LOS TRES AMIGOS* (THE THREE FRIENDS)
Three personalities, three ways of doing broadly similar duties. Three takes on that essentially Kiwi desire to have a vehicle that works hard, plays hard, washes up clean. To borrow from the blurb in the brochure for one of these three: “Gear up and get out there. Forget the weather, this is New Zealand. Any mud you encounter will be worn with pride.”
Three different vehicles, three different market segments. Two are about benchmarking their latest versions, with new trim packages and styling, gentle upgrades everywhere. The third is a modern take on the origin of utes or pickups; a reminder of how these vehicles evolved.
One of our trio has been an established leader in the double cab diesel ute arena for decades; it has been the ‘goto’ for tradies, recreational users and governmental users since Crumpie made rough, tough bush blokes so trendy you’d see them in Queen Street. The Toyota Hilux arguably created the double-cab diesel ute segment three decades ago, and it has come a long, long way since then.
One is a challenger to that title, and has begun to make inroads to those roles. From humble – and mainly petrol-powered – stock, it has rapidly evolved into a double-cab diesel ute offering stacked with features and value, underpinned by a chassis and drivetrain with serious offroad ability. The Mitsubishi Triton Black Edition throws some serious opposition in the path of its rival.
The third embodies all that is great and good about the original ‘pickup’ segment in the nation that spawned these immensely useful vehicles. In America’s month of drama, decision and denial, we got our hands on the very new yet quite old school RAM (nee Dodge) 1500 Warlock. This is a team, tool and toy hauler par excellence. Could anyone say no to this mighty beast? We certainly couldn’t.
The first two proudly wear their Japanese design ‘language’ in their sharply-cut and angular snouts, showing similar frontal profiles until examined closely. High-set headlight clusters house LED light packs, the grilles are broadly similar though of course proudly bearing their distinctive brand identifiers. Bonnet shapes are similar, with slight scallops at each edge that slightly improve vision in tight turns and offroad. The lower half of the nose in each case is clad in sensible plastic (colour-keyed for the Hilux, black for the very black Triton) to shrug off those building site bumps and the occasional close brush with grassy banks out in the wilds.
The RAM is simply purest RAM, ‘our’ Warlock finished in a deep blue with black satin applique to the bonnet. In this spec the front end is less shouty than the bright chrome of other RAMs but no less businesslike.
There are two substantial pull-hooks styled into the all-black bumper below the ‘Rebel’ grille, and a pair of subtle nostrils in the bonnet (should we
