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


Mini test: 2012 Geely LC Cross GT

Note: This car is called Gleagle GX 2 in some markets

Pics supplied

Not quite a kung-fu Panda

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday December 12, 2012

The intro: One thing Chinese manufacturers learned from us Occidentals is that a butched-up version of your basic model is usually a good seller. Westerners just love crossovers.

The body: Its measurements are the same as those of the sedan, with one exception. The Cross sports slightly wider tyres with taller cross-section, causing it to stand a little higher. Apart from increasing ground clearance to 160 mm, the higher sidewall pays off with increased comfort over the kinds of roads we all know, but wish we didn’t have to. Suspension consists of the usual McPherson struts in front with an independent, compound link setup and coil springs at the rear. Brakes are ventilated discs at the business end and drums in the back.

Part of the transformation to crossover was a more purposeful front with reshaped grille, lights, bumper and lower apron. Then they added roof rails, always a safe bet, and made it just a touch more expensive – value added, you know. Not that the top model’s tag will be seen as exorbitant; who else sells you a car at this price, with all this kit and still includes six airbags?

The kit includes fog lights front and rear, heated rear screen with wiper, alloy wheels, a spoiler with high level brake light, six-speaker radio and CD unit with USB, electric windows all around, remote central locking, filtered air conditioner, rear parking distance control and electric side mirrors. Safety kit includes ABS brakes with EBD, six airbags, pretensioners for the front belts, kiddie locks and side impact bars, for a CN-CAP rating of five stars.
The engine is the same MR479Q motor fitted to the regular sedan, so there’s nothing to add. It displaces 1342 cc, has dual overhead camshafts driving 16 valves and is fed by multipoint fuel injection. Power output is 63 kW at 6000 rpm and maximum torque of 110 Nm is developed at 5200 rpm. The gearbox is a five-speed manual unit that shifts easily and smoothly. Top ratio gearing is about 3000 rpm at 120 km/h, which is biased toward economy rather than roll-on acceleration. Being a little motor, one needs to keep the revs up for best performance.

The experience: The driver’s seat does not adjust up and down, so one sits high in the car, although most tall people should still have a decent fist-width between their heads and the roof lining. The car is light and easy to drive and park, with a good view outward. Fit and finish is neat and tidy and of decent quality, although we felt that the knobs for tilting the rear seatbacks were rather flimsy. As expected of small cars, the boot isn’t huge nor is back seat people space, but it’s about average for this kind of vehicle. The fully sized spare wheel on the back hatch looks very macho, but makes lifting a bit difficult, although the gas struts help tremendously.

The dealer network: Geely SA has about 42 dealers countrywide, with three in KZN. These include Port Shepstone, Richards Bay and the multifranchise outlet in Meridian Drive, Umhlanga Ridge.

The numbers:
Price: R104 990
Engine: See text
Zero to 100 km/h: 15,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 145 km/h
Fuel index: 8,3 l/100 km
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km

To see the launch report with more details, click here

What We Do

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 they can see 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!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.