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 March 14, 2102
TBi: Turbo Benzina iniezione – rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it, especially the “toorrrbo” bit? The theme continues inside with main gauges labelled 'km' and 'giri' and, lower down and to the left, three deeply hooded secondary dials angled toward the driver – turbo (boost pressure), benzina and acqua. If you’re a dedicated Alfa-head you will wait until the temperature on this latter dial has reached optimum before whacking the throttle open like a peasant.
Back to business: Alfa Romeo’s 159 is the executive, or mature, member of the company’s three-car lineup in South Africa, with MiTo and Giulietta aimed at younger or less affluent buyers. The car under review is the basic entry-level model in the 159 range, with Ti derivatives and a bigger engine available for those who want more. There is even an automatic with all wheel drive for those who have lost their Latin souls. Sacrilegio!
Power is courtesy of the 147 kW and 320 Nm version of Alfa’s 1742 cc, chain-driven DOHC, 16-valve, four. The Giulietta QV-interpretation of this motor wrings out 173 kW and 340 Nm at slightly higher revs, but trust me, this one has plenty of go. It pulls like a Percheron from almost any speed in any gear, almost a lazy driver’s car, and notches up the zero to 100 km/h sprint almost two-tenths of a second more quickly than the QV. It loses out on top sped though, going on to 235- rather than 242 km/h. But if you demand unquestioning respect from your juniors, there is always the V6.
Reinforcing the 159’s maturer image, its boot is bigger than the one on the Giulietta but its rear seatback does not fold down, while the front seats seem flatter and less supportive. That doesn’t mean it’s poorly equipped as far as electronic aids go, however. It has ABS with EBD, EBA and ASR, VDC and the Q2 electronically simulated limited slip differential. Apart from that, there are all the usual bits including seven airbags, ISOFix anchorages, hill holder – it’s a long list.
Another thing pointing this basic version out as Dad’s car is that there are no auxiliary music inputs – the radio and CD player does just that. Perhaps, as befits his station, Il Padrone listens only to CDs featuring opera, classics and those tenors? There is just sufficient room in the central CD box for five of them though, so on a return trip to the big city he might have to play a couple of them twice. Never mind, Ti and V6 versions have a smarter music centre that includes Bluetooth and the missing plugs, for those who simply cannot do without.
The driving experience: It rides firmly but not as rock hard as some of those Teutonic machines while steering response and feedback is quick and reassuring, without being twitchy. The six-speed manual gearbox has a short, positive throw – not quite notchy, but not as buttery smooth as we expected either. It’s a blast to drive, with seemingly endless power and an affinity for winding country roads. Unfortunately its sporty design shows up as restricted road clearance – we cannot find an exact measurement, but it scrapes its undercarriage quite easily on our domestic speed humps.
The numbers
Price: R346 700
Engine: 1742 cc, inline four cylinder, 16 valves, turbocharged
Power: 147 kW at 5000 rpm
Torque: 320 Nm at 1400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 235 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 10,3 l/100 km
Emissions class: Euro 5
Tank: 70 litres
EuroNCAP rating: 5 stars
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km
Roadside assistance: 3 years
Service plan: 6 years/105 000 km at 35 000 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