This is what it’s all about. Bakkies. Just plain bakkies. Honest for goodness double-cab, four wheel drive, diesel bakkies. There’s nothing unusual on the next few pages. No funny looking dwarfed workhorses. No mutant crossbred leisure types from obscure countries that are better known for rice and noodle dishes. No funny business.

And the reason for the occasion is Mitsubishi’s new baby – the Triton. It’s been a long time coming. The Japanese brand’s very popular but very tired Colt has lived way past its sell by date, and although its legend will live on in two wheel drive form for some time to come, their loyal customers as well as the opposition parties have been waiting for the arrival of this fun lover since well before Auto Africa last year.

I’m not going to waste your time with some formal introduction or four pages dedicated specifically to babbling on about the new Triton’s specifics. You already know the specifics. It’s just a bakkie like I said earlier. It’s got a cd player. It’s got a 12 volt power socket. It’s got a rev-counter and reclining seats, and blah blah blah. All of these bakkies have got mostly the same stuff.

What’s important here is what it’s like next to its opponents. We decided to throw it right in the deep end of the pool where the big boys hang out to see if the new Mitsu will be up to snuff in this extremely lucrative segment of South Africa’s auto industry.

Chances are, that if you’re a bakkie person, you already side with one of these four manufacturers. These are the big guys. Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Toyota and Nissan. On this continent, anyway. And if you think I’ve forgotten Ford, I haven’t. We purposefully left the Ranger out of the equation for the time being because in a couple of months it will be replaced by an all-new model. Bringing it to this contest would be a bit of an unfair fight. Stay tuned for more on that.

It all started with Toyota’s local IMV project a few years ago. Out of the blue came a strange mix of soft around the edges, but hard under the skin type bakkie. It was a fairly new concept in these parts. It was far more car-like than its predecessors, and it caught the rest of the market and their brash military-esque pick ups with their pants down. But the idea took. We liked the idea of a soft ride and comfy seats in our bakkies. The new Hilux was an immediate success.

But then Nissan decided to get involved. The Hardbody was doing the job, but they wanted to give this new soft concept a go. Enter Navara. This bakkie has made an enormous impact. It was only two issues ago that we awarded this very incarnation our ‘Best Bakkie’ award. And it deserves it too. The Navara is just superior in nearly every aspect. Before I’d even driven the new Triton you see here, I’d decided that it would have a hard time impressing me with this awesome Nissan around. But I’m going to wait till the end of this story to divulge whether or not I feel the Mitsubishi is up to the task.

Oh, and then there’s the Isuzu KB. I nearly forgot. This bakkie is like a dark horse in this contest. Much older than its younger adversaries, but maybe wiser. I always tend to underestimate the KB, but then I notice one at nearly every robot. It has to be as popular as it is for a reason. Right? Let’s see.

When you get these four next to each other, it’s much easier to see the big picture. You’ve got to drive them all within a few minutes of each other to differentiate, and catch all the little nuances. It’s never easy to judge the best of the best side by side, because they’re all so similar. I hate to say that, but they are actually. Sure, a Nissan is only like a Nissan, and a Toyota is only like a Toyota, but it’s much easier to see why that is in a situation like this.

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