SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
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.
The body: Let us simply say there's lots of parts bin commonality with the Peugeot 308. This was brought home when I drove test examples of each on succeeding weeks. Instrument panels, music centres and boots - 'déjà vu all over again' as they say.
The equipment: This is next-to-bottom of the range, so not all toys will be present. What you do get is an alarm and immobiliser, autolocking, ABS with EBD, EBA, ESP, ITC, six airbags, two ISOFIX child seat anchorages, electric kiddie locks, hill start assist, electrically adjustable and heated outside mirrors, front fog lights with cornering function, RDS radio with CD player, Bluetooth with USB socket, programmable cruise control with limiter, on-board computer, front and rear 'one touch' electric windows, variable-ratio power steering, manual air conditioning, height and reach-adjustable steering wheel, cloth upholstery, height and lumbar adjustment on both front chairs, storage drawers, Boston alloy wheels with Michelin 205/55 R16 tyres and a full-size spare. Options include an 'Automatic Pack' with automatic air conditioning, rain sensor wipers and automatic headlights, autodipping rear view mirror and polyphonic sounds for indicators and warning signals. Or... how about a 'City Pack' with rear parking sensors, folding door mirrors and a torch? If you feel a need for mean mags, Style Pack 1 gets you Phoenix alloys with 225/45 R17 Michelins.
The experience: The boot is square, fairly big at 380 litres under the shelf, with two side nooks; one netted, the other with a strap, and four bag hooks. A nice touch is a pair of warning lights on the rear edge of the hatch door, visible when open and the main lights are on. Rear seat backs fold two-thirds, one-third to provide an almost flat space. In case anyone wishes to know, you can get four cottage-style dining chairs or a pretty big dollhouse in there with space left over. The tall back seat passenger rates knee room and foot space as 'enough' and headroom as 'OK.' A pair of seatback pockets, two small slots and door bins provide storage.
In front, a central box, a pair of cupholders, two small trays, a slot in front of the driver and a tiny cubby, look after one's stash. The USB and auxiliary plugs are hidden behind what looks like a 12-volt socket flap above the shallow box in the centre console. Repeaters for speedocruise, music, phone and panel lights are on the steering wheel. There are courtesy lights front and rear, two reading lamps and a pair of lighted makeup mirrors.
The ride: Journalists have been taken to task for banging on about 'handling' and how quickly Car X can circumnavigate the Nordschleife, at the expense of one's bridgework. This C4 is not that kind of car. Although suspension feels fairly firm to begin with, it soon relaxes to provide genuine Citroën ride quality and decent comfort. It won't satisfy fans of rock-hard German rockets, but it gets you where you're going pretty rapidly if you drive it properly.
The numbers:
Price: R218 900
Engine: 1598 cc inline four
Power: 88 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 160 Nm at 4250 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 193 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,4 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/100 000 km
5 year warranty and maintenance plans available
To see the launch report and further details click here
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!
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Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are courtesy of www.quickpic.co.za
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8