up to boost the relatively small capacity 2-litre lump all the way to the top end of its power delivery. 

That’s all aided and abetted by Ford's new ten-speed automatic, which uses its broader spread of ratios ­to deliver a creamy dollop of power quite literally right across the power band from idle to limiter, accompanied by a mellow and friendly mechanical thrum. That box has many a trick, including real-time adaptive shift-scheduling to pick the optimal gear, whatever the demands and the ability to short-shift up and skip gears down the box.

New Ranger also brings significantly improved ride quality courtesy of the anti-roll bar now sitting behind the front axle for improved control, softer front spring rates that vastly improve comfort, specific 4x4 damper rates and reduced tyre pressures for a most impressive leap in dynamics, ride and comfort. Wildtrak retains a 3500kg towing capacity, but its 750kg load capacity may be a worry if you want to hunt with a few big mates and still load the kudu in the bak. 

Wildtrak is excellent off the beaten track, by the way — the new 10-speed box is armed with a low range for absolutely effortless 4x4 crawling, aided and abetted by a rear diff lock and throttle and brake responsive hill descent control. Ranger’s newfound ride suppleness and silence are especially noticeable on dirt roads, while it also packs 230mm ground clearance and will drive 800mm into a dam, were you ever so inclined. 

The tech rich Wildtrak packs a lot of kit that is becoming common in premium bakkies today, from HID LED daytime headlamps to Adaptive Cruise Control with Forward Collision and Lane-Keeping Alerts, Auto High Beam and comprehensive Electronic Stability Control with Traction, Trailer Sway, Hill Descent and Adaptive Load Controls; Hill Start Assist and Roll Over Mitigation. Add Passive Entry and Start, a Category 1 alarm and even a spare wheel lock.

This Ford however stands apart by its SYNC infotainment tech that now adds gesture, voice or touch control for its Apple CarPlay Android Auto, Waze traffic and navigation, Bluetooth and USB, but the Ranger’s Semi-Automatic Parallel Park Assist uniquely allows the bakkie to park itself. 

Right, now we know Wildtrak’s immaculate pedigree. But how does it stack up?

Most impressive is how this engine works together with that sophisticated 10-speed automatic box. Feather it off the line and the biturbo pulls hard, floor it and it shoves you back in the seat. In normal driving, it's pleasing to play the throttle and feel the combined effects of the gearbox seamlessly engaging the ideal cog for your current speed and throttle position. 

Floor it and the box skips a few cogs down to precisely the right ratio for quickest acceleration, while cruising the freeway it pulls along in top, secretly dropping a gear or two as the incline increases against you and shifting back up as the road levels or drops away, always in absolutely effortless comfort. On the open road, the new 2-litre sips in the sevens per hundred, where I know the old 3.2 would struggle to find the nines.

That effortlessness is this biturbo’s hallmark though, it brings sophisticated contemporary executive saloon-like simplicity to your driving — and this is a bakkie, remember. A bielie of a bakkie!

So, while Wildtrak steps up a gear — er, four gears, how does it really perform? 

Well that’s the acid test. Is all this tech really good enough to steal our famous King of Bakkies crown from the Mitsubishi Triton? We already knew that Wildtrak biturbo marginally beats the Mitsubishi in fuel economy and towing ability, but then the Triton comes back in payload, but how do they match up where the faithful expect the king to win — on the drag strip?

To pull it off, the Ford needed to rush to 100km quicker than 9.47 seconds, complete the quarter mile at 16.6 seconds at 132km/h and pull from 80 to 120km/h in less than 6.87 seconds. Wildtrak starts off on the back foot — it’s a few hundredths off the pace to 60km/h, but it bounces back to crucially shave five hundredths off by the time it reaches 100km/h. The blue oval bakkie however fails to beat its tri-star rival to the quarter and Triton is still the overtaking boss too.

So to say that new Ranger is the new king would be a touch risqué, because it only shares the crown, it does not own it. 

But match that Mitsubishi, Wildtrak 2.0 certainly does. The trouble in that equation comes back to price — is Wildtrak really worth a hundred grand more than the Mitsubishi? Perhaps not, but that's where Ford’s influence, dealer body and back-up come in to make Ranger more the bielie bakkie than the king.

The other question remains how Wildtrak stacks up the bakkie it wants to topple in monthly sales — is this Ranger worth twenty-five grand more than the top Hilux 50? Well, for starters, the Ford trounces that old-school big-bore rival completely in performance, economy and the rest, while coming pretty close in that good old QDR, so that premium certainly seems well worth it and now we wait to watch the sales fight unfold. Should be good!

In all, I reckon the Ranger Wildtrak fully meets our bielie promise to deliver a technologically superb bakkie that matches or beats the best in every aspect — whether that be Triton performance or Hilux credibility. Or versus any other contemporary in any other discipline, across the broader base, the Ford certainly is an all-round winner. 

A stalwart, a stout fellow, a corker and a splendid example, Ranger Wildtrak bakkie certainly defines bielie quite perfectly! - Michele Lupini

ROAD TESTED: Ford Ranger Wildtrak DC 2.0BT 4x4 auto

Engine: 157kW 500Nm 1998cc turbodiesel I4 

Drive: 10-speed automatic 4x4

Payload:         750kg

Max Towing: 3500kg

ROAD TESTED:

0-60km/h: 4.05 sec

0-100km/h: 9.48 sec

0-120km/h: 13.72 sec

0-160km/h 28.81 sec

400m: 16.8 sec @ 131km/h

80-120km/h:      7.36 sec

120-160km/h        15.09 sec

CLAIMED:       

VMax: 180km/h 

Fuel: 8.1 l/100km

CO2:         215 g/km

Warranty/Service 4y 120K/6y 90Kkm

LIST PRICE: R692K

RATED:      90%