SA Road Tests

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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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User-friendly: 2018 Hyundai H1 2.5 diesel bus

Luxurious appointments

Posted: 24 August 2018

The numbers
Price: R629 900
Engine: 2497 cc, four-cylinder, DOHC 16-valve diesel with VGT
Power: 125 kW at 3600 rpm
Torque: 441 Nm between 2000 and 2250 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 14.4 seconds
Maximum speed: 180 km/h
Car magazine fuel index: 11.8 l /100 km
Tank: 75 litres
Cargo volume: 842 litres
Tare: 2216 kg
GVM: 3030 kg
GCM: 4530 kg
Maximum (braked) trailer mass: 1500 kg
Warranty: 5 years / 150 000 km with roadside assistance
Additional drivetrain warranty: 2 years / 50 000 km
Service plan: 5 years / 90 000 km


Warning: Apart from factual details, what follows is purely fictional. It did not happen. Although it could have.

It’s midnight, one recent Friday into Saturday. Dream Unit 3 (DU3) of Make it Happen Couriers is rolling quietly down the N3. All going well it should reach its first drop-off point in Hilton, KZN, shortly after dawn. There’s a special cargo scheduled for this stop but that’s not unusual because DU3 is a special kind of delivery vehicle.

It’s a Hyundai H1 panel van, diesel-engined for solid pulling power and reasonable fuel economy. The gearbox is a five-speed automatic for easy driving, flexibility and tolerance for sloppy driving styles. Lower maintenance costs over the long haul than for a manual transmission, with constant replacement of clutch components, makes it an obvious choice.

Standard configuration permits up to 4426 litres, or 1100 kg, of cargo. Driver comfort items, not too common in commercial vehicles, include powered windows, air conditioning, cruise control, rake and reach-adjustable steering wheel, automatic projector-style headlamps offering good coverage and wide spread, and a neat music system with Bluetooth for phone connectivity. Safety kit includes ABS brakes with EBD and a pair of airbags.

DU3 boasts a cubby modified to bus specification to provide chilled storage for delicate items and there's a custom-made refrigeration unit built onto one wall of the rear compartment.
Co-driver Phillip checks the glove box. Inside is a transparent presentation package containing a mega-calorie Black Forest confection. The label reads: “Eat with care.” He scans the manifest and smiles, noting that the back chiller holds an arrangement of exotic orchids bound for the same address.

The lights are on in the Hilton garden apartment. Melanie, its occupant, duly alerted and expecting an early delivery, is waiting for the Make it Happen team.

WhatsApp message sent at 06:13 Saturday morning and received in Johannesburg moments later: “About bloody time! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

N3 freeway, shortly past noon, same day: Avi, the new fiancé, his parents, Melanie’s parents, her sister and her best friend and Feisal his partner in the tour business are en-route to the KZN Midlands. Their H1 diesel bus is closely modelled on the courier company’s panel van but, being a people carrier, offers more luxurious appointments.

The air conditioner is automatic and includes extension vents in the rear, the music centre is more sophisticated and features a touch screen, higher safety specs run to four airbags and ESP, it has fog lamps front and rear, the outside mirrors are powered and have indicator repeaters built in and there is a reversing camera for added safety and convenience. Navigation is built in, requiring just a micro SD card priced at R2552-00.

It carries eight comfortably although a small, ninth person could fit onto the front bench seat if need be. Built for passenger comfort, its rear springs are coils fitted on a multilink setup, rather than leaves. Useful on trips to game parks and awkward to reach places is its 190 mm ground clearance. Being top-of-range, the diesel bus is fitted with bespoke 17” alloy wheels wearing 65-profile tyres.

Practical items that “sold” the business partners on Hyundai H1 included its versatile second row seats (more later); its 842-litre luggage area presently partly occupied by a chiller filled with celebration materials; its all-round spaciousness in which no tourist need feel cramped; separate and easy-to-find switches for front and rear fog lamps; driver-controlled second and third row dome lights; convenient steps, climb-in handles and courtesy lamps at each rear doorway; easy to use temperature and direction controllers for the rear vents and big side windows.

These are brilliant for uninterrupted sightseeing but cannot open to the extent that unthinking photographers could lean out of the vehicle for ultimate “action” shots. Lions have been known to snack on foolish travellers. Just thought we’d mention that.

About those seats: Second row seating is divided into two segments, each of which can be adjusted backward and forward through a range from limo-like luxury to hard up against the chairs in front. That’s for easy access to and from the third row. Lift bars in front and pull straps behind make it easy for back- and middle passengers to move them. Both middle row seatbacks recline for comfort. It makes sense for these second row chairs to be so versatile because a significant percentage of touring parties consist of no more than four people.

By the time they reach their destination, evening has arrived and with it, Hilton’s signature mist. Avi engages both fog lamp buttons simultaneously – no fiddling with rotating switches, double clicks backward or forward or any other acrobatics required of fancy-car lighting systems.

The driveway to Melanie’s garden apartment is narrow but the H1 negotiates it easily thanks to its tight, 11.2-metre, turning circle. Small hatchbacks need only slightly less. Just thought we’d mention that.

Because it’s based on a panelvan, the loading sill is at an easy-to-pack 60 centimetres. Herein lies one of H1’s few awkwardnesses. The hatch is huge and lifts high. That means it needs at least two steps backward in order to close it again and short drivers could struggle to reach. But partners are there to help, right?

Test vehicle from Hyundai Automotive SA press fleet

The launch report is here

What We Do

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 ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle 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.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
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