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 archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We go exploring in the 2013 Land Rover Discovery 4 SDV6 HSE

Outside pics by Quickpic, interior by author

Just needs a chainsaw

These modern off-roaders with air suspension have fascinating toys. Recently, while waiting for a man and his dog to scramble away from the steep forest trail that lay ahead of us, we used the down time to choose our best game plan.

Which response mode? “Mud and ruts” should do it, we reckoned, and gave two dabs on the selector bar. The on-screen confirmation suggested we choose low range – good idea, because the hill is pretty steep. Turning the rotating gear selector to neutral, we held down the rearmost end of the range bar while waiting a few seconds for the transfer box to do its work and the body to lift slightly. The downhill crawl symbol came on together with the confirmation. Engaging drive, we fed in just enough throttle for our three-litre diesel powered Discovery 4 to amble gently up the hill. We gave the pedestrian and his pooch a cheery wave.

Turning left at the top, onto the flatter but rougher section of trail, we noticed another dog walker off to one side and gave her a wave too. This is where the ruts get deeper, the ride more exciting and the surface more interesting, with loose stones and oozy mud. It’s still a piece of pie for the Disco though. Pretty soon, we were back on a flat and uninteresting transit section, so it was back into neutral to re-engage high range and switch the special programs off.

We used “mud and ruts” with low range once again on that day’s ramble, and picked the “grass-gravel-snow” option a couple of times too. There was no need for “rock crawl” and maximum ride height that day. This is off-roading at its most convenient, with surround vision cameras on HSE models helping you see exactly what nasties await and where each wheel is placed. The only time things got awkward was on finding two successive paths blocked by uprooted trees, so we used the peripheral vision to safely negotiate multi-point turns. Sometimes, one really needs a chainsaw in one’s backup kit. Luckily a little-used third track led us around both obstacles and back homeward.

The last Discovery 4 we drove was back in 2010. There have been a few changes since then. The diesel engine was tweaked a little to provide a few more kilowatts of power, with fuel economy improved to use half a litre less fuel per hundred kilometres. It gained a further pair of airbags, bringing its total to eight to match the petrol model and the year 2011 saw the six-speed ZF automatic replaced by an eight-speeder from the same firm. Equipment levels remained essentially the same, unless you wanted to know that HSE models like our test unit now have an uprated HK Logic7 sound system with 17 speakers and 825 Watts of power?

Because this is basically an affordable alternative to the Range Rover, some money was saved on non-essentials like TV reception, powered tailgate, daytime running lights, powered steering wheel adjustment, separate reversing camera and audio-visual equipment. If you prefer the heirs to simply settle down and enjoy the journey though, you might want to find R44 500 for the optional rear seat entertainment kit.

On the subject of offspring and other passengers, it’s good to know that the sixth and seventh seats can actually accommodate fully grown people and that head, knee and foot room is sufficient for those in the second row as well. For added comfort, satellite vents with dedicated temperature dial and direction controls are provided in the headlining, along with a pair of ordinary outlets at the back of the central console.

Beyond that the Discovery is spacious, comfortable and extremely capable. It goes pretty well on asphalt too.

Test car from Jaguar-Land Rover SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R892 800
Engine: 2993 cc, 24-valve, V6 turbodiesel
Power: 183 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 600 Nm at 2000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,3 seconds
Maximum speed: 180 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 11,8 l/100 km
Tank: 82 litres
Ground clearance (normal and maximum): 185/310 mm
Approach/departure/breakover angles (normal ride height): 32,2/26,7/22,8 degrees
Approach/departure/breakover angles (maximum): 36,2/29,6/27,3 degrees
Wading depth (normal/maximum): 600/700 mm
Luggage:
5 seater configuration, below shelf: 543 litres
Maximum, up to roof: 2558 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 5 years/100 000 km; at 12 month/26 000 km intervals



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 I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once 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.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) 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.



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.