Chinese double cabs in South Africa: P-Series, T9, Tunland, Landtrek and Shark 6, compared

Read any “which bakkie should I buy” thread from the last two years. Someone has R300,000 and a long commute. Someone else has R350,000 and a farm. The answers are always the same: Isuzu, then Toyota, then a warning about the Ranger 2.2. Nobody says GWM. Nobody says JAC. Not unless the person asking brings it up first.

And yet GWM sold about 4,900 P-Series last year. In August it was the fifth best-selling bakkie in the country, 24 units behind the Mahindra. South Africans are buying Chinese bakkies. They are just not recommending them to each other yet.

They buy for the money: a JAC T9 is R549,900 where a Ranger double cab is about R625,000, and the warranty runs seven years where Toyota gives three. They do not recommend them because of the dealer, and because nobody knows which brands will still be here in ten years. Foton left once. Chana left. GoNow left. Their owners could not find door locks. That is the fear.

Prices are asking prices from September 2026, not selling prices. New prices are what dealers ask today, often well under list. The live figures are on the P-Series, JAC, Tunland, Landtrek, Shark 6, LDV and Hunter pages.

The field

Read the used column first. Only the P-Series has a used market with depth; the JAC, Tunland and Landtrek have about 50 used ones each, and the rest almost none.

GWM P-Series 2.0: the one with a record

The P-Series arrived in November 2020 with a 2.0 turbodiesel, 120 kW and a proper ZF eight-speed automatic. Owners praise the gearbox first and the “spaceship” cabin second. It has sold about 4,500 a year since, with a dip to 3,700 in the 2024 run-out.

What it costs. About 790 are for sale, 560 of them used. The typical one is a 2023 with 82,000 km asking around R360,000. A used 2021 asks about R335,000, a 2022 about R320,000 and a 2023 about R350,000. Those three years sit within R30,000 of each other, because the market prices every old-shape P-Series as one bakkie. Nobody paid list: in the run-out before the P300, buyers report LT 4x4s at R150,000 below retail.

What goes wrong. Six years of forum record show no ZF failures and no engine failures. An owner at 75,000 km has had a turbo under warranty and rear brakes twice. The real list:

• It drinks. Owners average about 10.5 litres per 100 km unladen against a claim of 9.4.
• The ride, empty. Harsh over corrugations, and the front end bottoms out. The local fix is to load it.
• Parts and dealers. A tail light was quoted at R7,455. The worst story is a dealer quoting over R70,000 for a pump and injectors, when the fault was a R2,500 valve. It took six months and lawyers. That owner’s verdict: the car is good, the business less so.
• Towing. GWM’s own figure is 1,210 kg braked. Not the bakkie for a caravan.

The warranty catch. Five years or 100,000 km, and about half the used 2021 to 2023 bakkies for sale have passed 100,000 km. Check the odometer before anything else.

Who it is for. A 2022 or 2023 LT 4x4 under 100,000 km at about R380,000, with the GWM service printout, is the value buy of this guide. Not for towing.

GWM P300 and P500: the same name, a different bakkie

The P300 landed in February 2025. Dealers call it a facelift, and it is not. The engine is a 2.4 turbodiesel with 135 kW and 480 Nm. The gearbox is GWM’s own nine-speed, not the ZF. The 4x4 tows 3,500 kg. New, the LS 4x2 asks R499,900 and the LT 4x4 about R630,000. The few used 2025 LT 4x4s ask R500,000 to R525,000.

• The nine-speed is new and it has complaints. One owner has been back five times for first-gear jerking with no fix. “Same ZF as the old one” is not true.
• The 2.4 has a timing belt, due at 75,000 km. The service plan is seven years or 75,000 km, so the first belt lands where the plan ends. Nobody has published a South African price for the job. A used P300 past 75,000 km needs the belt invoice.

The seven-year warranty transfers to the next owner, and GWM has 90 plus dealers to honour it, nine of them in Limpopo.

The P500 sits above it, and from September 2026 it has a 3.0 V6 diesel with 170 kW from R724,900. No used P500 is for sale yet. One warning for any GWM buyer: the bakkie was renewed in 2020, 2025 and 2026, and each time the one before dropped in price overnight. Buy the old one in the quarter before the new one lands.

JAC T9: the best to drive, and the least known

JAC came here as a truck brand, and the T8 it launched in 2021 was cheap and sounded it. The T9 changed that in May 2024: a 2.0 turbodiesel with 125 kW and 444 Nm, a real ZF eight-speed and 3,500 kg of towing. CAR called it “arguably the best bakkie to come out of China right now”.

What it costs. List is from R549,900, and a new 4x4 asks about R580,000. Used, there are only 47 T9s from 2025 or older, the typical one with 24,000 km asking about R480,000.

