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.
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.
Pics supplied
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday August 3, 2013
Honda admits freely that sales volumes suffered because of production seizures caused by the earthquakes and floods that ravaged Japan and Thailand a while ago, but it’s bounding back. Although market share dropped, a strong recovery led by the little Brio hatch has returned percentages to almost pre-disaster levels. A previously untapped source for Honda, 18-to-24 year olds, played a big part.
Now the company is targetting their older siblings. They’re the 25-to-39 marrieds and home sharers with children and, of course, anyone else wanting an affordable Honda but preferring a car with a boot. Developed at Honda’s Asia Pacific research and development centre in Thailand, engineers used the same basic platform but added 55 mm between its axles and made the body 380 mm longer. This not only added valuable people space, but allowed the designers to give it a very capacious boot – 405 litres by the VDA block measurement system. The mass penalty is only 30 kg, so performance and economy are hardly affected.
Its engine remains the same and a couple of criticisms aimed at the original hatchback version have been addressed. Interior trim has been smartened up although the ill-fitting glove box lid still needs work, but the driver’s chair is now adjustable for height. What is new is that Honda has introduced a third model in basic Trend trim with five-speed manual gearbox, steel wheels, two airbags, ABS and EBD, electric windows, air conditioning and colour coded bumpers.
Comfort versions add a four-speaker sound system with accessory inputs, repeater buttons on the steering wheel, colour coded door handles and mirrors, fog lights, alloy wheels, a fold out rear armrest with cup holders, seatback pockets, powered and folding mirrors, vanity mirrors for driver and passenger, defrostable rear screen and remote central locking. A five-speed automatic transmission is optional at this level.
The ride and drive session was mainly to remind us of the original Brio experience, so we were let loose on a short drive in Comfort versions with manual gearboxes. Nothing has changed. The car pulls strongly for a 1200, it accelerates willingly and holds its speed up some fairly daunting hills, the gearbox shifts easily and cleanly and there is enough room for grown people all around. Thanks to added length, the wide back door provides easy access. We reckon those hatch buyers’ big sisters, brothers and parents will approve.
Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press launch
The numbers
Prices:
Trend Sedan m/t – R128 900
Comfort sedan m/t – R136 900
Comfort sedan a/t – R146 900
Engine: 1198 cc, SOHC, i-VTEC, 16-valve, four-cylinder
Power: 65 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 109 Nm at 4500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,4 seconds (m); 15,7 seconds (a)
Maximum speed: About 150 km/h
Combined cycle fuel consumption (claimed): 6,1 (m) and 6,9 l/100 km (a)
Tank: 35 litres
Boot: 405 litres VDA
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 2 years/30 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals
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