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 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.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We relax in the 2013 Fiat Panda 1.2 Lounge

A bundle of fun

Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday October 10, 2013

As practical as pasta - that’s a good way to describe Fiat’s versatile Panda city car. It’s inexpensive, goes with anything and most people love it. It would admittedly be a tight squeeze for five big rugby players with a weekend’s luggage for an ‘away’ match, but that’s not what it’s designed for.

Panda is for Gianni’s car pool and for Gianetta to drop the bambini off at school, soccer and music or to do the shopping. That rectangular 225-litre boot doesn’t look like much but it can swallow a trolley-load of groceries if you pack creatively. Should you need more, the rear seatbacks fold down 2/3:1/3 to extend the volume to as much as 870 litres, or even more with the front passenger’s seatback laid flat to use as a table, a footrest or to accommodate longer loads; a stepladder perhaps. Being a practical family car, internal stowage spots include the usual glove compartment (admittedly rather small), a much bigger open box in the dash, narrow door bins, a netted map pocket behind the front passenger’s seat, little stashes in the door pulls and a bunch of cup holders and open trays. Fiat says there are 14 altogether; we believe them.

In order to pack five people and groceries into its 3,65-metre length, one sits fairly upright; rather like on soft kitchen chairs. This gives occupants a commanding view outward aided by big rectangular glass areas, including square-round side windows in the rearmost pillars. The shape, Fiat calls it “squircle”, is repeated in dashboard instruments, control buttons, steering wheel pad and wheel centre caps. It doesn’t do much, but it looks cute and adds to the playful character of the car.

On that note, the five-speed manual gearbox shifts smoothly and positively with its short lever mounted atop the central tower, while its knob is scarcely a hand-with from your left knee at all times. Light, quick steering and a 9,3-metre turning circle means you get in and out of almost anywhere without thinking twice. And for those who like their cars to sound like cars, rather than boring appliances, there is a pleasant little rasp from the exhaust – not loud, you understand, just “I am here; notice me.”

Making sure you get noticed, all principal rear lights are placed up high where the most inattentive follower can see; on the pillars flanking the back window. There is a high level brake repeater lamp on the rooftop too – just in case. Keeping you safe in the Midlands mist is a squircle-shaped red fog light in the rear bumper; paired with fog lamps up front to light the way when dipped beams on their own, don’t work too well. Still with safety, four airbags, ABS brakes with EBD, remote central locking with autolock, ISOFix anchors, and a full set of head restraints and belts are reassuring.

Because Italians don’t believe that city cars need to be dreary drones, it’s fun to drive – not lightning fast, you understand; just a bundle of exuberance at legal speeds. This Evo ll version of the venerable 1242 cc, eight-valve FIRE engine has variable valve timing, so it pulls strongly from low revs. Its gearing is practical too – no gutlessness at freeway speeds for example. Handling is reassuringly safe and secure even though its suspension is soft enough to absorb most road shocks – in Europe they have cobblestones, in South Africa we have speed humps – equally lethal in the end.

For music on the road, the Lounge version provides a very competent radio, CD and MP3 player with four speakers, USB and auxiliary ports and remote control buttons on the steering wheel. If you want the whole Bluetooth package with music streaming, hands-free phone and voice control, it comes bundled with a R5500 TomTom satnav unit that integrates with the car’s electronics via a plug-in fitting on top of the dash. It even includes an EcoDrive function so you can download your driving data to a USB flash stick and see on a PC how dreadfully you have driven. Other conveniences include powered mirrors, filtered automatic air conditioning and electric windows in front. Back seat passengers have to wind their own, unfortunately.

Panda might not be perfect, but which car is? Like pasta and people, it’s about family, friends and fun and that’s what matters.

Test car from Chrysler/Fiat SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R159 990
Engine: 1242 cc, 8-valve, SOHC four-cylinder
Power: 51 kW at 5500 rpm
Torque: 102 Nm at 3000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 14,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 164 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,5 l/100 km
Tank: 37 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 3 years/100 000 km
Service intervals: 30 000 km

Read about the 2017 Turbo model here

Read about the 2017 Panda Cross here

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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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