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.


When Honda announced its 2012 Civic range recently, we hitched a ride down to George in a King Air to find out more.

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

Dad’s car gets attitude

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday February 1,2012

“The previous Civic did have a bit of a ‘Dad’s car’ image,” admitted Graham Eagle, sales and marketing director for Honda Motor Southern Africa, “but we have reworked it to appeal to anyone needing a spacious, comfortable and well appointed family car.”

Part of the makeover is that 2012’s Civic is slightly shorter and has shed some body mass, making it seven percent lighter than previously, but without compromising strength or interior space. The 1798 cc, i-VTEC motor develops the same power and torque as before, but over a wider rev range. This, together with aerodynamic enhancements, means that fuel economy improves to a claimed average of 6,6- to 6,7 l/100 km, depending on model.

Dimensionally, the body is 15 mm shorter on a wheelbase that shrank by 30 mm. Height and width remain as before, but the new car has 75 mm more shoulder room, 40 mm more leg space in the rear and 10 mm greater cabin length. This repackaging also added 51 litres of boot space to bring the new volume up to 440 litres – just the thing for those trips to the timeshare.

Ride quality, handling and dynamic properties were fine-tuned to improve responsiveness, linearity and stability, making the new Civic even more fun to drive than previously. Gearboxes are smoother and quieter, with automatics now boasting better fuel economy, in 1800 cc models, than manual-shift versions. Safety engineering has been updated as well.

Because sedans out-sold hatchbacks significantly in the previous range, this initial launch saw the release of six Thai-built four-doors, with a further pair, 1600 cc manual and automatic Comfort versions, due for release in February. British-built 1800 cc hatches, including a diesel and a Type R, will follow later.

The range is presently as follows: 1600 cc Comfort (February), 1800 cc Comfort, 1800 cc Elegance and 1800 cc Executive – each with a choice of manual or automatic transmissions. “Production took a significant knock as a result of the natural disasters, both in Japan and in Thailand,” Eagle continued, “but we have ample stock for the first two to three months, a possible small hiccup around April or May, but will be back to full availability after that.”

Equipment-wise, even basic 1600cc Comforts have 15” alloy wheels with full-sized spare, four air bags, electrically powered windows and mirrors, height-adjustable driver’s seat, rake- and reach-adjustable steering wheel, MP3-compatible radio and CD unit with auxiliary input and speed sensitive volume control, filtered air conditioning and automatic door locking.

The 1800cc Comfort gains heated side mirrors and curtain air bags, while Elegance models add 16” alloy wheels, leather trim, Bluetooth, iPod and USB slots, a multi-function steering wheel, cruise control with speed limiter and automatic climate control.  Chromed door handles distinguish Executive models, as do front fog lights, folding outside mirrors, paddle shift controls for the automatic, Vehicle Stability Assist, tyre pressure monitors and automatic headlights and wipers.

Standard equipment on all models includes ABS brakes with EBD and EBA, active anti-whiplash head restraints and ISOFix rear child seat anchors. Electrically controlled power steering, a trip computer with outside temperature display and Honda’s ECON mode system complete the package. This feature softens throttle response on all models and enables earlier upshifts on automatics, with a view to improving fuel economy. Green or blue mood lighting on the speedometer dial indicates whether one is driving efficiently or not.

The familiarisation drive from Fancourt to Oudshoorn and back, with a car swap at the halfway point, took in a couple of mountain passes so we could assess the handling characteristics we had heard so much about. Let’s put it this way: when the time comes for Dad to trade in his old Civic and get a new one, don’t say a word. Just let him do it. He may be surprised that you want to borrow his car so often, but he doesn’t really need to know why, does he?

The numbers
Price range: R209 900 (Comfort 1600 manual) to R282 900 (Executive 1800 automatic)
Engines:
1600: 1 598 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder, i-VTEC
Power: 92 kW at 6 500 rpm
Torque: 151 Nm at 4 300 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,6 seconds (man), 12,0 seconds (auto)
Fuel economy: 6,7 l/100 (man), 6,8 l/100 (auto)
Max. Speed: 200 km/h (man), 197 km/h (auto)
1800: 1 798 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder, i-VTEC
Power: 104 kW at 6 500 rpm
Torque: 174 Nm at 4 300 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: Between 8,8 and 10,7 seconds, depending on model
Fuel economy: 6,7 l/100 (man), 6,6 l/100 (auto)
Max. Speed: 200 km/h
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km at 15 000 km intervals

For a review of the 1600 sedan, 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 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. Email me from here