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.
*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.
Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday September 12, 2013
Prologue: Its doors go “thub” rather than “thwonk;” its handbrake action is clean and progressive, not loose and rattly like some of its peers; gears shift smoothly and precisely – the feel of expensive metal, finely machined, rather than “good enough” with lots of oil. And its indicators clack like hand-crafted heels on Latin ceramic, not the cheap click of plastic on concrete. We aren't describing some ultra expensive Euro-exotic; just a little world market, “One-Ford,” Fiesta ST.
Now read the review:
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Coloured Race Red, it hunkers down in the driveway, glaring speculatively through narrowed eyes. Wide, 40-profile Goodyear Eagles on chunky five-spoke alloys are placed right at the corners. It’s planted, athletic and crafted to excite. Your mother knows of such things but always shielded you from them. Apart from veiled suggestive overtones, it’s impractical - only two doors, indecently body-wrapping seats and the sound track of a life she left behind. It’s also way too fast; in more ways than one. Don’t ask her to approve.
There’s a good half-dozen little 1600cc, turbocharged thrill machines, priced under R300 000, available in South Africa. This is the newest; not the most powerful, but possibly the best balanced and at R254 500, it’s currently the least pricey. And it has pedigree; Ford has been making performance cars since before you were born. Don’t question its credentials.
The press pack tells of a driver-focused powertrain and chassis dedicated to delivering an exciting drive. Drawing on the company’s EcoBoost technology, it’s not only the fastest Fiesta ST ever built but also the most fuel efficient. Developed by Team RS, Ford’s European Global Performance Vehicle group, it’s equipped with an all-aluminium, 1.6-litre, turbocharged petrol engine developing 134 kW and 240 Nm of torque. Zero-to-100 km/h comes up in 6.9 seconds and top speed is 220 km/h.
The team tuned powertrain, suspension, steering and brakes for brilliant driving dynamics using features like torque vectoring control and three-mode ESC, usually found only in costlier performance cars. Add a new six-speed manual transmission and disc brakes all around; 278x23mm vented in front and 253x10mm solid units at the back. Then there’s a full-house of safety kit with seven airbags, ABS brakes with EBA and EBD, hill launch assist and ESP, ISOFix mountings, keyless entry and push-button starting, immobiliser and perimeter alarm with double deadlocking.
Importantly, like all new Fords, it has SYNC® to keep you up to date, connected and entertained. Very few cars have it. Then there’s MyKey so you can lend Baby Brother your car with reasonable peace of mind, by curbing his unskilled enthusiasm before he hurts himself. A couple of friends can sit in the back quite comfortably and it has a decently sized boot for a car this size.
But what’s it like? It’s solid, well-made and rides firmly. That’s sort of Nürburgring-firm; almost hard, but necessary, to enable it to handle the way it does. Uncomplicated Recaro seats with mechanical adjusters - the co-pilot has elevation control too – hold you both snugly in place while you explore the limits. The clutch bites hard and fast; you need to adjust your mind-set away from sloppy execution because it doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Give the car its head and it pulls strongly, rolling on well from cruising speed in sixth; that’s about 2800 rpm at 120, but use the box the way its maker intended and you will be rewarded. Shifting down, hear its engine note morph from rumble to rasp as revolutions soar. Read your way through each bend; looking to where you want to go, not where you are going to, because that could be courting disaster. Dab the brakes to settle it on its springs, feed in power and then floor it at the apex to pull free and seek the next one. Forget convention, practicality and boredom; this ST is for living. It’s why you buy one in the first place.
Be assured that Mother does understand, but her innermost fear is that you will be seduced, won over and lost forever. She can never approve.
Test car from Ford SA press fleet
The numbers
Price: R254 500
Engine: 1596 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, inline four with fixed geometry turbocharger
Power: 134 kW at 5700 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm between 1600 and 5000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 6,9 seconds
Maximum speed: 220 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7,5 l/100 km
Tank: 42 litres
Luggage: 276 litres below shelf and with seatbacks up
Warranty: 4 years/120 000 km; with 3 years’ roadside assistance
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km: at 20 000 km intervals
To see our first drive report and more technical detail, click here
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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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8