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. 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.

First Auto Works (FAW) SA is expanding into passenger vehicles. We attended the official launch of its Sirius MPV.

 Pics supplied

Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday July 25, 2013

Time to get serious

“FAW will be one of the big brands in the SA market in time to come,” predicted local MD Pedro Pereira. “We have been selling trucks built from CKD kits for the past 18 years and we were waiting for right hand drive passenger vehicles to become available for export. Sirius is the first one, with more models arriving later this year.”

Such is the Chinese parent’s commitment to South Africa and, eventually, the continent that it has invested $100 million in a new truck plant at Coega in the Eastern Cape. It’s due on stream at the end of 2013, with a car plant to follow in 2015.

The Sirius S80 launched at Ballito recently was a 1500cc, seven-seater MPV available in two trim levels to supplement 1300cc models; a basic-spec panel van and an MPV, available since January 2013. Although intended for extended families, it just happens that the taxi industry, like the rest of us, is being forced to buy down, so many are finding their ways into commercial service. To most journalists present, the little wagon looked startlingly like a Daihatsu Xenia, in turn rebadged and sold here as Toyota Avanza.

The PR machinery wants you to know that Sirius is not a copy. Anyone wanting to build and sell cars in China is required to enter into a 50:50 partnership with a Chinese manufacturer. Part of that deal is making your technology available to the partner. General Motors, Volkswagen-Audi, Mazda and Toyota teamed with state-owned FAW while others chose to align with smaller companies.  The Chinese domestic market thus has upmarket ranges sold under their original names while cheaper models become available as “house brands” – hence FAW Sirius in the case of this vehicle.

Apart from trim items, it is practically the same as the little Thai-built wagon we have known for the past few years. The engine, suspension and five-speed manual gearbox, and thus the driving experience, remain typically Avanza although some journalists mentioned that downshifts felt a little uncertain. Others found the brakes, while effective, to be lacking in feel and feedback. The local FAW team explained that they had a bit of a scramble getting cars ready in time for the launch, but are aware of these concerns and are addressing them.

Local versions boast ABS brakes with EBD, two airbags, powered windows front and rear, electric mirrors, remote central locking with child safety locks at the back, a radio and MP3 player with USB, air conditioning, fog lamps at both ends, rear window wiper, roof rails, alloy wheels with fully sized spare and a pull-out cargo cover.

Sirius differs from the original product in that its power steering is hydraulic and the third row seat is a plain bench with single piece backrest rather than the split seats of the Avanza. Suspension is by means of McPherson struts in front, with a multilink system and coil springs at the rear. Brakes consist of discs in front and drums at the back. Clutch actuation on 1500s is hydraulic, but mechanical on the smaller-engined models. The two trim levels, Standard and Comfortable, differ only in that the Comfortable version has a ceiling duct channelling cool air to the back, and a protective shield under the engine.

Spares are distributed from a shared facility in Isando. First pick rate is given as 87 percent, with the balance expected to be available within 21 days from China. Of forty dealers throughout South Africa, four are located in KZN; at Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown, Shelley Beach and Umhlanga. Because volumes do not yet permit stand-alone dealerships, they are being sold through multi-franchise outlets, some of which sell Daihatsu. Take that as a hint, because naming them might be interpreted as advertorial.

Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press launch

The numbers
Prices: Standard – R179 995, Comfortable – R189 995
Engine: Toyota CA4GA9, 1497 cc, 16-valve, DOHC, four-cylinder
Power: 75 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 140 Nm at 4400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: About 12,0 seconds
Maximum speed: 170 km/h
Combined cycle fuel consumption (claimed): 8,1 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Luggage capacity: 128/430/1424 dm3
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance for 1 year
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km




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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