Having an armoured vehicle has become quite popular in South Africa, but they certainly aren’t cheap to convert. We list some expensive examples currently on sale in the used car market.
South Africa’s crime statistics make for grim reading, and many people do what they can to be safe and secure in their personal spaces. There isn’t much you can do to protect your vehicle but armouring or bullet-proofing the chassis and body parts is a good option – if you can afford it.
High-value cargo (money, possessions) and important people (presidents, political ministers, or VIP clientele) usually need extra protection, so the vehicles they travel in are usually fortified to some extent.
Quite a few local companies – like SVI Engineering and Armormax – carry out armouringsolutions for various vehicles.
One of the great things about armouring is that you can’t immediately see if a vehicle isequipped with it. Many armoured vehicles are highly discreet and are enhanced with upgrades like ballistic glass and stronger suspension to cope with the added weight. Others, like the Anti-riot Toyota Hilux solution is not. The idea behind armouring is to make a vehicle’s appearance as normal as possible. Armormax, for example, uses the lightest synthetic armour on all doors, panels, pillars, rear seats and the hatch.
Cost vs safety
Armoured vehicles add an extra layer of safety to protect the driver and any occupants from being injured or killed during a shooting, for example.
Each company has its own naming convention for the various packages on offer, so themore protection required, the pricier the conversion will be. The process of armouring avehicle isn’t cheap, and customers can end up paying close to the retail price for the added protection.
The project build time is approximately three months. Together with the OEM factory warranty (which remains intact), SVI provides an additional one-year or 50 000kmwarranty on the armouring conversion.
Most vehicles that can be armoured are bakkies and SUVs (Toyota Hilux and Ford Everest in particular) because they are robust and equipped with powerful engines, but also primarily high-end luxury cars.
That said, in January 2023, Armormax was the first company to showcase the first armoured Volkswagen Golf 8 GTI both in South Africa and globally, cleverly marketing it as the “Vrr-Pha that stops the Pha Pha Pha”. They’re also familiar with the nameplate, having armoured an entire fleet of Golf 7s (from the entry 1.4 TSI model to the R performance model) back in 2018.
As a reminder, the Golf 8 GTI’s turbocharged 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine produces a generous 180kW and 370Nm, while the all-wheel-drive Golf 8 R’s outputs are 235kW and400Nm. Thus, the German hot hatch serves as a capable pursuit or even a non-transporting emergency medical services (EMS) vehicle.
SVI Engineering also offers an AK-47 armouring package for the German hot hatch Golf 8 -in either the GTI variant or R derivative – priced at R649 500 (excluding VAT and the base vehicle cost). The project build time is approximately three months.
Armormax recently converted a Mini Countryman for a client with a B4 package; the B4offers protection against handguns up to a .44 Magnum. The cost of the package is R740000 including VAT.
Critical powertrain components are protected by armour installed in the front fenders, while the battery also receives bullet-resistant protection, and the suspension springs are uprated.
In total, the armouring package adds approximately 340kg extra weight. A car like the GTI or R’s performance is not affected due to the already powerful engine offered in stock trim.