JAC reporting for duty

It’s not every day that I’m asked to review a truck, so I was a bit worried getting into Midbay Motors’ latest acquisition.

It’s called JAC and is new in SA, from China, and wants to steal some of the lucrative light transport pie from Hyundai and Kia who basically have the monopoly.

First thing I noticed is that the JAC is surprisingly car-like as far as the cabin goes with a cabin that will put some single cab bakkies to shame.

A radio/CD player and air-con is surrounded by chromed this and that, and the bench between the driver and passenger seat even sports a fold-down section which has cup holders and a place to store A4-sized documents.

Even the key comes in the form of a fancy fob with central locking buttons and looks like it belongs to something much fancier.

The seating position though, is not car-like at all but very upright, but at least there’s decent space and the controls such as the clutch and steering are as easy to operate as that of a budget hatch.

Hardware

Powering the JAC is a 2.8-litre turbo diesel, which puts out 80kW at 3000rpm and 240Nm between 1800 and 2000rpm.

The transmission is a five-speed manual unit, which is fairly smooth considering to which vehicle it’s been fitted.

From pull away, I found that the

JAC needs to be revved quite high before changing gears, in order to keep accelerating at a constant pace.

The engine is noisy, but then again it’s a truck, not a passenger car, so does it really matter?

Once at speed the JAC is fairly stable and when you want to stop, braking happens decisively thanks to the front disks.

Costs

The new JAC can carry a payload of 1300kg and has a towing capacity of 1250kg.

Claimed fuel economy is 9.2-litres to 100km and it comes standard with fiveyear/100 000km warranty.

Its Chinese makers say it is built to last and proof of that is the 50 000 units already running around in Africa.

JAC, apparently, is not a newbie when it comes to fitting wheels to metal and has been doing so for 50 years.

To entice SA buyers, JAC has priced this workhorse R35 000 below the Korean opposition at R229 900.

Visit Midbay Motors’ Peugeot showroom in Dollar Drive to get a better look at this newcomer.

Looking for a more affordable alternative? The Chinese-made JAC bakkie has arrived

As is always the case with wheels coming from China, the JAC boasts more luxury features than your average budget hatch and as a whole, the interior is almost too fancy for a workhorse