SA Roadtests
South Africa
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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.
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday December 1, 2012
The intro: As mentioned in our review of the Citroën C4 Aircross, this vehicle is basically a Mitsubishi ASX in another costume. Apart from the two PSA models, it provides the base for Mitsubishi Lancer and Dodge Caliber as well. Peugeot SA elected to offer it only with awd and the Mitsubishi INVECS lll, CVT gearbox. Two trim levels, Active and Allure, are available.
The engine is Mitsubishi’s 1998 cc, 16-valve MIVEC, four-cylinder inline GEMA unit with chain-driven DOHC. Bore and stroke are both 86 mm. Its block and head are aluminium with plastic cam cover and intake tract, while the exhaust manifold is of stainless steel. MIVEC means that intake and exhaust cams have two separate profiles each, and the opening and closing actions are constantly variable. This translates to bags of torque and power just when you need them. It makes a mockery of old-timers Pops Yoshimura and Ed Iskenderian’s efforts to find the single perfect camshaft profile, doesn’t it? Depending on mapping, it puts out between 108 and 114 kW at 6000 rpm and around 199 Nm of torque at 4250 rpm.
The body: Built on Mitsubishi’s GS platform that was developed in co-operation with Daimler-Chrysler, it is 4340 mm long on a wheelbase of 2670 mm, 1768 mm wide to the door handles and stands 1632 mm high at the tops of its roof rails – standard on the Allure version we had for review. It is a small SUV designed to seat five, with a EuroNCAP rating of five stars.
The kit: This includes leather upholstery with front chairs that are both heated and electrically adjustable, the usual powered windows and mirrors, automatic air conditioning, front fog lamps, rear parking sensors, automated wipers and lights, panoramic sunroof, central locking, radio and CD player with USB, auxiliary connection via RCA plugs, Bluetooth, dipping rear view mirror and an onboard computer with an unfortunate habit of zeroing its fuel consumption memory while parked overnight. Safety stuff includes seven bags, ISOFix for two, ABS brakes with EBD and EBA, and ESP.
The experience: There are brilliant CVTs and there are the others. This, unfortunately, is one of the others. Compared with its stick-shifting Citroën counterpart, it takes just more than two seconds longer to reach 100 km/h and pays a penalty in fuel consumption too, despite its being punted as “always providing the perfect gearing for any situation.” On the positive side, those choosing automatic transmissions for their laid-back and restful characteristics will feel quite at home. When it comes time to find a lower gear and overtake those trucks on the freeway, you can always grab one with either the left hand shift paddle or by using the lever.
That’s when you will notice quite large rev gaps between fourth and fifth gears and again from fifth to sixth. It gives new energy to the car when you have a mind to press on and enjoy it – something you won’t notice while dawdling along in “constantly variable” mode. Overall gearing is about 2700 rpm at 120 in top, vs. about 3000 rpm at the same speed for the manual car. User-selectable awd and locked 4x4 modes, and 200 mm of ground clearance allow you to tackle rough roads and goat tracks pretty confidently. It sailed easily through our basic loose and rocky trail on a wet and muddy day.
As for accommodations and interior features, it’s very much like its sister car from the other French partner, although trim items differ slightly. Oh, yes, the tall passenger won’t be quite as happy with rear seat headroom; the sunroof steals a few centimetres of overhead space.
The numbers:
Price: R388 500
Engine: See text
Power: 110 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 197 Nm at 4200 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 188 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 9,9 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty and maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km
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 they can see 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!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8