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.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday July 25, 2012
It doesn’t happen very often; getting more car for the same price you would have paid a year ago, but Renault has made it happen. Mégane CC not only looks more stylish, but repackaging has increased interior space, making the car more comfortable than before.
The front end sports the Mégane family's hallmark sweeping feature line across the bonnet, while its new front bumper features a reshaped central air intake with an RS-style gloss black centre section supporting the number plate. At the rear, the redesigned boot lid incorporates the upper parts of new light clusters while the colour-coded lower bumper includes a contrasting aerodynamic diffuser. The windscreen frame and cabin surround are picked out in a dark metallic finish rather than traditional satin-chrome, matching the outside mirrors and restyled 17-inch alloy wheels.
Front occupants enjoy 1466 mm of elbow room, while rear passengers gain a reclining backrest angle and an extra centimetre of knee room. GT Line-specific treatment includes an alloy pedal set, a white-faced rev counter with red indicator needle and GT Line-branded floor mats. Unlike hatchback and coupé GT-Line models, the CC keeps to standard seats in the interests of comfort and convenience.
While not the most powerful or quickest 1400 turbo around, the Mégane CC performs well, almost matching its similarly-equipped Golf rival, reaching 100 km/h from rest in 10,7 seconds and going on to a top speed of 200. Unlike most cabriolets, this Renault offers a perfectly acceptable 417 dm3 of luggage space in coupé form although it does shrink to 211 with the roof packed away. A pull-out cover shows you what will be available once the lid is stashed. It needs to be rolled out and clipped into place before the roof mechanism will work, so if your stuff won’t fit under the cover, you can’t drop the top. Simple, really.
It loads at about knee height, the lip is low so you can get your goods out easily and it’s about half-a-metre deep to accommodate plumper or taller bags. The spare is a full-sized steel item. Velcroed in place, is the bag containing the wind deflecting screen you use when driving topless but without rear-seat passengers. Don’t know how small they would have to be, but this bulky frame would definitely not fit back there.
The screen clips into place in a matter of seconds (just remember it only fits the right way up) and you’re ready to cruise. It works. Without the screen, wind noise is uncomfortable at 100 km/h. With it, you could still converse or listen to music at 150 with hardly any buffeting. Even with the top up, the light and airy feeling persists as the panoramic sunroof is separated from the long, sloping rear window by only the narrowest of bars.
It’s a great way to enjoy Nature without ever getting wet – We recommend it.
The numbers
Price: R359 900
Engine: 1397cc, four-cylinder, turbopetrol
Power: 96 kW at 5 500 rpm
Torque: 190 Nm at 2 250 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 200 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 9,4 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/100 000 km at 30 000 km intervals
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