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.


Kia Motors SA put the boot in to its successful new Rio recently. We flew down to Stellenbosch for a closer look.

Pics supplied

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.


Stylish yet rational

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday May 2, 2012

You have two choices. This can be the shortest launch report you ever read or, if you missed last November’s announcement of the hatchback, you could read beyond the “Stop Here” warning that comes up pretty soon.

The Rio sedan has a very adequate boot that holds 389 litres of luggage vs. 288 in the hatch. Its rear seatbacks do not fold, so you lose out on the 923 litres of total load space available to hatchback buyers. There is no wash and wipe facility for the rear window; most cars are like that. The sedan has a slightly better co-efficient of drag (Cd) than the hatch – 0,31 vs. 0,32. It is also 320 mm longer and weighs between 5 and 10 kg more. The engines are the same, as are the various fixtures and fittings. The price premium is exactly R2000 over the equivalent hatchback model. STOP HERE.

Pitched toward 20-to-30-something buyers, with or without children, Rio is a viable alternative for those looking for something a little different. The fact that it is attractive, well priced and amazingly well equipped, does no harm at all. David Sieff, Kia’s national marketing manager, told us that it is positioned as an individualistic and progressive proposition for young and trendy buyers looking for style but not ready to forego rationality. Older buyers with teenagers are catered for as well, with generous boot space and surprisingly good rear seat accommodation; but more on this later.

Two engines are offered, as are a pair of trim levels and two transmissions, although the four-speed automatic is available only on 1400s. Exterior trim on the 1248 cc base model includes 15” steel wheels, body-coloured bumpers, door handles and outside mirror housings, a high-mounted stop lamp and lightly tinted windows. Inside, one finds a tiltable steering wheel with adjustable reach and remote sound controls, electrically adjustable wing mirrors, powered windows front and rear, air conditioner, a trip computer, a shift indicator, a four-speaker radio and CD player with USB and auxiliary connectors, Bluetooth connectivity and cloth-covered seats. Safety and security kit includes two airbags, keyless entry with central locking, ABS with EBD and a fully sized spare wheel. If this sounds familiar, we did say you could stop reading two paragraphs ago.

A further R18 000 buys you the bigger engine, alloy wheels, front fog lamps, outside mirrors that fold, automatic lights with escort and welcome functions, leather-wrapped gearknob and steering wheel, indicator flashers in the wing mirrors, two more speakers for your music centre and the Super Vision instrument cluster that’s really quite sexy.

Feeling flush? Just R14 000 more equips your car with 17” alloys and wider tyres with a lower profile, windscreen glass with UV-filtration, LED positioning lights and rear lamps, a chilling vent in the glove box, automatic air conditioning, rear parking sensors, rain-sensing wipers and automatic windscreen defogging. Then there's leather upholstery, alloy foot pedals and four more airbags. This adds up to a very decent smallish-medium car for a pretty affordable R174 000.

For automatic transmission, add a further R10 000. Buyers lusting after the 17” wheels for lesser models may order them at just R3000 above the usual prices. Those going the whole hog with 1400 cc TEC versions are permitted to order a R6000 sunroof should they so choose. It would be a bit pointless to stop reading now, as we have almost finished, haven’t we?

The familiarisation session after formalities had been completed showed that the boot really is big for a car this size and that rear seat headroom and knee space is generous. We would go as far as saying that there is more clearance between hairdo and rooflining in this car than in the bigger and more expensive Optima. Fit and finish of interior parts is up to the usual Korean standard.

Julian, our driving partner for the day, grabbed us a 1400 TEC with manual transmission. This is a torquey little motor that pulls very well, revs willingly and should satisfy most families’ needs. Ride quality is firm and well damped, although Jules and his delicate posterior found the going a little harsh over rough asphalt.

The numbers
Prices: From R141 995 to R183 995
Engines:
1248 cc Kappa – 65 kW at 6000 rpm and 120 Nm at 4000 rpm
Gearbox: 5-speed manual
Zero to 100 km/h: 13,1 seconds
Maximum speed: 168 km/h
Euro fuel test: 5,4 l/100 km
1396 cc Gamma – 79 kW at 6300 rpm and 135 Nm at 4200 rpm
Gearboxes: 6-speed manual or 4-speed automatic
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,5 seconds (man), 13,2 seconds (auto)
Maximum speed: 183 km/h (man), 170 km/h (auto)
Euro fuel test: 6,4 l/100 (man), 7,0 l/100 km (auto)
Tank: 43 litres
Brakes: 256 mm Disc/203 mm Drum
Suspension:  McPherson struts with stabiliser/coupled torsion beam axle
Warranty: 5 years/100 000 km with 3 years roadside assistance
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km



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