SA Road Tests

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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. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


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.


Citroën’s new cabriolet is the DS3 hatchback’s non-identical twin. We took one for a drive

Pics supplied

Escape the ordinary

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday May 22, 2013

As we know, not all sets of twins are identical. Some are as different as chalk and cheese, while others look similar but have subtly different personalities. It’s a bit like that with the Citroën DS3 hatch and its sister cabriolet. Their engines, gearboxes and most specifications may be the same, but one has a folding fabric panel in the roof just like a Fiat Topolino, a really eccentric boot lid rather than a hatchway and its load space is 40 litres smaller. It also weighs just 25 kg more, but you wouldn’t know unless you were told.

The reason it gained so little weight is that the basic structure remains the same with only a little reinforcing needed around the boot area, and the mechanism for opening and closing the roof obviously adds a few kilograms. Unlike practically every other cabriolet, its top can be opened or closed while on the move; at speeds up to 120 km/h.

As for the boot lid, others are hinged at top or bottom according to the wishes of their individual designers but the French, and Citroën particularly, do things differently. The DS3 cabriolet uses a cantilevered system that basically pops the lid slightly backward then lets it rise vertically to reveal a slot leading into the 245-litre boot. There is a reason. When parking gets crowded, there isn’t always enough space in which to open a conventional lid; Citroën is more than just a pretty face, you know.

At this time, three versions are offered; an 1199 cc, three-cylinder car with a five-speed manual gearbox and Design trim with cloth seats, steel wheels and optional air conditioning; a naturally aspirated 1600 cc four-cylinder in Style specification with the same transmission, alloy wheels and better quality fabric upholstery; and a turbocharged 1600 dressed to Sport specification and fitted with a six-speed box.

Even the most basic car has six airbags, ISOFix anchorages, ABS brakes with EBA and EBD, ESP, autolocking, an RDS radio and CD player, cruise control with speed limiter, electric windows on the front doors, electric mirrors, fog lamps in front, sport suspension, rear parking sensors and an onboard computer. Naturally, option packs are available, including a R17 000 Style pack for the basic car that adds front LED running lights, an alarm system, a manual air conditioner, Bluetooth and a USB socket.

Other options include an R11 000 satnav kit for both 1600s, a choice of three colours of roof fabric, coloured dashboard panels and a trio of shades of leather upholstery. Exterior mirrors and key fobs are colour coded to the predominant trim shade. Not all accessories are available across the board – smarter packs are reserved for the more elegant specification levels.

The hands-on familiarisation session was done on THP 155 Sport versions, so the driving experience was guaranteed to be excellent. The 115 kW, 240 Nm motor designed in collaboration with BMW is quick, responsive and pulls well throughout its rev range. Ride quality is pleasantly firm and the car handles very well. Wind noise, with the roof wide open, is tolerable at 120 km/h, with very little buffeting.

 On the negative side, consensus among those present was that, fully open and stacked up above the boot lid, the roof fabric obscures half the view out the back. The narrow opening for the boot is another design trade-off that won’t appeal to everybody. But cabriolets were never intended to be predictable and practical; they are a means to escape the sad and over-socialised world of the mundane and boring.

Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press event.

The numbers:
Prices range from R219 900 to R291 900
Engines:
1.    VTi 82 – 1199 cc, three-cylinder developing 60 kW at 5750 rpm and 118 Nm at 2750 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,3 seconds and 174 km/h maximum
Claimed average fuel consumption: 4,5 l/100 km and 104 gm/km CO2
2.    VTi 120 – 1598 cc, four-cylinder developing 88 kW at 6000 rpm and 160 Nm at 4200 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,9 seconds and 190 km/h maximum
Claimed average fuel consumption: 5,9 l/100 km and 136 gm/km CO2
3.    THP 155 – 1598 cc, turbocharged four-cylinder developing 115 kW at 6000 rpm and 240 Nm at 1400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,3 seconds and 214 km/h maximum
Claimed average fuel consumption: 6,0 l/100 km and 139 gm/km CO2
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km

To see our review of a 1.6 THP155 cabriolet, click here

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.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) 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.

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