I Test drove one this weekend

[Vormoto]

My BIL has had some major bad luck with 2nd hand vehicles in the last few years, and he has promised himself not to buy second hand again. In his Quest to find a Double Cab 4x2 bakkie, he stumbled across a JAC.

Dealer (VW) has a demo on the floor, JAC T8, 1.9 diesel motor, (apparently from the VW passat) for the low price of only R365k. 5 Year 150,000km Warranty, with service plan at tavcor included (also 5year/150,000km)

Apart from the engine noise that was rather irritating in gears 1-3, (really loud inside the cabin), the drive itself was quite comfy and power seemed to be adequate.

BIL does not do any overlanding or camping, the only gravel road he will probably do is if there is a detour from the normal tar road. his purpose for a DBL cab is to load dogs/rubbish/bicycles/paddelski/wetsuit/Diving gear etc....

His budget is +/-R350k,and he has till this coming weekend to decide on a new car, but he is leaning strongly towards the JAC

Does anyone have real life ownership report on the 2022 JAC T8?

[Tom13]

The new ones has a 2.0 L CTI. The outputs are the same as the 2.0 Tdi found in thousands of VW commercial vehicles but if they are the same engines I don't know. The bakkie looks decent enough.

[HugoNotte]

JAC is owned to 50% by Volkswagen. There would have been proper technology transfer, the engines are not reverse engineered.
Sounds like that 2.0 TDi is the low power Amarok engine and with a bit of luck, that 6 speed manual transmission is the ZF unit, same as in the Amarok, too.

[WillieJimny]

With “known brand” double cab prices getting more silly by the day JAC GWM and Mahindra seem more and more viable.

[Pieter van Eeden]

Look in CAR Magazine of Nov 2021. In there is a bakkie shootout of which the JAC was one of the test mules.

[Vijaygza]

With “known brand” double cab prices getting more silly by the day JAC GWM and Mahindra seem more and more viable.

I know someone in Mosselbay drives to George few times a week, had the Mahindra DC more than 5 years, no issues with vehicle or service. He's a car guy with classics and other vehicles and was quite happy to recommend the Mahindra when I was in the market for a 4x4.