What goes wrong. Every tester says the throttle and gearbox software need work. Beyond that there is very little, and that is the problem. The country’s biggest 4x4 forum has no T9 owner thread at all. The complaints that exist are about dealers: a warranty claim refused, two weeks to price an aircon compressor. JAC has about 60 dealers and four in the whole Western Cape.

In its favour, JAC is behaving like a brand that plans to stay. The warranty went from 100,000 km to 200,000 km. In September 2026 the service plan went to seven years or 100,000 km, backdated to existing owners. And JAC publishes its parts prices, which nobody else here does: an oil filter is R337, a windscreen R4,261.

Who it is for. The new-car buyer with R550,000 to R650,000 who wants the best drive and tows 3.5 tonnes. Not yet a used buy.

Foton Tunland G7 and V9: back, with a history

Foton sold the old Tunland here from 2013 to 2017, then left. In December 2022 a man who had bought a 2014 for R72,000 could not find tyres, a battery or door locks. It came back in June 2024 with the G7 and 58 dealers, and sold 2,329 bakkies in 2025.

The G7. A 2.0 turbodiesel with 120 kW, a manual or an eight-speed automatic, and 3,000 kg of towing. New, a double cab asks from R399,900. A used one asks about R425,000 with 27,000 km. CAR found slow shifting and hard seats. Owners are kinder: ride about 80 percent of an Amarok, about 9 litres per 100 km, no rattles. Nothing has broken on record yet, but that is thin data. The warranty is five years or 200,000 km, but the service plan is three years or 50,000 km, the thinnest in this group.

The V9. A full-size bakkie from November 2025 with a mild-hybrid 2.0 turbodiesel, a ZF eight-speed and 3,500 kg of towing, at R725,900 to R799,900. No South African magazine has done a full road test and no used one exists. Foton’s page says the warranty is five years with no kilometre cap; CAR reported 200,000 km. Get it in writing.

Who it is for. The G7 is the cheapest new Chinese double cab with a long warranty. The V9 is a bet at P500 money.

Peugeot Landtrek: the French badge on a Changan

The Landtrek is built by Changan and sold through Peugeot since November 2021. The forum calls it “rebadged Chinese”. The engine is a 1.9 turbodiesel with 110 kW and a chain, and it is slow. What it has is the biggest load bed on the market and 3,000 kg of towing. Owners report about 8 litres per 100 km, the best of this group.

What it costs. It was priced wrong at launch, R669,900 for a 4Action in 2021. Then the discounts came: buyers report R191,000 off a double cab automatic. Today a new Professional double cab asks from R299,900, and a new 4Action 4x4 about R525,000 against a list of R759,900. That makes a used one a strange buy. The typical used Landtrek asks about R400,000 with 33,000 km, which is what a discounted new one cost last year.

What goes wrong. In October 2025 the National Consumer Commission published a recall for 2021 to 2025 Landtreks. A wiring harness in the door sill chafes, and in the worst case an airbag can fire without a crash. The fix is free. Ask for proof it was done. Owners in Afrikaans are quietly happy: one priced a Hilux GD-6 at R719,000, worked out he could have two Landtreks for that, and reports no rattles.

Warranty. Five years or 100,000 km. The service plan is only included on the Allure and 4Action.

Who it is for. A new-bakkie buyer at the discounted price who wants the load bed and can live with 110 kW. Not for resale.

BYD Shark 6: two bakkies in one

The Shark 6 is a plug-in hybrid: a 1.5 turbo petrol, two electric motors, a 30 kWh battery and 321 kW. It was the only bakkie among the 18 finalists for the 2026 South African Car of the Year.

What it costs. The Premium is R989,900 and the 350 kW Performance is R1,149,900. About 175 are for sale, half of them new. Twenty-two are used 2025s with about 26,000 km, asking R788,000 to R920,000, the typical one about R860,000.

What it is like to own. Charged, it does about 85 km on electricity, not the 100 km first claimed. Then the battery hits its floor and it becomes a 2.7-tonne petrol bakkie. CAR measured 10.2 litres per 100 km. It is not a 4x4 in the way the forum means: no low range, no diff locks, road tyres. It carries 790 kg and tows 2,500 kg, not 3,500.

The workshop problem. BYD has 64 dealer points but only 14 working workshops, and none in Limpopo, the Free State or the Northern Cape. A Shark owner in Polokwane drives to Centurion for a service. That, more than the fuel, is the answer to “can I run one on the farm”.

Recall. In September 2026 BYD recalled the Shark 6 for a spare-wheel cable that can wear and drop the spare on the road. Every Shark sold here is covered, and the fix is free. The warranty is five years or 100,000 km on the bakkie, eight years or 200,000 km on the battery.

Who it is for. A driveway with a wall box and sun, a BYD workshop in the province, and a commute under 85 km. On any other basis it is a R1 million petrol bakkie.

