SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
This vehicle is known as Hover 5 and Haval 5 in other markets
Pics supplied
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday September 17, 2011
The engine: It’s a detuned version of the 2.4 litre Mitsubishi Sirius 4G69 engine that’s been around quite a while and has proved its worth. It has a cast iron block with aluminium SOHC, VVT, 16-valve cylinder head. In this application it develops 100 kW of power and maximum torque of 200 Nm. Gearbox is five-speed manual and drive is 4x2 rwd.
The body: Body on ladder frame, four doors, five seats. With a wheelbase of 2 700 mm, it is 4 649 mm long, 1 810 mm wide and 1 745 mm high. Suspension is by means of a double wishbone system in front and a multi-link setup with coil springs at the rear. Brakes are discs at both ends. Safety rating is ANCAP 4, just like other leading SUVs. Ground clearance is given as 180 mm, with approach and departure angles of 22 and 27,5 degrees.
Standard equipment includes front and rear fog lamps, electrically operated windows and mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, automatic headlights, Reverse Park Assist with camera, RDS-Radio/CD/MP3/DVD player with steering wheel-mounted audio controls and Bluetooth functionality, electrically operated driver's seat, ABS with EBD, and dual front airbags. A pleasant change from previous GWM products is the more upmarket radio and CD unit with its full-sized USB plug and a separate auxiliary input. Track information and station ID is activated for compliant radio broadcasts.
The experience: It has a nice big boot with a pullout cover. Four cargo rings and the same number of bag hooks help keep loads tied down. The standard fire extinguisher is in a nook off to the right, while the jack occupies a lidded well on the opposite side. Three chair mounts are set into the floor to anchor baby seats. A 12-volt, 120-Watt tubular socket is ready to power lamps or small pumps. In the back seat, the SA Standard tall passenger (who happens to be a clone of yours truly) finds plenty of knee room, but head- and foot space rates only about 7/10 for “enough,” but not exciting. Seatbacks fold 40:60, while the cushions can be lifted and tumbled to make a flat loading area. The flat floor allows for fairly easy exit although the standard passenger bumped his hip on the way out.
The driver’s seat adjusts electrically for height, reach and recline and mechanically for lumbar support. The passenger seat features lumbar adjustment, too. A central CD box, a lidded cellphone tray, a fair-sized glove box and door storage take care of your loose items. The single channel aircon has a pollen filter. Modern touches include map lights in addition to the usual courtesy lamps, sunglasses holder, a pair of makeup mirrors (not lighted, unfortunately) and autolocking. Fit and finish was generally good, but fell down somewhat with some bitty panels on top of the dash.
Dirt road performance rated “good” rather than “excellent” but was by no means shabby. Road behaviour was typically SUV, with a slight feeling of top-heaviness and sensitivity to side winds. As for overall road performance, it rather depends on what you want, doesn’t it? If you buy this for its low price and bulletproof engine, you’re OK. If you want excitement, spend more money. There are tuners working wonders with head-and-cam jobs and magic chips, but consult your dealer about warranty issues first.
The numbers:
Price: R209 990
Engine: 2378 cc four-cylinder petrol
Power: 100 kW at 5200 rpm
Torque: 200 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: Relaxed
Maximum speed: 160 km/h
Fuel consumption index: about 14,4 l/100 km
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km with 2 years’ roadside assistance
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8