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.


Citroën SA released its 2011 DS4 range in Johannesburg recently. We report back

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

On the back roads having fun

The tag line introducing Citroën’s latest small car is “Learn to say ‘No’ again.” That’s ‘no’ to bland, boring, dull and predictable, but ‘yes’ to stylish and exciting, yet practical. The DS range, starting with last year’s supermini DS3, this new DS4 and the forthcoming executive saloon DS5, are pitched as premium products following in the footsteps of the innovative DS 19, 20 and 21s produced between 1955 and 1975. Styling and suspension are not as radical, but they aren’t standard shopping cars either.

For example, this DS is not simply a rehashed C4; dimensions aren’t the same, there are very few common body panels and its design ethic is different. The brief was to produce a four-door car with the high-riding outlook and practicality of a small SUV, but with coupé-like styling and dynamics. It is also a little more luxurious, with some features and options not available on C4s. For example, half-leather is the top upholstery option on C4, but it’s available at entry level on DS4 that also has automatic dual channel air conditioning across the range and a slightly smarter radio/CD unit. Engine choices are different too. While C4 offers only 120- and 155-horsepower versions of the PSA 1600 cc petrol engine, DS4s can be had with 120- and 200-bhp petrol motors or a 2.0-litre, 120 kW/340 Nm diesel.

Four models are available including VTi 120 Style and Style Pack with naturally aspirated 88 kW engines and five-speed manual transmissions and THP 200 Sport using a turbocharged version of the same engine with a six-speed gearbox. The 2.0 litre turbodiesel similarly comes in Sport configuration with the six-speeder, bigger brakes and some extras in the equipment line. These include otherwise optional packs; Security with front parking sensors, parking space measurement and blind spot monitoring and Sport with Mistral leather upholstery and 18” Brisbane alloy wheels. Optional only on Sport models is extremely sexy Habana leather Signature seat covering with a watchstrap bracelet effect – there were lots of jokes about ‘six-packs.’

Standard kit across the range includes ABS with EBD, ESP, EBA, intelligent traction control, hill start assist, six air bags, electronic parking brake, rear parking sensors, electrically operated windows and mirrors, front fog lamps with cornering function, automatic headlights and rain sensing wipers, panoramic windscreen and RDS radio/CD unit with evenly distributed surround sound. You also get programmable cruise control with speed limiter, an on board computer, height-adjustable front seats with massage function, selectable colours for the instrument lighting and customisable sounds for indicators and warning signals. Satnav is optional on all models.

The hands-on session revealed a very adequate 370 litres of boot, room for three in the back seat, excellent fit and finish and a rewarding driving experience in the diesel and 147 kW cars available on the day. Bearing in mind that DS models purposely have firmer suspension than shopping version C4s, the ride was firm yet comfortable, although a few testers with delicate tushies disagreed. A cutesy item borrowed from sister cars in the PSA stable is piped in sound effects from the exhaust system. This delivers a pleasantly raucous rasp whenever you put the boot in aggressively. We noted a remark from a member of the design team: “You’re driving to work, but in your head, you’re on the back roads having fun.” Sums it up exactly.

The numbers:
Prices range from R254 900 (VTi 120 Style) to R319 900 for both Sport models
Engines:
VTi 120 – 1598 cc inline four, petrol, 88 kW at 6000 rpm and 160 Nm at 4250 rpm
THP 200 – 1598 cc inline four, turbopetrol, 147 kW at 5800 rpm and 275 Nm at 1700 rpm
HDi 160 – 1997 cc inline four, turbodiesel, 120 kW at 3750 rpm and 340 Nm at 2000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,9 seconds (THP 200) to 10,8 seconds (VTi 120)
Maximum speed: 193 km/h (VTi 120) to 235 km/h (THP 200)
Fuel consumption: 5,1 l/100 km (HDi 160) to 6,4 l/100 km (THP 200)
CO2 emissions: 134 to 149 gm/km – all Euro5 compliant
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/100 000 km
Extended warranty to 5 years/100 000 km and 5 year/100 000 km maintenance plan available at extra cost



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?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.