Tata recently came out with its latest light truck offering for the South African Market, the Xenon. Compact pickups in South Africa are called bakkies, a term we think is the bees knees, and this one is Tata's second bakkie for that market. The Xenon rides on a double wishbone front suspension with a solid axle and leaf spring setup in the back. Shift-on-the-fly all wheel wheel drive can be accomplished up to 65 kph by way of a knob on the dash - four wheel low has to be engaged at a stand still. The truck has only one power option, a 3 liter four cylinder turbo diesel with direct injection good for 114 hp and 220 lb.ft. of torque routed through a 5 speed manual. All that is well and good, but the tubular bumpers and roll over bars are the real winners here. When and why did that go out of style?

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