Two-thousand and twenty-two in the South African motoring industry proven once again that Mzansi is undoubtedly bakkie country.
While there were lots of activity in the SUV, hatchback and sedan segments, it was the bakkies that got the most attention. Bakkie news span from Peugeot’s re-entry into the segment by virtue of the Landtrek, the first Jeep bakkie in the form of the Gladiator and the hottest production Toyota Hilux yet to the all-new Isuzu D-Max, Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok.
In fact, five of the ten most popular motoring topics on The Citizen’s website this year were bakkies. Over the last 10 days of December, The Citizen Motoring looks back at these five along with the rest of the top 10 Motoring Newsmakers of 2022.
My kar se wat?
Occupying the sixth spot in our top 10 is an interesting and hilarious entry. In fact, the car is not even sold in South Africa. And thankfully so.
The vehicle in question is an SUV named the Sehol X8 Plus. You probably don’t even need primary school Afrikaans to figure out why that name would be the butt of all jokes it sold under that moniker in South Africa.
The Chinese carmaker was born through a partnership between Volkswagen’s Seat division and Wolfsburg’s Chinese partner, JAC-Volkswagen, under the Sol nameplate in 2017. The word Sol which means sun is said to pay homage to Seat’s Spanish origins. Last year the carmaker rebranded from Sol to Sehol.
Sehol only the start
But that is not where the joke will end if the Sehol ever makes its way to Mzansi. The 3D surround sound system in this car is called Hol-Music … and the autonomous driving system Hol-Pilot.
A certain model car having different names in various market is a common occurrence, but changing those names will take a lot more doing than merely replacing the badge on the bootlid.
The rest of our 2022 Motoring Newsmakers are:
No 10 – New Range Rover rolls in
No 9 – VW Amarok shows face
No 8 – Kona N the new Golf GTI killer
No 7 – Isuzu outguns Hilux and Ranger
