SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.
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Posted: 23 October 2018
The numbers
Prices: 1.0 T-GDI manual R379 900, 2.0 MPI automatic R399 900
1.0T engine: 998 cc, three-cylinder, DOHC 12-valve turbopetrol
Power: 88 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 172 Nm between 1500 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12.0 seconds
Top speed: 181 km/h
European combined cycle fuel consumption: 6.8 l per 100 km
2.0 MPI engine: 1999 cc, four-cylinder, DOHC 16-valve
Power: 110 kW at 6200 rpm
Torque: 180 Nm at 4500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10.0 seconds
Top speed: 194 km/h
European combined cycle fuel consumption: 7.2 l per 100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Luggage: 361 – 1143 litres
Warranty: 5 years / 150 000 km with roadside assistance
Drivetrain: A further 2 years / 50 000 km (total 7 years / 200 000 km)
Service plan: 5 years / 90 000 kmAs you may have noticed, Hyundai names its SUVs and Crossovers after places. Tucson and Santa Fe are cities in the USA. Creta takes it name from the island of Crete. And Kona is a moku, or district, on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s also the home of some excellent Arabica that, rather like Champagne or Port, can only be called Kona if it’s grown and processed there.
Just as the coffee is rather special, so too is the car. Although your reporter duly noted that Hyundai’s Kona, first shown to the world in June 2017 and released here just recently, is very close in price and size to Creta, there are important differences.
Apart from engines - 1600 cc, either petrol or diesel, for Creta and 1.0 turbopetrol or free breathing 2.0 for Kona – the new car is noticeably more upmarket in build quality and fittings.
Kona, for example, offers rear disc brakes, cruise control, blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert and tyre pressure monitoring that Creta does not. While we’re rubbing it in, the new car also provides ESP, downhill brake control and hill start assist. And more shoulder room. To be fair, though, its boot is 41 litres smaller and it carries five litres less fuel.
Similarities include, but are not restricted to, McPherson strut- and torsion beam suspension; anti-submarining seats covered in imitation leather; reversing camera; parking distance warning and the expected safety kit – six airbags, ISOFix mountings and four-channel ABS with EBD.
Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. If that isn’t yet available in the Google Play Store by the time you read this, go to https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-auto/android-auto-3-7-5840-release/ and download from there. Your phone’s operating system must be Android 5.0 or newer.
In a break with tradition, designer Luc Donckerwolke shifted Kona’s daytime running lights up to just below the bonnet shut line. That’s for visibility. And he moved the headlamps down in line with the centre of the grille, because they look friendlier there.
The 998 cc turbopetrol engine, that we mentioned a few paragraphs up, is this particular configuration’s first appearance in South Africa. We know the all-aluminium Kappa ll mill, in its naturally aspirated form, from the latest Grand i10 but this turbocharged version is new to us down here at the bottom of Africa. It features gasoline direct injection and a small, single-scroll turbocharger with electrically controlled wastegate. It’s identified as T-GDI and was first fitted to European-spec’ i20s in 2015.
As a start, we will have two models here – the one-litre, three-cylinder turbomotor matched to a six-speed manual gearbox and the two-litre naturally aspirated engine paired with Hyundai’s trusty six-cog automatic. We drove both versions on the KZN press launch but couldn’t really extend them because the rain was hissing down and visibility was terrible. The consensus among all who attended, though, was that turbo-with-manual was everyone’s favourite.
As for colours, you could have Acid Yellow (a psychedelic shade of Lime) paired with Lime Green seatbelts, upholstery- and steering wheel stitching and similar coloured highlights around gearshift, engine start button and vents. Other choices are Lake Silver (medium grey); Pulse Red (quite deep); Dark Knight (as black as coffee should be) and Chalk White. These are matched with red interior highlights like those described above.
Finally, just as your choice of Kona can now be coffee or crossover, this new Hyundai is one fine little brew.
Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press event.
Read the 2019 1.0T-GDI review
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.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8