SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
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.
Pics by Motorpics
The engine is a 1598cc, i-VTEC, SOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder unit with programmed fuel injection. The VTEC part means “variable valve timing and lift electronic control.” It uses two camshaft profiles and selects between them, hydraulically. The lower-case ”i” stands for intelligent and means that Honda added a variable valve opening overlap mechanism. The engine is mounted across the frame and drives the front wheels through a choice of five-speed manual, or torque converter automatic gearboxes. We drove a manual version.
The body is slightly smaller than the one in the previous generation, measuring 4545 mm in length, 1750 mm wide and 1435 mm high on a wheelbase of 2675 mm. Tracks are 1505 mm in front and 1530 mm at the rear. Despite its reduced size, Honda claims an added 75 mm of shoulder room and 40 mm more leg space for rear seat passengers. The car’s A-pillar has been narrowed and moved forward to improve the sense of roominess and provide a clearer field of vision for the driver. Slimmer front seats give better support while improving space and visibility for rear occupants. Fifty-one litres has been added to the boot capacity, bringing its total to 440 litres.
The features include velour cloth seats with elevation adjustment for the driver, single channel air conditioning with pollen filter, powered mirrors and windows (single-touch up and down for the driver), 15-inch alloy wheels with 195/65 tyres and a fully sized alloy spare, an RDS radio and single CD player with MP3 and WMA compatibility and auxiliary input, tilt and reach adjustment for the steering wheel, and economy driving mode. Safety equipment consists of four airbags, antilock brakes with EBD and EBA, ISOFix child seat mountings, child-proof locks, anti-whiplash head restraints, seatbelt pre-tensioning in front, central locking with keyless entry, automatic locking and a rolling code immobiliser.
The experience: The added user volume pays off with back seat knee space being awarded 10/10 by the tall passenger while headroom earned 8/10 and foot space under the lowered driver’s chair just made it to seven points. The huge boot loads at mid-thigh height and is about 10 centimetres deep, making loading and emptying easy. The seatbacks fold 60:40 and lie flat.
Instruments are laid out differently from most cars with the digital speedometer at almost heads-up viewing height, the analogue rev counter below that and ancillary read-outs in a panel to the left. We found these rather difficult to read in daylight as the blue colouring wasn’t sufficiently contrasty. What was really enjoyed was the engine’s revability and willing performance and with its smooth action and short throws, the ‘box felt almost switch-like in operation. Truth be told, we could easily do without some features of the 1800s and choose this entry-level car. For drivers who enjoy driving, this little guy is the pick of the bunch.
The numbers:
Price: R209 900
Engine: 1598 cc, four-cylinder (See text for details)
Power: 92 kW at 6500 rpm
Torque: 151 Nm at 4300 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,6 seconds
Maximum speed: 200 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,7 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km, at 15 000 km intervals
To see the launch report and more detail, click here
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!
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Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are courtesy of www.quickpic.co.za
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8