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 possibly applies to the models you get at home.

Unlike most car reports, what you read in these pages will not be a faithful reproduction, albeit slightly reworded, of what appeared in the manufacturer's press release. We look for background material, user experience and whatever else we can find that's beyond the obvious. Our guiding rule is that you will be able to tell that the car was actually driven.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Pre-owned: Our tests go back quite a few years, so if you are looking for something pre-owned, you might well find a report on it in here.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted are those ruling at the time the reports were written.


We trip the light artistic in Citroën’s 2014 C4 Picasso Intensive

Luxury standard; decadence optional

Posted: 16 July 2014

If you prefer your car interiors dark, cocooning and conservative, we suggest you find something German. If, on the other hand, yours is an adventurous soul hankering after wide open spaces and endless skies, keep on reading.

The first impression you get on entering Citroën’s C4 Picasso is that it’s open and well lit; the deep windscreen bay with its narrow front pillars and extra quarter panes, sun visors that slide up to show you the sky and overhead signage, big side windows and supplementary quadrilateral panels in the rearmost pillars all conspire to bring out your inner urban sprite. If that isn’t enough, a three-quarter length skyroof can be bought in an option pack that includes a 360-degree camera kit.

Then there are the three individual rear chairs that slide back and forward, recline through a few degrees or fold completely flat – one, two or all three together. Each has its own ISOFix anchorage and top tether. And the car is five-star NCAP-rated, having earned high marks for  adult and child safety and for its assistance features. Opening the (optionally) motorised tailgate reveals a flat loading deck at mid-thigh height. Sexist of us we know, but “baby carrier” sprang to mind immediately. And not just for one, you understand, but triplets.

More than just a mummy bus, those flexible seats and level floor mean easy loading of luggage, small pieces of furniture, band equipment, a portable photo studio or stacks of DIY stuff from the hardware store. Before you begin shifting seats around, the luggage volume is a very usable 537 litres below the parcel shelf, all three slid forward expands this to 630 and all-folded brings volume up to 1851 litres.

For the technically minded, this car and the 2013-onward Peugeot 308 are built on PSA’s new EMP2 modular platform for compact and mid-size cars with either front-wheel or four-wheel drive and transverse engines. It can be stretched longer or wider, change its wheelbase, serve a choice of ride heights or accommodate two kinds of rear suspension. Built of high strength steels, aluminium and magnesium alloys and composite materials, it weighs 70 kilograms less than the PF2 framework C4 Aircross uses. Along with other weight savings this new Picasso is 140 kg slenderer than the old C3 version was. And less mass means less fuel but better handling.

The only powertrain available here is a 1600 cc turbodiesel with six-speed manual transmission. Its engine develops a useful 85 kilowatts of power at 3600 rpm, 270 Nm of torque at a low 1750 revs and is quite refined; sounding overtly diesel but reasonably quiet, without tick or clatter. In everyday use it pulls eagerly and accelerates nicely despite its rather conservative-looking zero to 100 km/h time of 11,8 seconds. Briefly, numbers don’t always tell the whole story although these do; 105 gm/km of carbon dioxide so it’s pollution tax-free, but you must use 50 ppm fuel.

Standard equipment in both available trim levels, Seduction and Intensive (our test car), includes ABS brakes with EBA and EBD, ESC with intelligent traction control, a self-applying and releasing electronic parking brake, hill holder, six airbags, programmable cruise control with speed presets, central locking with proximity latching and opening, autolock on the move, antitheft immobiliser, automatic lights and wipers, daytime running lights, front fog lamps, six-speaker radio and CD player with auxiliary, two USB ports and Bluetooth with music streaming, follow-me lighting, flat tyre indicator, the ISOFix mountings mentioned earlier and electronic childproof locks.

More good stuff is automatic stop-and-start, variable ratio power steering, electric windows all around, powered mirrors, filtered and automatic dual zone air conditioning, push button starting, closing of open windows on lockdown, 7” touch screen interface, height and tilt adjustment for both front seats and alloy wheels – 16” on Seduction and 17-inch for Intensive.

The upper level adds blind spot monitoring, cornering lights, blown bulb detection, automatic headlight dipping, auto-dipping interior mirror, height and reach adjustments for the steering wheel, front and rear parking sensors, window blinds for the rear side windows, a 12-inch panoramic display for the various programmable functions, a conversation mirror, a rechargeable torch in the boot and 8 GB of jukebox music storage for the sound system.

Options not already mentioned include active and intelligent Xenon head lamps, surround-view and reversing cameras, radar guided cruise control with collision alert, lane departure warning, door sill protectors, champagne and black Nappa leather upholstery, warmed seats with massage and lumbar functions, an extendable leg rest for the front passenger’s seat, extra-supportive head restraints all around and darkened windows. Considering this car’s price level, the range of standard and optional kit is impressive.

Proving that it goes beyond being a mummy bus for small children, taller rear passengers will appreciate head room that goes from 8/10 with seatbacks upright to 9/10 when slightly reclined, plenty of knee space, and sufficient room for feet under the driver’s chair even when it's adjusted all the way down. Aircraft style snack trays on the seatbacks are a neat touch. Good, too, is the flat floor that means someone can actually sit in the middle without needing to amputate legs, and wide doorways to make entry and exit easy. Apart from the usual seatback pockets, door bins and an open tray, users will find a pair of stash places under the carpeting.

If the owner has chosen the optional decadent seats, driver and crew will wallow in luxury, but even with standard chairs comfort levels should be high. For the driver, this new Picasso is peppy, easy to drive and park, outward vision is excellent, the gearbox works smoothly, its shift lever is close by, pedals are nicely spaced and there is sufficient space for big left feet to get to the foot rest. The only parts that didn’t quite work for us were the two-tone tan and black upholstery and dash, and the rather flimsy front arm rests. Why do those things always droop downward?

Said niggles aside, we would be quite happy to live with one.

Test car from Peugeot-Citroën SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R345 900
Engine: 1560 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 189 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,2 l/100 km
Tank: 55 litres
Luggage: 537-630/1851 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years/100 000 km

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

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.

Comments?
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