SA Road Tests

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


We seek primal rhythms in the 2012 Mazda CX-5 2.0 Individual a/t

Nicely equipped, but no Kodo

In Japanese, “Kodo” means “heartbeat”, or the source of all primal rhythms. It is also the name used by Mazda to describe its new design language based on the energy, vitality and coiled-spring essence of the African cheetah. The new CX-5 certainly looks very muscular and energetic, but the big question is, how does it go and what does one get for just short of R400 000? Be patient, we’ll get there.

Based on the Minagi concept car shown at Geneva in March 2011, the CX-5 is a compact crossover fitted with a new 2.0-litre engine and six-speed gearboxes – manual for the basic Active version or automatic for upper echelon Dynamic and Individual models. Drive is to the front wheels only.

It’s 4555mm long on a wheelbase of 2700mm, is 1840mm wide and 1670mm tall. It seats five comfortably, boasts luggage space that expands from 490 litres (VDA) to 1390 with rear seat backs folded and, in Individual guise especially, comes loaded with kit. Mazda makes special mention of the “Skyactiv” technologies used in its creation, too. These cover three main aspects; engine, body and transmission.

The engine is a long-stroke, four-cylinder, direct injection unit displacing 1998cc. Noteworthy is its 13.0:1 compression ratio and the 4-2-1 exhaust system that, together with special pistons, helps to eliminate the knocking or pre-ignition often found in high-compression engines. The exhaust system design effectively lengthens the manifold, so reducing build-up of hot gasses in the combustion chambers and cancelling any tendency to knock. Apart from excellent fuel economy, Mazda claims a reduction in CO2 emissions as well. Power and torque outputs are 114 kW and 200 Nm, which are about average for free-breathing two-litre petrol burners these days.

Skyactiv-body technology combines excellent collision safety design with light weight and rigidity. Apart from six airbags, specially designed seats, energy-absorbing zones and the usual handling equipment, the engine is designed to break away from its subframe in the event of a serious collision. This not only keeps it out of the passenger cell, but effectively lengthens the front crumple zone too.

Suspension is by means of the familiar McPherson strut front, multilink rear, setup. It’s tuned for comfort and it does that very well, soaking up most speed bumps and being well behaved on dirt. The unfortunate side effect is that the car felt rather floaty and top heavy, probably about average for family busses, but not really confidence-building.

Standard kit includes all the expected items including alloy wheels, bi-xenon headlamps, fog lights at both ends, tyre pressure monitoring, sunroof, climate control, a nine-speaker Bose sound system, parking assistance with camera and rain-sensing wipers. The list is long.

Then there’s the new Skyactiv six-speed automatic transmission that combines a torque converter with twin clutch operation. We drove the car without reading Mazda’s spin sheets first and were still disappointed. It behaves like an old fashioned slushbox with the usual tendencies to slip and flare. Sorry, but at this price level, we expect on-demand all-wheel drive and a more engaging transmission. Mazda usually does better.

The numbers
Price: R393 390
Engine: 1998 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder petrol
Power: 114 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 200 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,5 seconds
Maximum speed: 187 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7,8 l/100 km
Tank: 56 litres
Warranty: 4 years/120 000 km, with 3 years’ roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km at 15 000-km or 1 year intervals



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.