Want style and shove in a small bakkie? Try these three street raiders out for size.

Depending on whose opinion you ask, small bakkies such as these could either be totally pointless or offer ultimate compromise between a sporty compact car and a practical utility vehicle.

Looking at recent sales charts it's clear to see that South Africans have voted with their wallets in favour of compact bakkies, with the Opel Corsa Utility being the second best-selling bakkie last year and the Ford Bantam following closely in fourth spot.

Nissan attempted to crash this party late last year when its new NP200 hit the scene to replace the antiquated 1400 bakkie, but its appeal has been limited by it only being offered in workhorse guise.

Yet we knew all along that Nissan was also planning an entrant for the private buyers at the upper end of the pecking order and we've had to wait until now for the higher spec versions of the NP200, which also offer a more powerful 16-valve petrol engine and will soon bring a turbo-diesel into the equation.

Nissan states its case

The new NP200 1.6 16V SE makes a good case for itself at the top of the compact bakkie pile, against the range-topping Opel Corsa Ute 1.8 Sport and Ford Bantam 1.6 XLE.

These bakkies offer strong performance, sporty styling and comfortable interiors for a more accessible price than a hatchback with a similar-sized engine. Sure, you've only got two seats, but then there's a large load bin at the back to haul loads for your small business or to carry your quad bike to the trails on the weekend.

Performance is likely to be the biggest draw card to these vehicles and here the Nissan NP200 raises an eyebrow with its new 1.6-litre, 16-valve engine, which makes 77kW and 148Nm. It's not as powerful as the eight-valve Opel's 1.8-litre unit however, with the Opel giving you 79kW and 160Nm. When kerb weight enters the equation, the Opel has a slight edge in power to weight, however, although the Nissan has slightly more torque to weight. Out on the road, both bakkies offer very decent performance.

Ford fizzles

The Ford might seem the weakest on paper, with its 70kW and 135Nm outputs, but it actually beat the Nissan in acceleration off the mark, only falling short at higher speeds in the 80 – 120km/h overtaking acceleration test, where the Ford delivered a disappointing 16.3-second run.

None of these engines are at the cutting edge of sophistication, so there is a fuel economy pitfall to be expected, but on the flipside of them not catering for modern emission standards, they do produce strong torque at the low end of the rev range.

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