Never mind its polarising looks, there is another conversation the newly-introduced Kia Tasman bakkie can’t shy away from. Many bakkie enthusiast are keen to know whether it is faster than a Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger or Isuzu D-Max.
As The Citizen Motoring hasn’t had the chance to run the Kia Tasman against the clock yet, we’ll set the table so long with the numbers we have. And the numbers make for what can be a fascinating contest in the competitve bakkie segment.
Stiff opposition
The Kia bakkie offered locally with only one engine derivative, a four-cylinder 2.2-litre turbodiesel which makes 154kW of power and 440Nm of torque. Numbers coming out of Australia suggest that the bakkie will sprint from 0 to 100km/h in 10.4 seconds. This places it right in the thick of things on a very tight list of sprint times set by four-cylinder diesel bakkies.
Topping this list is the 165kW/550Nm 2.8-litre Toyota Hilux GR-Sport with a time of 10.32 seconds. However, the GR-S’ third reiteration which features a wider track went slower by only managing 10.94.
The bi-turbo 154kW/500Nm 2.0-litre Ford Ranger and VW Amarok production siblings are up next, separated by only three hundreds of a second. The Amarok in Life double cab guise managed a time of 10.38, followed by a Wildtrak Supercab derivative with a 10.41.
Kia bakkie could snatch record
These three displaced the Isuzu D-Max V-Cross 4×4. The double recorded a sprint time of 10.59 during our test to briefly hold the record for the fastest four-cylinder diesel bakkie.
With the Toyota Hilux GR-S slower than before and both the bi-turbo Ford Ranger and VW Amarok being discontinued, the Kia bakkie stands the chance to be the fastest current four-cylinder bakkie on out time sheets. Providing it can beat the Isuzu D-Max’s time.
