SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
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.
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday December 31, 2011
Small? Well, North Americans call it that because it’s littler than one of their own MPVs, but even a Canadian report we happened on while researching this piece had to conclude that yes, it does carry seven people satisfactorily, despite looking so dinky. It’s just over 1830 mm wide, 1633 mm tall and only 4652 mm long. That’s nine-and-a-half inches shorter than a two-pus-two German drop-head we reviewed a couple of weeks ago.
Another way it differs from a typical van is that it is not built on a pickup chassis with a hollow body planted on top. Chevrolet’s Orlando owes basic framework and suspension to the Cruze sedan. That vehicle’s versatile platform permits mounting points and individual details to be juggled according to weight, dimensions and ultimate application, to design and build individual cars, rather than trying for one-size-fits-all.
Because it’s based on an existing car design and even uses the same engines in different parts of the world, all the usual safety kit is built in. Think six airbags, ABS with EBD, brake assist, traction control, ISOFix mountings and ESP. Then, to counter criticism aimed at some hatchbacks and SUVs, the body shell was designed as a dedicated unit with reinforcement, varying-gauge metals and impact dissipating crumple zones at front, side and rear. It’s EuroNCAP five star-rated, obviously.
Its usual configuration is that of a family bus with seating for five and a boot measuring 458 litres up to the removable cover. Two more chairs may be pulled up individually from the boot floor, with access via either of the second row seats, once the relevant one has been temporarily tumbled out of the way. Raising both rear seats reduces luggage capacity to only 89 litres, so if you are going to make a habit of travelling seven-up, away on holiday together, it might be prudent to look elsewhere or buy a trailer. Folding both rows down opens up a huge carpeted load area.
In five-seater mode, the SA standard tall passenger awarded second row accommodations nine points each for knee room, headspace and feet. With the driver’s chair on a midway setting, the foot space score increased to ten. A repeater vent for the single channel air-conditioning unit is a nice touch. While on this, upgraded LT models feature climate control, some added bling, leather upholstery, bigger wheels and tyres and automatic wipers and lights.
Adjustment of front chairs and steering wheel is mechanical, with only the driver being able to regulate vertical movement. Storage is taken care of by a small bin in the centre console, a couple of cup holders, a coin tray, a lidded box in front of the driver’s right knee, a reasonable cubby and door bins. A neat feature is that the sound centre’s control face can be swung upward to reveal a useful hidey-hole for your music player, with an auxiliary input socket right there. Comfort items include a pair of map lights, and makeup mirrors on both sun visors.
In keeping with its image as a no-fuss family transporter, seating is spacious and comfortable, pedals are nicely laid out and everything works well together. The car rides firmly but comfortably, like the family saloon on which it is based. If there were a complaint, it could be that speed junkies might want it to accelerate more quickly. A little over twelve seconds to 100 km/h is leisurely and the feeling persists when pressing on. On the plus side, it’s rather like the Peugeot 404 that Pop went repping with in his youth. It takes a while to get up to cruising speed, but once there, it feels unstoppable.
We tried it to King Shaka airport, chauffeuring a family of three adults with luggage for a month’s holiday overseas. It swallowed their trio of hefty suitcases and a bulky pair of carry-on bags without any need to get creative about stowage, then maintained cruising speed effortlessly up Key Ridge without even breathing hard.
Comments like “small on the outside, but big on the inside” are really banal and suburban, but as that overseas tester found, appearances can be deceptive.
The numbers
Price: R254 400
Engine: 1796 cc DOHC, 16-valve, four cylinder, petrol
Power: 104 kW at 6200 rpm
Torque: 176 Nm at 3800 rpm
Gearbox: 5-speed manual
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,3 seconds
Maximum speed: 185 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: about 8,3 l/100 km
Tank: 64 litres
Warranty and roadside assistance: 5 years/120 000 km
Service plan: 3 years/60 000 km at 15 000 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!
Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously. Email me from here
This site is operated by Scarlet Pumpkin Communications in Pietermaritzburg.
Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are courtesy of www.quickpic.co.za
Copyright this business. All rights reserved.
SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8