The Hilux GR-Sport is the hottest production bakkie Toyota has built yet.
The South African motoring industry in 2022 proved 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 spanned 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 10 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.
Taking into account Mzansi’s obsession with bakkies, the most popular online motoring story of 2022 is hardly surprising. The hottest ever production version of South Africa’s best-selling bakkie, the Toyota Hilux GR-Sport (GR-S), sparked serious interest since its announcement in February.
The locally-built Toyota Hilux GR-S was originally set to be introduced in May, but its production was put on hold when Toyota’s Prospecton assembly was shut down due to flood damage in April.
With the plant reopening for production in August, the hot Hilux was back on track and finally rolled out in September.
The Toyota Hilux GR-S is powered by a 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine like the rest of the range, but it features a 15 kW power bump over its 150 kW siblings. Along with the additional power, the GR-S also comes with a tweaked suspension and styling enhancements.
With the arrival of the new Ford Ranger this month and the new VW Amarok early next year, the local bakkie segment is as strong as ever.
The rest of our 2022 Motoring Newsmakers are:
No 10 – New Range Rover rolls in
No 8 – Kona N the new Golf GTI killer
No 7 – Isuzu outguns Hilux and Ranger
No 6 – Sehol SUV the butt of all jokes
No 5 – New Ford Ranger arrives
No 3 – Peugeot bakkie short on breath
No 2 – Luxury cars sleeping with the fishes
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