SA Road Tests

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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 stories.
 

We attended the local launch of the new Subaru Impreza WRX sedan

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.


Published in The Witness Motoring, Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday 8th July 2009

Pics by: Subaru@motorpics

A purpose built driving machine

“Stick to your knitting” is advice often handed out to companies that find they have diversified too much and cannot be all things to all people.

Similarly, Subaru remembered in time that the Impreza saloon range was what led to its success in the car market in the first place. The current Impreza WRX is a hatchback, with a blander face and softer springing – not what its diehard, petrolhead fan base wanted at all. The writing on the wall said, “it’s time to return to what you do best,” and what a return it is.

The new Impreza WRX is a decent sized saloon with a nice big boot, comfortable seats and plenty of legroom for those in the back. Interior furnishings have been upgraded, with sports seats featuring the WRX logo in red, for those in front. A six-disc CD player and radio with MP3 and WMA compatibility, climate control, eight airbags, sunroof, brakes with all the good stuff, hill start assist and remote audio controls on the steering wheel are just part of the package. You can even order an exhaust system that turns the distinctive flat four warble into a banzai battle cry.

The 2,5 litre boxer motor has been given a new, larger turbocharger to up its power to 195 kW at 6000 rpm with 343 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm – gains of 15,4 and 7,2 percent respectively.

This translates into seven tenths of a second off the previous car’s zero to 100 km/h sprint, significant improvements in standing quarter mile time and terminal speed, and in top gear roll-on for the 80 to 120 and 80 to 140 km/h overtaking manoeuvres.

Power improvements on their own are not enough, so the techies at Subaru also attended to the handling package. Anti-sway bars are a tad thicker and spring rates have been increased. The result is a car that tells you upfront that it is not only a purpose-built motor sport machine, but a blast to drive on blacktop as well.

The launch function in Durban was a low-key affair (budget constraints, you know) with only two cars to share between a dozen or so journalists. The solution was to drive four-up on a brief trundle through Durban North and La Lucia, returning along Umhlanga Rocks Drive.

Even at city speeds, the whole being of the WRX lets it be known that this is a working car, a weapon of mass elation. Its personality, if one can call it that, is solid, purposeful and urgent. Steering is precise; throttle response positive and immediate and the optional exhaust system mentioned earlier added an air of urgency. Makes you feel like a kid again. Even the stiffer suspension was by no means intrusive, as a couple of deliberate assaults on Durban’s ubiquitous speed bumps proved.

Subaru’s successes on the rally courses of the world are well documented. For this, thanks are partly due to the low centre of gravity afforded by the flat four engine, full time all-wheel drive with equal length drive shafts and the chassis itself. It’s little wonder then that Subarus are popular with rapid response teams attached to metro police forces and medical units countrywide.  New contracts are being negotiated right now.

Questioned about development of new rally cars for the future, especially in light of the economic slowdown, Grant Bowring, Brand and Marketing Manager for Subaru Southern Africa, told us that a whisper in the wind has it that the WRC formula will revert to rear wheel drive in the next couple of years.

“Will Subaru build a rear wheel drive car to contest the new series?” we asked. 
“Not a chance,” he said.

It’s all to do with the knitting.

Price: R 349 000
Power: 195 kW at 6 000 rpm
Torque: 343 Nm at 4 000 rpm, essentially flat between 2 500 and 5 000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 5,3 seconds (claimed)
Maximum speed: 209 km/h (claimed)
Average fuel consumption: 10,4 l/100 km (claimed)
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Maintenance plan: 3 years/63 000 km

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.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to 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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