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.
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Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday December 17, 2011
The engine: We know it from the Grand Vitara; a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder, DOHC, 16-valve unit with VVT that produces 131 kW of power and 230 Nm of torque in this application. Peak power is developed at 6500 rpm in the manual version, but revs are restricted to 6000 for automatics to preserve the hardware. That’s probably why overseas tests quote horsepower figures of 185 and 180 respectively.
The transmission: Apart from its infinitely variable “automatic” function, six virtual ratios can be selected by means of either the gear lever or paddles behind the steering wheel. It also boasts several control modes that are automatically activated according to driving conditions. These include Normal, keeping engine speeds at optimal levels for fuel efficiency; Start that holds lower gear ratios for strong off-the-line acceleration; Acceleration mode with hundreds of shift maps to deliver linear acceleration; and a Downhill configuration to provide engine braking. You don’t do a thing – just drive and the gearbox works it out for you.
It’s time to confess – when we attended the press launch of this car some months ago, journalists were told of this CVT’s many virtues and asked to give honest driving opinions because some of us (blush) had been quite rude about the CVT fitted to another Suzuki. After that orientation drive, we pronounced the unit fitted to the Kizashi to be “good, but not quite right.” We forgot all that in the meantime and approached this car believing it had just another automatic ‘box. We take back what was said that day. It’s good - period.
The body: It’s a conventional three-box, four-door sedan, 4,65 m long, 1,82 m wide and 1,48 m high, on a 2,7 m wheelbase. There is seating for five with a generous luggage capacity of 461 litres. Suspension is by means of McPherson struts in front with a multilink setup at the rear. Kit includes a sunroof, remote locking and unlocking with keyless start, dual-channel filtered air conditioning, powered windows with single touch operation for those in front, leather upholstery, full information display, remote buttons for sounds, cruise and information on the steering wheel, an eight-speaker sound system with USB input and the usual ABS, EBA, EBD and ESP. It’s baby seat-friendly with a pair of ISOFix anchorages and three additional tethering points. Six airbags, front fog lamps, front and rear parking sensors and hill hold are included as well. The only thing missing is automatic door locking as you drive away, but there’s a rocker switch on the driver’s door to compensate.
The experience: The boot is square and quite deep with two side nooks for smaller items, six lashing hooks and a load-through hatch in the rear seat backs. The spare is a fully sized alloy unit. The SA standard tall passenger gave rear seat accommodation eight points for headroom, nine for foot space and ten for knees. Warm or cool air is channelled in via repeater vents. Storage is courtesy of net pockets behind the front seats and door bins. A pair of cup holders slides out from the central armrest when needed. The rear seat backs fold almost flat onto their cushions, but create a step down into the boot.
Up front, both seats are powered with the driver’s chair boasting height, reach and recline adjustments and three memory settings. The passenger has only reach and recline assistance. Storage consists of a dual-layered central box under the armrest, a pair of cup holders, door bins, a sunspecs holder and a decent glove box. A thoughtful touch is extensions on the sun visors and both makeup mirrors are lit.
The ambience is comfortable and subdued featuring dimpled black finishes with just a pair of silvered highlights on the dash and discreet chromed touches on door trims and handles. Fit and finish is good. Instruments are clearly legible, white-on-black, with an almost-retro look. Performance is what one would expect of a medium sized executive sedan, doing the standard sprint in 8,8 seconds and going on to a maximum of 205 km/h. Suspension is moderately firm but compliant, providing a good balance between handling ability and comfort.
This is a Car of the Year finalist, well priced and with an excellent balance of properties. It deserves its place in the lineup.
The numbers:
Price: R310 900
Engine: 2393 cc inline four-cylinder, petrol
Power: 131 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 230 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 205 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: about 9,5 l/100 km
Tank: 63 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km with roadside assistance
Service plan: 6 years/90 000 km
To see the launch report and more technical detail, click here
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 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