Chinese bakkies

[Arri]

Does qanyone have experience with some of the numerous chinese imports like gwm chana gonow etc. as regards to quality and reliability and perfomance, I see more more and Everyday and the dealerships jumps up like mushrooms, They usually go for half the price of local bakkies.
I heard a story of some models rusting on the showroom floors by the sea, but don't know if it's true ...

[swifty]

They've been on the SA market for a relative short time, so only time will tell. The only positive side is that most come fitted with the 4Y copy EFI engines.

My son bought a GWM bakkie for his bussiness, and does about 10,000km/month. So far no problems, he is actually impressed with the performance and equipment and especially the price. But as I said, only time will tell........

[Arri]

Thats true time will tell, for business deffinately it makes sense if you consider the price but I'm not sure if their spare parts and sevice are also cheap, my guess is it will be. For personal use I
will not buy one, but I thinks it's good thing to have a bit of competition, as our local motor industry have been ripping uf off with rediculous high prices for way too long. But it sure is funny seeing all these different copies and new names on our road. When I grew up all you could choose from Toyota,Nissan, Isuzu, Ford now I can't even name all the different makes and models. I heard Toyota might be bringing a 1/2 tonner next year to fill the gap in the market they have been loosing out on for so long, will love too se what it will look like...

[BenHur]

A week or 2 ago my Neighbour had a Chana bakkie here to Dyno. It was a full-blown racing modified bakkie with abolstary enol removed, carbon fibre instrment panal, roll cage, semi slicks, special cambers on the front wheels the tootie.

These vans by default uses a high output 1300cc OE Honda engine but Oom Johan from JT-Conversions who brought the bakkie for its dyno build this engine to produce over 200 HP (I say again on a 1300cc engine )

The compression on this thing is so high that they will have to beef up the starter motor as it battles to turn and start the engine when cold. Schalk had to connect his booster charger directly to the starter to get it to turn the motor enough to get the engine going when he did the cold start mapping early in the morning when everything was cold.

Apparently this vehicle is raced by one of the big bosses from Chana SA himself, but they want to build a few more of them.

[Rebel 4x4]

Any feedback 1,5 years down the line??????

[Polarbear2008]

I agree with the sentiment regarding "for business use" as about 3 years down the line that bakkie would be ready for replacement at any rate.

If for private use, I can only suggest looking at the ones sold through the Imperial group or the MCarthy Group, as then one is relatively safe as far as backup is concerned. It is still, however a case of getting what you're paying for, and accepting the fact that you are NOT going to get any money come the time to sell or trade it on something else.

I am a bit wary of "under license" built things, like engines, as the Chinese are not known as the kings of quality control! Seeing that the model engine they use has been around for years, parts (should) not be a problem, unless they have changed things on it - like Ssangyong did to the Mercedes diesel engines the used "under License" in their Musso years ago - just about no Mercedes part could or would fit on it!

Looks like the GWM ones are not half bad. I would however look at the new Tata Xenon. Saw a demo vehicle recently, and it looks a whole lot better (more solidly built) than the Chinese ones!)

Hope my 2c helps

Not that I would be trading my KZ for any of them any time soon, though!

[MORNE]

Does qanyone have experience with some of the numerous chinese imports like gwm chana gonow etc. as regards to quality and reliability and perfomance, I see more more and Everyday and the dealerships jumps up like mushrooms, They usually go for half the price of local bakkies.
I heard a story of some models rusting on the showroom floors by the sea, but don't know if it's true ...

Why buy something you can not trust fully yet , if you can buy a good secondhand 2.7i Hilux for the same prize, and never have any worry.You get A/C ,powersteering e/w , radio/cd , and difflock.