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.


We expected to see just a couple of tweaks and tucks at the 2012 Mercedes-Benz B-class launch. We were pleasantly surprised instead.

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.

Pics supplied by importer

More – so much more

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday March 31, 2012

“So it’s yet another Mercedes B-class hatchback with the regular seasonal nose and butt job - what’s new?” Oh you of little faith! Have we taught you nothing? Do we not open your eyes, ears, hearts and minds to new concepts and new ideas, week by week? Stay with us, people. It will be worth it. And, by the way, it’s not a hatchback or a mini MPV – Mercedes-Benz calls it a sports tourer.

To begin, it might look much the same but it’s actually a completely new body, crafted to accept the fuel cells and e-cells of the future. The old sandwich construction has gone, so it stands almost five cm less tall with your seat some 86 mm closer to the tarmac. It’s also slightly longer and marginally wider. As a result, you get more head, leg and knee room - with more luggage space and the option of choosing almost MPV-like versatility in seating arrangements. You could even be tempted to give your regular upgrade to the latest C-class a miss and try this one instead.

The engines and gearboxes are new as well. Two versions of M-B’s new transverse 1800 cc diesel, with compact six-speed manual and seven-speed double clutch automatic transmissions are offered at launch, with a pair of 1600 cc petrol motors to follow in about August. Diesels first? Nobody does that! There is a reason. Our local petrol still contains too many evil pollutants, so Mercedes-Benz needs a bit more time to make its pristine European engine more resistant to nasties. The cars are built in Rastatt, Germany and Kecskemét (KETCH’ ke-meet), Hungary. We get the Magyar version.

Diesel power is provided by a 1796 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder motor tuned to produce either 80 kW and 250 Nm as a B180 or 100 kW and 300 Nm as a B200. Claimed fuel consumption varies between 4,4 and 4,6 l/100 depending on configuration with CO2 emissions from 114 to 121 grams per kilometre. Petrol engines are 1595 cc 16-valvers also designated B180 and B200, developing 90 kW/200 Nm and 115 kW/250 Nm respectively. Fuel consumption figures range from 5,9 to 6,2 l/100 km, with CO2 numbers between 137 and 144 gm/km.

Suspension is via the usual McPherson strut front- and four-link rear setup. Brakes are ventilated discs up front with solid discs at the back. ABS, brake assist and ESP are standard while, just as with other Mercedes,’ an electrically operated parking brake is fitted. Interiors are familiar as well, with seat switches, instruments and the automatic transmission shift stalk all off the bigger cars.

Other standard equipment includes acceleration skid control (ASC), seven airbags, hill start assist, tyre pressure loss warning, eco stop/start, attention assist, pre-safe and collision prevention assistance. Please note that this consists of visual and audible warnings only – the full slam-on-the-brakes-because-you-weren’t-paying-attention setup is part of Distronic Plus, a R10 000 option available only in conjunction with the automatic box. As expected, there is a book full of accessory packages and options that allow you to personalise the car as much as you like, but there isn’t room for everything, here.

An item worth mentioning is that with the new lower body, there isn’t enough under floor space for a regular spare wheel, so it was decided to fit runflat tyres instead. Reandran Thulkanam, product manager at Mercedes-Benz Cars, assured us that arrangements have been made with all major tyre distributors to make sure that suitable runflats are available in Kleindorpie (Smalltown), Limpopo, at closing time on a Saturday should you need one. Alternatively, an inflatable spacesaver spare can be bought from your local dealer and kept in the boot.

First impressions were of a decently sized luggage compartment, lots of room for fully grown people and the familiar M-B atmosphere. The orientation drive, in automatics, covered typical B-class territory in the form of city traffic, freeways and asphalted country roads. Performance was perfectly acceptable for small luxury cars, with comfortable ride, pleasant handling and responsive transmission.

The numbers
Prices range from R299 600 (B180 petrol) to R358 800 (B200 CDI)
Engines and fuel economy: See text
Performance:
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,6 seconds (B200 petrol) to 10,9 seconds (B180 CDI)
Maximum speed: 190 – 220 km/h, depending on model
Warranty: 2 years/unlimited
Maintenance plan: Mobilodrive 6 years/120 000 km

For some more detail on the petrol-engined versions, click here



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