GWM P-Series offers bakkie purists serious food for thought

Former Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer once made a sobering observation.

Having had the misfortune of facing an almost indomitable All Black team during his reign, he reckoned the Kiwis were probably 10 years ahead of their opposition. Meyer said that merely copying New Zealand’s style of play would mean that by the time they catch up to them, the All Blacks would already be 10 years ahead again.

It is almost like the designers over at GWM followed the exact same mantra when they planned the P-Series bakkie. Trying to play catch up to the big boys in the bakkie yard was only going to result in the competition keeping its advantage over time.

So instead of merely sprucing up the previous figure head of its bakkie offerings, the Steed 5, the Chinese manufacturer took a different approach in producing a somewhat rather unique bakkie called the P-Series. The name is an adaptation of the Poer moniker it is sold as in its home market. Poer is actually pronounced “po-wer”, but fortunately GWM had the presence of mind to ditch the name in lieu with its Afrikaans meaning and potential for inappropriate alterations.

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P-Series makes inroads

Since its local arrival at the end of 2020, the P-Series has made serious inroads on the sales charts for one-tonners. While the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max remain the uncontested top three, the rest of the top five have made some interesting reading over the last 22 months.

The P-Series has taken the fight to two other locally built offerings, the Nissan Navara and the Mahindra Pik-Up, with the three of them, along with the Steed 5, often playing musical chairs in positions number four to six in the sales charts.

The reason for the P-Series’ success is two-fold. First of all, GWM are undercutting its rivals in terms of pricing. And secondly, it offers styling unlike another any other bakkie.

It is by no means perfect and we will get to that, but first of all, let’s tackle its drawing cards.

The GWM P-Series in 2.0TD double cab LT 4×4 guise The Citizen Motoring recently had on test is the line-up’s flagship offering at R640 950. That is as much as a quarter of a million rand less than the top-the-range products in its rivals’ stables which it matches blow-for-blow in terms of features and safety systems, barring a roller shutter for the loadbin.

Making a statement

Only a proper statement will do if you want to leapfrog your rivals in terms of styling and that is exactly what the GWM designers have done with the exterior looks of the P-Series. With a massive front grille with chrome logo and outline flanked by sleek LED headlights, its hard to argue that this bakkie does not look imposing. Making it also look bigger than it actually is slimmer than usual side windows atop rather deep side doors which extends to the rear given the P-Series a rather deep loadbin.

Chrome finishes on the side doors handles, tailgate handle, strips below the side windows, roll bar, side steps and side mirrors along with shiny 18-inch 12-spoke alloy wheels clad in 265/69 R18 rubberware completes the package.

The interior is probably the one area we felt GWM have advanced the bakkie game in terms of styling. Instead of trying to out-bakkie the other bakkies, carmaker has somehow out-SUVed the other bakkies. Plush faux leather seats finished in elegant diamond-shaped stitching also used in the door inserts, brushed chrome and soft-touch leather trim inserts, a nine-inch infotainment system and a fully digital seven-inch instrument cluster is as premium feel as you will find a bakkie.

While some hardcore bakkie owners will probably scoff at the idea that the interior is too soft to be a proper tough bakkie, it is exactly what GWM set out to achieve. Most leisure-orientated bakkies spend their lives in the city and many of those are driven by women which will value plushness over toughness that will never have to put up with muddy boots and hands.

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Not perfect under the bonnet

The area in which the P-Series is far from perfect in under the bonnet. It is powered by a 2.0-litre turbodiesel mill which produces 120kW of power and 400Nm of torque and is mated to a decent but somewhat erratic ZF eight-speed automatic transmission.

While it is by no means the slowest bakkie Road Test Editor Mark Jones has tested, it does suffer from initial turbo lag when pulling off from a standstill. Once on the move, things do improve with its acceleration decent enough for comfortable overtaking.

We managed to match GWM’s fuel consumption claim of 9.4 litres per 100 km on one relaxed 300 km open road trip, although the average consumption for the entire week was just under 11 L/100 km which is pretty much par for the course in a 2.1-ton vehicle.

Although we did not take it off-road or put its one-ton payload to the test, we thought the suspension performed quite well. In fact, far better than some other bakkies we have driven.

While Meyer might not have lived up to his vision, very much like Rassie Erasmus, the GWM P-Series managed to leapfrog others by playing to their owns strengths.

GWM P-Series test data