It’s logged about 1 700 km so far and, having arrived at the CAR office with only 141 km on its odometer in mid January, the popularity of the Daihatsu Gran Max is becoming quite apparent. It’s already gone as far as Bredasdorp in the Agulhas municipality and actually spends little time at the office because it’s out most of the time transporting cargo and whatever goods the CAR team needs moved.
What really helps is that the Gran Max is fitted with a cavernous canopy, which keeps whatever is on the vast load bed (which is conveniently rubberised) protected from the elements. That canopy is the little pick-ups bane on the open road though, as I found out just outside of Caledon on a recent delivery run. The high, flat sides catch as much wind as those racing yachts and requires (very) firm hands on the steering wheel to keep the 175-wide R13 tyres in a straight line.
The Gran Max’s 1,5-litre four-cylinder petrol unit produces modest outputs of 71 kW at 6 000 r/min and 134 N.m of torque at 4 400 r/min, but so far nobody on the team has complained about being left behind on the motorways in and around Cape Town. That’s because the Gran Max uses quite a short-ratio five-speed gearbox to send drive to the rear wheels.
Unfortunately, that also means that the engine is quite loud at the national limit and without the fitment of a tachometer, we can only guess that in fifth at 120 km /h, it’s somewhere above 4 000 r/min. Annoyingly, because the driver is perched right on top of the engine, the cabin also gets quite hot – luckily the Gran Max has standard air-con, which is the only comfort feature.
So far:
Mileage: 1 705 km
Fuel consumption: 8,96 L/100 km
We like: peppy 1,5-litre motor and short gearing
We don’t like: lack of audio, dodgy behaviour in crosswinds
