SA Roadtests
South Africa
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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.
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday June 13, 2012
Today’s Fiat Punto was unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. It had been through a bit of an identity crisis until then, having been named firstly Punto, then Grande Punto, spending a couple of years as Punto Evo, then reverting to plain old ‘Punto.’ We suppose its makers finally realised that there was no point (groan) in changing its name all the time, because no one bothered to keep up.
Despite renaming and facelifts over the years, Giorgetto Giugiaro’s mini car has grown only 35mm in length since it arrived here in 2005 but still has its original wheelbase, width and height. For those who absolutely have to know, it shares the SCCS small car platform with certain GM vehicles. Four variants are available in SA. Pop and Easy versions use the old 8-valve, 1400cc, 57 kW FIRE motor, while our test car was fitted with a 16-valve, 1368cc, MultiAir engine and six-speed manual gearbox. The top dog Lounge edition gets a turbocharged version of the MultiAir. Another thing you may wish to know, Mike the KZN fleet manager told us, is that this one was built in Italy, rather than … At this point, he snorted so contemptuously that we decided to let it go.
For 2012, the interior has been completely redesigned to present a bright and elegant cabin with renewed fascia, seats, storage compartments and instrumentation. Outside, both front and rear have been made over with new bumpers incorporating revised headlights and taillights.
Up front, sleeker and deeper front air dams provide a more dynamic and aggressive look complemented by direction indicators positioned alongside the air intake in the front bumper. A body-coloured new rear bumper with recessed number plate holder is incorporated into the body, while redesigned taillights integrate into the C-pillars. New seat fabrics and dashboard inserts emphasise stylistic elegance on the inside, while redesigned 15” alloy wheels complete the makeover.
Standard features across the range include electro-hydraulic power steering with a selectable‘city’ function that lightens the load even further, air conditioning, electrically powered front windows, height and reach-adjustable steering wheel, height-adjustable driver’s seat, remote central locking and stop and start emissions reduction. ‘Easy’ trim level as fitted to our test unit spices up the outside with 15” alloy wheels, body-coloured trim accents and burnished headlight clusters.
On the inside, it gives buyers Denim Extra cloth upholstery with patterned inserts in red, blue or light grey, a six-speaker radio and CD player with steering wheel controls and an information panel between the main dials featuring trip computer and radio display. No auxiliary or USB plugs are provided. Safety equipment includes ABS brakes and five airbags. Cruise control, braking assistance and rear park assist are among the available options.
A button on the key unlocks the rectangular and fairly deep 275-dm3 boot remotely. The lift to load is at about upper thigh level, so it’s higher than most, with the fully sized steel spare in the usual place under the carpeting. Laying down the 60:40 split seat backs increases loading volume to 1030 dm3. It’s a small to medium car, so the rear seat area reflects this. Three seat belts and two head restraints are provided.
Storage is limited to a single pocket on the left seat back and a pair of narrow door bins. The situation in front is slightly better with a cup holder, a fair sized glove compartment, a little box in front of the driver’s right shin and similar door bins. A central armrest-cum-storage bin is available optionally, but it might be an idea to skip it as it gets in the way of the handbrake. Fit and finish is of a high standard, coloured mainly in matt black with glossy highlights around sub-controls, radio and ventilator outlets.
The driving position is vintage Italian with the famous “long arms and short legs” pose of old, although this can be corrected a bit by adjusting the steering wheel all the way outward. Pedals and footrest are comfortably spaced and the gearbox shifts easily and positively. Performance, comfort and general road behaviour are all as one would expect of a small family car, although we found it could be a bit harsh over speed bumps and rumble strips.
The numbers
Price: R169 900
Engine: 1368 cc, 16-valve MultiAir, four-cylinder
Power: 77 kW at 6500 rpm
Torque: 130 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 185 km/h
Car magazine fuel index: 6,8 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km, including 12 months’ AA roadside assistance
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km at 30 000 km intervals
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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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8