SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.


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.


First drive: 2015 Opel Mokka 1.4 turbo

An excellent blend

Posted: 18 March 2015

The cheat sheet
Prices range from R288 500 to R335 500
Engine: 1364 cc, 16-valve, DOHC four-cylinder, turbopetrol
Power: 103 kW between 4900 and 6000 rpm
Torque: 200 Nm between 1850 and 4900 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9.8 seconds (m), 10.7 seconds (a)
Maximum speed: 196 km/h (m), 191 km/h (a)
Average fuel consumption (claimed): 5.1 (m) and 5.7 (a) litres/100 km
Carbon dioxide: 139 (m), 145 (a) gm/km
Tank: 52 litres
Luggage: 356 – 785 litres
Warranty: 5 years/120 000 km
Service: 5 years/90 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

Mokka – leaves itself open to corny jokes of the coffee variety but I will desist - no mention of its being wide awake or perky; or of anything filtering or percolating through; I will not give you the skinny or latté the cat out of the bag; nor will I mock-a anything, roast it or give it beans. Promise.

Mokka is quite short at 4.28 metres but is spacious, looks rugged and purposeful without being chunky, and is nicely rounded without appearing girly. It should be a comfortable fit with male and female drivers of most ages and with city-SUV needs.

It’s the third of Opel’s New Germans to be introduced here even though it was the first of them to be released in Europe. ADAM and Corsa were no-brainers; they had to come here, but when you’re introducing your first SUV you need to do some homework first. Never mind Europe where over 240 000 were sold last year; what do South Africans want?

The B and C-segment SUV market has seen 260-percent growth, mostly at the expense of sedans in the same sector, over recent years. That provides a golden opportunity for a well-engineered and highly spec’ed medium SUV with sporty background and touch of pizzazz to enter the fray.
 
Mokka fits, size-wise, between Nissan’s Juke and Qashqai; two popular players. Then, just to prove a point, Opel targetted Hyundai’s iX35 which is only slightly longer, wider and a touch lower – offered more kit and priced it at R44 000 less than the Korean.

First question is which engine? GM’s naturally aspirated 1600 is okay but possibly a bit low on grunt for power-hungry South Africans - and it would suffer at high altitude where most of its intended audience lives. The 1600 diesel sounds good but 79.4 percent of buyers in the target segment prefer petrol and word is that sales of diesel powered vehicles in Europe, its traditional stronghold, are declining.

Opel’s 1400 cc, turbocharged, petrol engine with dual overhead cams in an aluminium head over a cast iron block, was the most natural choice. It produces 103 kilowatts and 200 Newton-metres in an almost seamless band of power. It's more than energetic enough for its intended predominantly retail customers and by no means a typical fleet car.

Next question: manual or automatic? Sixty percent buy manual and 40 percent opt for automatic, so the obvious answer was “both.” Six-speed manual and six-ratio electronically controlled automatic, ‘boxes are available with the latter offering manual override from an “M” position just behind “D.” Shifting up and down is done by pushing a rocker switch marked + and – on top of the stick. It’s quirky but it works. A further oddball touch is the parking brake with its release button on top of the handle, rather than underneath. They’re European, so they can’t help it. (Kidding.)

Third question: Front-wheel drive only, or an on-demand 4x4? Most crossovers never see dirt and Mokka’s ground clearance doesn’t suit off-road adventuring, so Opel SA decided on front-wheel only. We covered short stretches of fairly rough gravel along the familiarisation route and the Mokka acquitted itself well, so fear not.

Apart from just one engine and choice of manual or automatic, two trim options, Enjoy and Cosmo, are offered. That gives you a range of four vehicles; with R37 000 separating the kit levels and R10 000 to step up from manual to auto.

Enjoy offers most of what anyone wants with 17” alloy wheels; tilt-and-telescope steering wheel with satellite controls; fabric seats; disc brakes front and rear with ABS, EBD and BAS; ESP; six airbags, speed-sensitive power steering; fog lights front and rear; daytime running lamps; tyre pressure monitoring; powered windows and mirrors; electronic climate control; cruise control with speed limiter; an onboard computer and remote central locking.

Cosmo versions add leather upholstery (warmed and partly electrically adjustable in front – manual height, but electrical everything else); 18-inch wheels; a heated leather-trimmed steering wheel; rear privacy glass; automatic headlamps with high beam assist; rain sensitive wipers; automatically dimming rearview mirror; power folding side mirrors; a 230-volt power supply for your laptop or other gadgets; a few trim items and a back-up camera.

Quick impressions: Enough head, knee and foot space for a 6’1” tester in the back seat, a decently sized boot, plenty of power, nice driving position, enough room to stretch out in and an excellent blend of kit and performance for its prices. Blend? Oops, I said no coffee jokes, didn’t I? Sorry.

Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press event.

Our review of the Mokka Cosmo automatic is at the end of this link



Cosmo automatic shown

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.

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?
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