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.


Mini test: We go ‘repping’ in the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta 1.6 TDi Comfortline manual

Solid, willing and economical

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday December 14, 2011

The engine: The 77 kW version of VW’s model EA827 diesel drives this one. It’s an almost-square (79,5 x 80,5 mm, bore x stroke) 1598 cc four-cylinder common rail diesel with DOHC and four valves per cylinder. The block is grey cast iron with an aluminium alloy cylinder head. Aspiration is by means of a turbocharger with intercooler and water-cooled exhaust gas recirculation. The gearbox fitted to our test car was a five-speed manual unit although a seven-speed DSG is also available on this model only.

The body: This sixth generation Jetta is 90 mm longer than the old one on a wheelbase that’s extended by 73 mm. The main benefit is 67 mm more rear legroom, earning the new car a ’ten’ for this feature on the SA standard tall passenger’s very subjective evaluation scale. He awarded headroom eight points and foot space was given nine out of ten.

Jetta continues to appeal to those wanting a stylish and spacious mid-sized sedan, with its elegant new body that shares no common panels with any other VW. “Don’t call it a ‘Golf with a boot’ because it isn’t,” said the main marketing person at the press launch.  Three trim levels are available: Trendline, Comfortline and Highline.  All are well-equipped with standard features such as Climatic air conditioning, multi-function steering wheel, CD and radio combination with 8-speakers, six airbags, ABS, Electronic Stabilisation Program (ESP), 16-inch alloy wheels and hill hold control.Our test unit was fitted with optional rear side airbags at R4240.

While on the subject of options, it also sported platinum grey metallic paintwork (R850), the smarter dual-zone Climatronic air conditioning system that defaults to ‘recirculate’ whenever you reverse or use the windscreen washer, so you don’t inhale nasty fumes (R4330), a powered sunroof at R6630, the more upscale RCD 510 music centre that loads six CDs (R4000) and leather upholstery at R12 080.

The experience: Our overall impression was that this would make a good, solid family car or a travelling salesperson’s transporter of choice. The big, square boot with its load-through facility and rear seatbacks that fold almost flat to extend loading space, would be able to carry lots of groceries, luggage, school bags or trade samples. The turbodiesel motor pulls strongly, maintaining cruising speed up hills in top gear when called on to do so and its overall solid performance makes it ideal for long trips.

Fans of music on the go will find that the box under the central armrest holds ten CDs easily, while an auxiliary input and an SD card slot take care of personal compilations. Our only reservation on this score (ouch!) is that the auxiliary input does not recognise M4a-encoded music files, so it would be advisable to translate all your Apple-centric stuff to MP3 first.

This Jetta is not exciting but it’s solid, willing and economical. Performance is up to scratch for those living in the real world and it carries a healthy load. If these characteristics fulfil your transport needs, put it on your list.

The numbers:
Price: R259 500 basic or R291 630 as tested
Engine: 1598 cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 77 kW at 4400 rpm
Torque: 250 Nm between 1500 and 2500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 190 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 5,6 l/100 km
Warranty: 3 years/120 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km, at 15 000 km intervals



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.

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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