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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.


We cross country airily in the 2012 Citroën C4 Aircross 4x2 manual

Japanese roots with French flair

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday November 21, 2012

Congratulations! You have just scored three reviews for the price of one! The truth is that Citroën Aircross, Peugeot 4008 and Mitsubishi’s ASX are pretty much identical, with platform, 2,0-litre Mitsubishi 4B11 engine and choice of  five-speed manual and six-ratio CVT gearboxes all coming from the Japanese supplier. Only features, trim, prices and options differ.

Dependent upon manufacturer, front wheel drive and 4x4 models are available, but be warned that the user-selectable awd comes only with CVT. Our test car was the mid-range Citroën C4 Aircross Seduction 4x2 manual. A compact SUV, it is just 4,3 metres long but seats five comfortably. Suspension consists of the almost-industry standard McPherson struts in front and a coil-sprung multilink setup with antiroll bar at the rear. Brakes are discs at both ends and steering is electrically power assisted.

Safety equipment on this model includes seven airbags, ABS brakes with EBD and BA, ISOFix anchorages, an antitheft alarm and remote central locking. Nice-to-haves are automatic air conditioning, alloy wheels, cruise control, a six-speaker radio and CD player with USB, Bluetooth and auxiliary, automatic wipers and headlights, the usual powered mirrors and windows, a self-dipping interior mirror, height adjustment for the driver’s seat, a chilled and decently sized glove box, front fog lamps, rear parking sensors and an on-board computer. If you want ESP and hill-holder, you will need to step up to the Exclusive version. A worthwhile option is leather upholstery with electrically heated and adjustable front chairs for both occupants.

The 384-litre boot loads at mid-thigh but has no lip, so loading and unloading is a breeze. Rear seat backrests offer two recline positions, a load-through and fold 60:40 in the usual way. The steel spare is fully sized. Accommodation for taller passengers is rated at 8/10 for headroom, with knee space and foot room scoring perfect tens. You sit up high in the Aircross even with the driver’s chair on its lowest setting. I can speak only for the optional leather seats fitted to this particular car, but they were nicely bolstered and supportive, remaining comfortable on longish trips.

Storage space is generous with double seatback pockets in the rear and plenty of little boxes and trays spread throughout the cabin, although there were no bins on the back doors. Carried over from its Japanese origins, the indicator stalk is on the right, wipers sweep to the driver’s side of the screen and the hand brake is correctly sited for right-hand drive. Pedals are decently spaced with a proper rest for the clutch foot when it’s not being used. The five-speed ‘box has well-spaced ratios and shifts quickly and smoothly. Top ratio gearing of about 3000 rpm at 120 km/h is well within the torque band, giving useful roll-on performance.

The car’s turning circle is a user-friendly 10,6 metres and performance is strong if not satanic, taking 9,3 seconds for the standard dash and going on to a maximum of 200 km/h. In typical Citroën fashion, interior trim is well made and fitted and looks good. With everything else going for it, being expected to actually push a button to lock all the doors, once inside, felt a bit strange. We journalists are getting lazy and picky lately, with almost all cars featuring autolock, he confesses.

The numbers
Price: R294 900
Engine: 1998 cc, DOHC with CVVT on all 16 valves, four-cylinder
Power: 113 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 198 Nm at 4200 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,3 seconds
Top speed: 200 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7,8 l/100 km
Tank: 63 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/100 000 km.
Upgrades to a 5 year warranty and maintenance plan available optionally

To see what we thought of the 2014 diesel variant, look here



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 they can see 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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