In the hotly contested race for big pickup profits, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has pulled an upset the last two months as its freshly redesigned Ram truck outsold General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Silverado, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg News.

In the space below Amarok there will soon be a bakkie called Tarok, and the concept you see here, just revealed at the Sao Paulo Motor Show, will spawn a production model with “barely any changes”.

Mercedes-Benz South Africa has launched its range-topping X-Class V6 – the X350d 4MATIC.

It is no secret that our market loves pickups. And the humble bakkie has evolved from workhorse to lifestyle companion, with contemporary expressions taking on more upmarket characters, striving to evince the personas of sport-utility vehicle counterparts.

Of course, this is unintelligible, but what it contains is the most serious skirmish in a brewing trade dispute between China, India, Brazil and the EU. We are the wag-’n-bietjie caught on China’s sock along for the ride, helping to make up the BASIC nations, which are the BRICS nations without Russia – that is, Brazil, South Africa, India and China.