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 reports.


Note: This car is known as Toyota GT86 in some markets

We relive misspent youth in the 2012 Toyota 86 High Spec automatic

Warning; encourages misbehaviour

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday January 12, 2013

You know those FBI agents on TV; aggressive, dressed in suits, wearing dark shoes and with faces as friendly as Darth Vader’s. They stop all conversation, take over completely and answer to no-one but The Director. If they were automobiles, they might be called Toyota 86.

These cars are all about business, that of moving two occupants quickly and securely from A to B. Unlike politicians, professional bodyguards know that the best way of doing that is without aggression, flashing lights or fanfare. Eight-sixes are straightforward engineers’ cars, with a naturally aspirated 100 bhp per litre engine in front, driving the back wheels as Nature intended.  Mass is low, at 1239 kg for the manual car (1260 kg, automatic) and its shape is slippery with a Cd of 0,27. Weight distribution is nicely balanced at a ratio of 53:47.

Truth be told, the prototype was built by Toyota engineers to convince business partners Subaru (Toyota owns 16,5 percent of the company) that a back-to-basics rear-wheel drive sports car with two-litre flat-four could actually be a runaway success. Long story short, Subaru was convinced and subsequently built its own, the BRZ. The 86 has in the meantime become Australia’s Car of the Year and is a finalist in South Africa too.

The cockpit is basic; big instruments right in front of the driver with black-on-white tachometer dominating everything, seats simple and almost overly snug, handbrake lever sited possibly a touch too high and a shade too close, but very accessible – the way an engineer would like it. That big shiny pad on the floor, left of the brake pedal, is a foot brace. You just may need it. Suspension is firm but compliant, steering is quick and direct and performance rapid but not rabid. It’s well balanced, the way a sports car should be.

The beautifully sculpted back seat isn’t very practical, usable only by tiny people without legs, for parking luggage or for strapping baby chairs into. Its best configuration is probably with the single piece backrest folded down, creating a perfectly level loading space all the way to the rear panel. Err- not quite. Unlike the Aussies, we get the fully sized alloy spare that’s too wide for the well provided, so Toyota cut a section out of the cover and left the wheel protruding above the floor line. It sounds terrible, but actually adds to the car’s quirky yet practical charm.

Our test unit was equipped to High spec’ and fitted with the optional six-speed automatic. This is a highly modified Aisin torque converter device with downshift blipping to match the revs of the next gear. Its software is tweaked to mimic the response of a dual-clutch gearbox and offers three modes; Sport, Snow, and Normal. Snow mode softens responses in slippery conditions to keep you going, while sport not only sharpens throttle and steering but locks up the torque converter earlier, to improve efficiency and acceleration.

Standard equipment includes seven bags, climate control, ventilated discs at both ends, all the electrical and electronic paraphernalia one expects nowadays and a built-in sound chamber to make sure you enjoy that special Subaru flat-four warble without annoying the neighbours.

In automatic, the box almost reads your mind, gearing up or down a split second before you could. It changes smoothly and kicks down without fuss, souring you toward any lesser devices you may come across. In sport mode and hurrying along in manual override, it points, it squirts, it growls, it snarls, it hangs on forever. It’s potentially addictive and the kind of car your girlfriend's mother warned her about.

It isn’t perfect because it's been built down to a price – the plastic and metalware is pretty light, you hear the wind and the rumble of rubber on asphalt and a few ergonomic details could be improved. But it’s fun. We want one and already have a name picked out; Edgar, in honour of the new director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hooligan.

Test unit supplied by Toyota SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R346 500
Engine: 1998 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, flat four
Power: 147 kW at 7000 rpm
Torque: 205 Nm between 6400 and 6600 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 210 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: 7,8 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

To see how it stacks up against Subaru's BRZ click here

The press service only had this interior pic of a manual version - sorry

What We Do

This is 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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