SA Road Tests

Welcome

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’s 2012 Sonic is light years ahead of the Aveo it replaces everywhere except in SA. We looked, listened and drove it in Cape Town.

This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.

Pics supplied

Young, exciting, tasteful

Price updates added on 15 January 2012

The Chevrolet marketing and engineering teams carefully avoided using the ‘A’ word while excitedly pitching their latest small car offering down near the V & A Waterfront recently. We finally dragged Wendle Roberts, VP of product engineering, aside and asked him flat-out: “Does this car replace the Aveo?” His careful answer was that in the rest of the world it does, but in South Africa the Aveo will soldier on as an option for buyers seeking a lower-priced alternative. So now you know, but looking at projected prices for the new car versus the old, it’s surely no contest.

Sonic is the first model developed on General Motors’ new global front wheel drive mini car architecture known as Gamma, that will underpin small GM vehicles sold in 50-plus countries over the next five years. By 2014 this platform is expected to account for as many as 2,4 million units.

Briefly, Sonic has nothing in common with Aveo. Engines are new, the body has been completely re-engineered making extensive use of high strength steels, the suspension has been reworked, sound dampening and ride quality are as one would expect from what is once again the world’s biggest auto company, while interior design manages to be both youthful and exciting, yet tasteful enough for parents to live with.

Chief designer Katherine Sirvio pointed out proudly that the team working on the interior wasn't just a bland band of industrial specialists. Among them was a fine arts graduate, a graphic artist, an interior planner, a lighting person, one from the footwear industry and a jewellery sculptor. The single common thread was that they all ride bikes – it shows in the cowled, analogue revolution counter coupled with the digital speedometer.

Sonic launches as a hatchback with a choice of two engines, one five-speed manual gearbox and one low-priced option pack. The 1400 cc motor develops 74 kW of power at 6000 rpm and 130 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm, while numbers for the 1600 read 85 kW and 155 Nm at the same revs. A 1300 cc diesel developing 70 kW and 210 Nm, fitted with a six-speed manual ‘box, is expected early next year. Also due out soon, is a sedan version.

All engines were designed for lightness, quiet running, thermal efficiency and cleanliness. Thicker window glass, additional insulation and sealing, special wiper blades, hydraulic powertrain mountings and special carpeting all play roles in making this possibly GM’s quietest small car ever.

Standard equipment includes alloy wheels with 195/65 R15 tyres, height and reach-adjustable steering wheel, a driver’s seat that adjusts for height, air conditioner, power windows on the front doors, foldaway and heated electrically operated side mirrors, a four-speaker RDS radio and CD unit with auxiliary input and an on-board computer for trip information. Safety equipment includes four-channel ABS with BAS and EBD, four airbags, seat belt pretensioners, ISOFix baby chair anchorages, front fog lamps and automatic door locking. On the subject of safety, the car was designed from scratch to be EuroNCAP five star-compliant.

The R7 500 Comfort Package adds a USB port, an upgraded music centre with two more speakers, Bluetooth, and satellite controls on the steering wheel. Cruise control is a further option.

The touchy-feely session after the presentations revealed a surprisingly big luggage volume for a small hatchback, room for fully-grown people in the back seat and a very pleasantly designed and well-fitted interior. Malcolm Kinsey of parts survey fame and your writer started out in a 1400, keeping the best for last. It seems impossible to set a boring test route in Cape Town as the one chosen included a scenic drive along previous Argus Tour roads that took in urban traffic, a short section of freeway, Chapman’s Peak and a shoreside amble.

The engineers have evidently done their homework, as ride, handling, performance and dynamics were all excellent with the 1600 obviously being the more tractable of the two. At the car-swap point, the organisers rustled up an example of the bigger-engined version without hesitation. “How did you pick out the 1600 so quickly?” we wanted to know. “Easy,” they said, “the 1600 has five-stud wheels rather than four.”

The numbers
Prices as per 23 November 2011: 1400 – R156 990 and 1600 – R168 570
Engines:
1.4: 1398 cc DOHC, 16-valve four-cylinder with double continuously variable cam phasing (DCVCP)
Power: 74 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 130 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 177 km/h
Combined cycle fuel consumption (claimed): 5,8 l/100 km
CO2 emissions: 139 gm/km
1.6: 1598 cc DOHC, 16-valve DCVCP
Power: 85 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 155 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,3 seconds
Maximum speed: 189 km/h
Combined cycle fuel consumption (claimed): 6,5 l/100 km
CO2 emissions: 155 gm/km
Tank: 46 litres
Luggage: 290/653 litres
Warranty and roadside assistance: 5 years/120 000 km
Service plan: 3 years/60 000 km at 15 000 km intervals

For a review of the 1.4 LS Hatchback, click here

Two glove compartments, slots either side of the aircon vents and many little boxes make the Sonic a haven for those with lots of stuff to stash



The 1600 has five-stud wheels

What We Do

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?
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