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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Mini test: 2011 Volvo XC60 D3 Elite Geartronic

Downsized but fully featured

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday December 28, 2011

The engine: It’s a downsized version of the five-cylinder D5 turbodiesel we all know so well. The bore is the same, at 81,0 mm, but its stroke has been reduced from 93,15 mm to 77 mm to make it oversquare, which is unusual these days. The fuel system also uses a different type of piezoelectric injector that minimises consumption by means of exceptionally rapid and precise injection pulses under high pressure to promote combustion efficiency. Output is 120 kW and 400 Nm, versus 158/440 in the bigger version while driveability has been improved by fine-tuning the turbocharger.

This version of the engine is intended to eventually replace the 2.4-litre D5 in most applications although our own Alfie Cox’s 2012 Dakar ride, the all-Nordic Pewano Volvo XC60 RR, will keep the 2.4. Another small difference is that his car is built on a spaceframe chassis with carbon-fibre outer panels, so you won’t be able to walk into your local dealership and demand a copy just yet.

The body: Because this is a crossover version, it’s front wheel drive only and downhill crawl control is not fitted. I don’t think the school run mummy-bussers will miss it that much, do you? Being a Volvo, every known piece of safety kit, and some you hadn’t thought of, is included or optional so we won’t list them all. What is included on this top-of-the-range Elite model but missing from lesser versions is a powered tailgate, active Bi-xenon headlamps with washers, a blind spot information system and a powered passenger seat to complement the electrified driver’s chair.

The experience: So you say a car has to feel solid, sit firmly on the road, go quickly when you want it to and handle well? Its doors must close with a solid ‘thunk’ and the electronics must be reasonably easy to navigate without a bewildering array of buttons and knobs? It should also be comfortable and practical. How about little touches that make sense, like a rear window wiper that cleans all the way across and a moulded plastic mat for the boot? Shouldn’t a company that takes safety seriously, boasting a list of 62 pioneering features going back to 1944 and with its own in-house traffic accident research centre since 1970, build it? This small diesel XC60 qualifies. The Geartronic six-speed ‘box is also one of the nicer torque converter units, shifting easily and kicking down readily, without nerve-wracking delays or noise.

While smaller than the other cross-country models, XC70 and XC90, it still boasts 650 litres of luggage space that expands to 1450 litres when the 40:20:40 rear seat backs are folded down to make a flat loading area. The powered hatch door fitted to our test unit can be opened by means of the external catch, a button on the key fob or a switch inside. It closes by itself when you push a button on the door.  You don’t even have to buy the Elite model to get it because it’s available with any of three accessory packs offered.

Downsized for fuel economy, but not downsized in Volvo-ness, this one is well worth a second look.

The numbers:
Price: R465 800 (Elite version)
Engine: 1984 cc, 5-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 120 kW at 3500 rpm
Torque: 400 Nm between 1500 and 2850 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,3 seconds
Maximum speed: 195 km/h
Real life fuel economy: about 9,0 l/100 km
Tank: 70 litres
Fuel: 50-ppm diesel
Trailer mass (braked/unbraked): 1600 kg/750 kg
Maximum roof load: 100 kg
Ground clearance: 230 mm
Maximum wading depth: 350 mm
Approach/departure/rampover angles: 22/27/22 degrees
Warranty and Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 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.

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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