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.
*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.
Pics:
Outside supplied
Inside by author
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday January 9, 2013
We no longer see the name “Impreza” on new Subarus in South Africa. Although we have turbocharged WRX and STi versions of the sedan, they don’t wear the Impreza badge nor is anything seen of the hatchback. Until the 2011 Johannesburg Motor Show, that is. To breathe new life into its flagging five-door, Subaru did as many have done before and – kon’nichiwa! - a new crossover was born.
They took an ordinary Impreza hatch, increased its wheelbase by 15 mm, stretched it a little longer, taller and wider, gave it 17-inch wheels in place of the old 16-inchers and stood it about 30 mm higher off the ground, at 220 mm. Obviously, this interfered with its centre of gravity, so they tweaked the car’s suspension by rejigging stabiliser bars, spring and damper rates, and rear subframe bushes.
A new grille, different front and rear bumpers, roof rails, rear spoiler and moulded wheel-arch extensions all helped to make it look different and they called it XV. It seems to have worked, because out on our regular test route, we must have seen a dozen in the couple of hours it took. The engine is the unblown 1995 cc flat-four FB20 motor with chain-driven camshafts; that was introduced in 2010 to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. Our test car was fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox although a CVT is available as well.
Adding length and height improved backseat passenger accommodations from “a bit challenging” in our earlier report on the hatch to “pretty good” today. The SA Standard Tall Passenger allocated 9, 8 and 8 points out of 10 respectively, for head, knee and foot space. The boot is still not huge for a family car, measuring 310 litres with seatbacks up, to 1270 with them folded. The loading area is flat and at about upper thigh height to adults of average build; while the spare is an equivalently sized steel unit.
Apart from very stable and confident road behaviour that comes with full-time all-wheel drive, safety equipment includes seven airbags, disc brakes at both ends with ABS, EBD, BA and hill holder, ESP, ISOFix anchorages, limited slip differential, cruise control and a reversing camera. It won five safety stars in both Euro- and A-NCAP.
Making life pleasant are Xenon headlamps, fog lights in front, a powered glass sunroof, remote central locking, alloy wheels, dual zone, filtered climate control, electric windows and mirrors, a six-speaker audio system with Bluetooth and the usual plugs, and an onboard computer. Seats are cloth, although leather is optional. Our test unit had both leather and the optional satnav with upgraded music centre that plays DVDs and MP3 files, adding a total of R17 500 to the purchase price. Small black mark here: Although a dedicated iPod cable is built in, the fancier music box deletes both USB and auxiliary plugs – disappointing, Subaru-san.
Out on the road, the XV performs like your average 2,0-litre family car, running the standard sprint in 10,5 seconds and topping out at 187 km/h. The view outward is uncluttered, helped by small triangular windows in the ‘C’ pillars, it steers and parks easily with its 10,6-metre turning circle and our local forestry trail presented no problems at all. Ride on a rippled and pot-holed dirt road was both comfortable and sure footed.
Finally, the big surprise: Full-time awd is magical to have, but it usually drinks the firewater like a sailor on shore-side liberty. Subaru evidently got cleverer with this engine than they let on, because the computer showed average consumption of only 8,8 l/100 km after the test was over. For a petrol-fuelled 2,0-litre awd SUV in real life, that’s excellent.
Test car supplied by Subaru SA press fleet
The numbers
Basic price: R329 000
Engine: 1995 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, flat four
Power: 110 kW at 6200 rpm
Torque: 196 Nm at 4200 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,5 seconds
Maximum speed: 187 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: 8,8 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Maintenance plan: 3 years/75 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals
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