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.
Chevrolet Sonics sold in SA share common LS trim level, so differences lie only in the bodies and engines and, in two instances, the gearboxes. We drove a 1600cc manual and a 1300cc diesel almost back to back recently, so it made sense to combine the reports. Before you sniff scornfully at the idea of a little baby diesel, hang in there, because it sort-of reminds one of that other stuff that comes in small packages.
It is built on the GM4200 platform shared with Opel’s Mokka crossover SUV and Corsa. On a wheelbase of 2525 mm, the hatchback is 4039 mm long vs. the sedan’s 4397 mm. Width is 1735 mm and it stands 1516 mm high. SA cars are brought in from the Bupyeong-gu plant in Korea, while other factories are found in China, the US and Venezuela.
The car was engineered to provide distinctly European handling characteristics and ride quality, with a taut and rigid integrated body and frame structure, and equally stiff mounting points for suspension and drive train. It works very well, handling and steering like a bigger car and with a ‘glued to the road’ feeling not expected in a vehicle like this.
It was designed from the ground up to meet five-star EuroNCAP standards and gained a North American IIHS ‘Top Safety Pick’ rating as well. GM provided a whole essay on the subject of Sonic’s safety design features, but we don’t have enough space to go into it here. Worth mentioning is that some drivers won’t touch hatchbacks because they feel that, without a boot between their precious cargo and certain ‘blind and brainless’ incompetents coming up behind, they are insufficiently protected.
GM replies: “At the rear of the Sonic the focus is on providing protection for the fuel tank and its connections, to avoid ruptures and spillage in the event of a rear end collision. Like the front of the vehicle, the rear end incorporates a crush zone designed to absorb impact energy.
“Additional protection is provided by the strong rear suspension cross member. This element of the vehicle assists in directing impact energy through to the side rocker panels after the rear longitudinal crush structures have done their work to absorb the initial forces. While most crash standards are based on rear impacts at a speed of 50 km/h, General Motors safety standards raise this limit to 80 km/h.” So there you have it – crash tests that exceed EuroNCAP levels.
Moving on to mechanical matters the 1600 cc, Euro IV-compliant, DOHC, 16-valve General Motors’ Family 1 engine uses DCVCP (Double Continuous Variable Cam Phasing) technology to maximise torque and power delivery characteristics over a wide range of engine speeds. Its catalytic converter is integrated with the fabricated stainless steel exhaust manifold.
Modern casting techniques for the hollow frame grey cast iron block resulted in greater strength and a weight saving of 20 percent.
Other mass cutting measures included new designs for crankshaft, connecting rods and pistons. The toothed timing belt has a life expectancy of 160 000 kilometres or 10 years, while nickel tipped spark plugs are designed to last 60 000 kilometres. A coil on plug system is used, so there aren’t any HT leads to wear out.
Trivia: The engine is manufactured at Szentgotthárd (Sen’ got Hah-hd’) in Hungary. Situated in the Southwest near the country’s borders with Slovenia and Austria and home to 9000 people, the town was founded in 1183. French Cistercians played a large part in the town’s early development, hence its more common name of St Gotthard.
The 1300cc diesel on the other hand, comes from an earlier tie-up between GM and Fiat, can be found in various levels of tune in numerous small cars and is built in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. This home to 175 000 people is an amalgamation of two old cities straddling the Biala (White) River. Dating back respectively to the 12th and 15th centuries, they finally did the right thing and got together in 1951.
The twin overhead camshaft, 16-valve diesel uses electronically controlled variable vane turbo technology. It has a cast iron block with aluminium cylinder head. Its common rail Multi-jet injection system runs at a pressure of 1600 bar and engine speed is regulated to a maximum of 5200 rpm by means of a fuel cut-off limiter.
The only one available with a six-speed manual shifter, the hatch-only Sonic diesel sprints up to 100 kilometres per hour in 11,7 seconds. It matches the 1600cc six-ratio automatic, and beats the 1600 stick shifter by just over half-a-second, but is unable to match its 189-km/h maximum, running out of puff at 174. This isn’t rocket power, but possibly because of lower expectations, it feels like dynamite. Whatever the case, it’s huge fun to drive and that is what a car aimed at younger drivers is supposedly about.
Probably about average for a small car, the boot measures 208 litres, loads at mid-thigh height and is only about 12 cm deep, so one can get luggage in and out easily. There is enough space for three buddies in the back, where the same numbers of belts and head restraints are fitted. They might feel a bit shortchanged when it comes to stash space, but those in front can litter to their hearts’ content with two cup holders, four open trays, door bins that can accommodate fairly big bottles and a pair of glove boxes. The upper one is where you will find the USB and auxiliary sockets, provided you had the foresight to order the R7500 option package that also includes Bluetooth, steering wheel satellite controls and the smarter radio and CD unit with six speakers rather than four.
The numbers
Prices: 1,6 LS – R168 570, 1,3 Diesel – R178 730
Engines
1,6-litre: 1598 cc, four-cylinder, petrol
Power: 85 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 155 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100: 12,3 seconds
Maximum: 189 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,8 l/100 km
1,3-litre: 1248 cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 70 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 210 Nm at 1750 rpm
Zero to 100: 11,7 seconds
Maximum: 174 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,2 l/100 km
Tank: 46 litres
Warranty: 5 years/120 000 km with roadside assistance
Service plan: 3 years/60 000 km at 15 000 km or 1 year 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