This week Toyota officially closed its manufacturing facility in Australia. At the same time, BMW announced it was investing an additional R160m into its plant in Rosslyn, SA to increase production capacity for the new X3. These are all major industry announcements, but it is easy to forget sometimes that Ford manufacturers the Everest SUV and exports it from its plant in Silverton. It adds to the export numbers for the Ranger bakkie, of course, and shows an industry that is continuing to be rather healthy — and there are high hopes for it to continue in that way once negotiations for a new policy framework post-2020 are completed. Over the past month our Everest 2.2 has been doing a lot more work both in town and getting away at the weekends. It is holding up well to the urban commute and we are quite sure its American truck-like facade has probably made the occasional minibus taxi driver think twice before messing with it. The acres of space have been crammed with kids and all the...

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