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.


If it were stocks, we would declare the 2014 Nissan Almera 1.5 Acenta a “buy”

Worth listing

Large for a B-segment car, it’s an almost-twin sister to the C-segment Nissan Sentra we drove recently. Built on the same platform they are, apart from slight dimensional differences and a few details of sculpting and shaping, easily confused if glanced at quickly.

The Almera has 100 mm less wheelbase length than the Sentra and it’s 185 mm shorter, 65 mm narrower and 10 mm taller. It looks slightly different and its R65 900 price advantage means it’s less luxuriously equipped. The main points are a smaller engine, two airbags rather than six, a boot with 20 litres less capacity, a cheaper radio and CD unit without Bluetooth or USB, smaller wheels and tyres, and less-expensive upholstery.

While its 1500 cc engine develops a conservative 73 kilowatts and 134 Newton-metres, it felt livelier than a nominally higher powered Chinese 1.5-litre car we had on test at the same time. Nissan SA is shy to commit to acceleration figures, but an Indian tester reckoned it does zero-to100 km/h in 15,8 seconds. To us, it felt slightly quicker.

The standard five-speed manual gearbox has been criticised by some testers but apart from a slightly notchy action, its ratios are comfortably spread and it gets the job done quickly and quietly. Our only complaint is that big feet in gym shoes are a tight squeeze past the clutch pedal.

Taller passengers in the back seat have a little less headroom than those in the already-marginal Sentra, despite Almera’s claimed height advantage. It must be something to do with seat heights and hip points. Other missing items include a second seatback pocket, rear door bins, a CD box on the centre console and the Sentra’s load-through hatch, but Almera scores with a pair of air conditioner vents with independent two-speed fan for those at the back. Neither car offers folding seatbacks.

The reason both cars’ boots look the same inside and load at the same height, mid-thigh, is because they are in essentially the same body. They are suitably big, have a single light but no lashing rings or 12-Volt plugs, and the wheel arches intrude towards the front. Almera’s trunk is 17 centimetres deep versus the sister car’s 21, so it should be easier to unload. Thank the full-size spare wheel for that, or blame it for making the boot smaller; it’s up to you.

A plus for a car at this price level is that the lid pops open automatically when you press a button on the key. Just be careful of accidentally activating it while removing the key from the ignition slot though; it’s very sensitive.

Apart from the upholstery being a conventional tough cloth rather than imitation suede, users will find the overall standard of fixtures and fittings to be less upmarket too, but at this price you aren’t buying Infiniti are you? And while some might feel the seats are rather flat and unsupportive, others of broader beam will appreciate that their thighs aren’t pinched by narrow cushions with over-padded bolsters.

Moving away from what you don’t get, to what you do, how about: Remote central locking with autolock, Nissan’s safety shield construction, ABS brakes with EBD and BAS, seat belts with softer webbing for long term comfort, ISOFix anchors, a high-level brake light, 15-inch alloy wheels, electric windows and mirrors, audio controls on the tilt-adjustable steering wheel, height-adjustable driver’s seat and an onboard computer.

Families or fleet owners looking for a car with lots of room and boot space, decent performance and comfort, and enough equipment to get the job done, all at a reasonable price, should put the Almera on their search lists.

Test car from Nissan SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R165 000
Engine: 1498 cc, DOHC, 16-valve four-cylinder
Power: 73 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 134 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 15,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 175 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7,4 l/100 km
Tank: 41 litres
Boot: 490 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 3 years/60 000 km; at 15 000 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. Email me from here