Working the Isuzu horse

TOUGH: D-MAX IS SA'S THIRD-BEST SELLING BAKKIE

- Charl Bosch

It is not often that the motoring media gets to drive a bakkie that is not a double cab. Single and extended cabs are usually omitted from most media fleets for fear of being unfairly taken apart by those seemingly unable to understand the difference between a leisure bakkie and a workhorse.

Still, workhorses are the bread-and-butter for the majority of South Africa's bakkie brands and no less than eight car makers offer single cabs locally.

Besides the Great Wall Motors (GWM) Steed and P Series, and the Foton Tunland, all the others are locally assembled, comprising the Ford Ranger, Mahindra Pik Up, Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux and Volkswagen Amarok.

The eighth brand, the perennial third best-seller behind the Hilux and Ranger, the Isuzu D-Max also rates as the third behind this pair to offer the full range of body styles in double, extended and single cab.

The arrival of a Splash White single cab D-Max late last month presented a unique opportunity of spending more than the usual seven days with a vehicle.

This being long-term "ownership" of the Struandale-built D-Max for the next three months in LS grade, the flagship single cab equipped with the six-speed automatic available for the first time in any generation work-spec D-Max or its KB predecessor.

Priced at R590 800, the LS doesn't underdeliver on the spec side despite its workhorse focus.