LDV and Changan Hunter, briefly

LDV launched here in 2024. The T60 Utility has a 2.0 turbodiesel with 120 kW, from R389,900 for a double cab. The Terron 9, from August 2025, has the strongest engine in this guide, a 2.5 turbodiesel with 164 kW and 520 Nm, and asks R779,000 to R849,900. The one South African owner review on record is a T60 that went back 15 times in 15 months. It has about 15 dealers and none in the Western or Northern Cape. The Utility gets no service plan.

Changan is the old Chana, and the Hunter shares its bones with the Landtrek. It arrived in October 2025. The diesel is a 2.0 turbodiesel with 110 kW: R449,900 for a 2WD manual and R569,900 for the 4WD automatic. The other Hunter is a range-extender hybrid, where a 2.0 turbo petrol charges the battery, at R799,900. The Afrikaans verdict on it is the farm verdict on the whole idea: it solves a Shanghai problem South Africa does not have. Here it is easier to fill up and drive 800 km. Changan sold 57 Hunters in July 2026. The service plan is only on the 4WD automatic. There is no used market.

The resale question

The 2021 belief was that a Chinese bakkie would be worth nothing in five years. The forum answer at the time was the sum: you pay less, so you lose less. The test is what a used double cab 4x4 asks against what a new one asks today. The P-Series has no new 2.0 to compare with, so it is measured against a new P300 LT 4x4, which makes it look a little worse than it is.

So the P-Series holds its value about as well as a D-Max 1.9, a little worse than a Ranger, and well under a Hilux. In rand the gap closes. A three-year-old P-Series has lost about R230,000 against a new one, a Ranger about R228,000, a Hilux about R158,000.

What hurt the P-Series was GWM. When the P300 arrived, a forum owner said it had “killed resale of the P-series”, and a 2021, a 2022 and a 2023 now ask about the same. Good for the 2021 buyer, bad for the 2023 buyer, who will get 2021 money back.

For the newer brands there is only a hint: a 2023 JAC T8 asks about 71 percent of its list price. How quickly any of these sell cannot be said yet; the data is too new.

A Hilux or a Ranger for the same money

This is what R400,000 buys in a used double cab 4x4.

The P-Series buyer gets a 2023 with 68,000 km and warranty left. The Hilux 2.4 buyer gets a 2020 with 143,000 km and none. The Ranger buyer gets a 2021 with 114,000 km and a wet belt to think about. What Hilux money buys is a dealer in every town, parts every panel shop knows, and a private sale that takes an afternoon. In year seven that is worth real money. What P-Series money buys is a newer, lower-mileage, better-equipped bakkie that nobody wants to hijack.

Buying and insuring one

The warranty is not the service plan. The G7’s warranty runs to 200,000 km, but its plan stops at 50,000 km. The Landtrek’s plan is only on the top two trims. The LDV Utility has none. The P300’s plan ends at 75,000 km, where the belt is due. Ask for both in writing.

Ask whether it transfers. GWM’s seven-year warranty transfers to the next owner. Locals say Chinese warranties are often first-owner only, so get every other brand to confirm in writing.

Measure the distance to the workshop. A warranty is a promise to fix at a workshop. Owners report parts waits of two months at GWM and eight to ten weeks through Stellantis. Two recalls are real, the Landtrek’s and the Shark’s. The register shows nothing for GWM, JAC, Foton, Changan or LDV.

Theft and insurance. No Chinese bakkie appears on any South African theft or hijack list. It does not show up in the premium, though. A P-Series LTD in Johannesburg drew nine quotes from about R2,200 to R2,800 a month, about what a 2020 Hilux 2.8 Legend costs. No refusals were found.

Before you pay for any of them:

• The dealer service printout for the VIN, not the stamps in the book.
• On a P300 past 75,000 km, the belt invoice.
• On a Landtrek, proof the recall was done.
• A drive on a corrugated road with the bin empty.

Which one to buy

If you have R320,000 to R400,000: a 2022 or 2023 P-Series LT 4x4 under 100,000 km, with the GWM printout. It is the only Chinese bakkie with a used market and prices that have stopped falling.

If you have R400,000 to R500,000 and want new: a Tunland G7 for the warranty, or a discounted Landtrek for the load bed.

If you have R550,000 to R670,000: the JAC T9 4x4 for the drive and the towing, or the P300 LT 4x4 for the seven-year warranty and the dealers. The T9 is the better bakkie. The P300 is the safer bet.

If you have a wall box, sun and a BYD workshop in your province: the Shark 6, and a used 2025 at about R860,000 saves you R130,000.

If you farm, tow, or live in the Northern Cape: the forum is right. Buy the Hilux, the D-Max or the Ranger, and pay the tax. Then look at the P-Series listings anyway, where every bakkie is shown against the going rate for its year.

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