Whether you’re an avid off-roading enthusiast or live in a flood-prone area, a vehicle with the ability to wade through deep waters will likely be on your shopping list.
The maximum wading/fording depth of a car is how deep it can go into water without damaging any onboard components.
Primarily, this point is determined by where vulnerable systems such as air intakes and distributors are located, which differs from car to car.
As most modern SUVs and bakkies have maximum wading depths of around 500mm, we set out to find the vehicles on the local market with 600mm depths and more.
To our surprise, over 25 models satisfied this condition.
We found that Land Rover is the definitive champion when it comes to water wading depth, with six SUVs offering wading depths of between 600-900mm.
Toyota is also a prominent feature in the list, boasting five vehicle ranges each with a 700mm maximum wading depth.
Additionally, Ford, Isuzu, Mahindra, and Mitsubishi all have two vehicles on the list – comprising one bakkie and one SUV – while brands including BAIC, Haval, Jeep, Lexus, Nissan, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, and Peugeot have one.
The cars
The list below shows the vehicles in South Africa with water wading depths of 600mm and up.
Click on the underlined names for more information.
Land Rover Discovery Sport – 600mm
Peugeot Landtrek – 600mm
Range Rover Evoque – 600mm
Haval H9 – 700mm
Lexus LX – 700mm
Mercedes-Benz G-Class – 700mm
Mitsubishi Pajero Sport – 700mm
Mitsubishi Triton – 700mm
Nissan Patrol – 700mm
Toyota Fortuner – 700mm
Toyota Hilux – 700mm
Toyota Land Cruiser 300 – 700mm
Toyota Land Cruiser 79 – 700mm
Toyota Prado – 700mm
BAIC B40 Plus – 750mm
Jeep Wrangler – 760mm
Ford Everest – 800mm
Ford Ranger – 800mm
Isuzu D-Max – 800mm
Isuzu mu-X – 800mm
Mahindra Pik Up – 800mm
Mahindra Scorpio – 800mm
Mazda BT-50 – 800mm
Ford Ranger Raptor – 850mm
Range Rover Sport – 850mm
Land Rover Defender – 900mm
Land Rover Discovery – 900mm
Range Rover – 900mm
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