Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i topCar

ON STYLING ALONE it clearly eschews the previous SUV’s utilitarian presence in favour of a more overt exterior, but Toyota says it won’t lose any of its strength and genuine all-terrain capability. The need-to-knows of the second-gen seven-seater (beginning life as the Hilux Sport Rider of 1998, before going global in 2005 with the model Saffas know and love) are its totally redesigned body, more premium interior and a range of new engines. The design brief was simple. ‘Design a Fortuner that can compete in terms of style and aesthetics while staying true to its authentic SUV characteristics and genuine 4WD performance,’ says Calvyn Hamman, Senior VP of Sales & Marketing, Toyota SA. To that end the 2016 Fortuner ushers in a new design language Toyota chooses to call ‘Solid…

THE SORENTO HAS never stood out head and shoulders above its rivals in terms of outright visual impact and refinement but the newly launched third-generation model is hoping to set the record straight. It certainly looks good and represents a bold evolution over its forebear with expressive lines and sculptural surfacing. Features such as the grille, airdams, wrap-around headlamps and LED signature tail-lamps, not to mention the ornate wheels (available in 17-, 18- and 19-inches) bestow it with purpose and more resolve. It’s inside the cabin however, where things have ramped up quite significantly. In fact this is one of the best interiors we’ve sampled on any Kia to date, rivalling some of the Euro players such as Volkswagen. Not only is it roomier inside, the level of trim and…

YOU CHECK THE price (R1 010 000), ascertain that despite appearances the Boxster Spyder is not a convertible Cayman GT4 and think no, you don’t need one. After all, who drives a Boxster GTS and finds it lacking? R62k saved by a little iron-willed resolve. Well done. And good luck… Cracks start to appear when you consider the engine. Out goes the GTS’s 3.4-litre six. In comes the Carrera S-sourced 3.8 that made its mid-engine debut in the GT4 Cayman. Power is 7kW down on the über-Cayman but the waters between the GTS Boxster and the Spyder are clear and expansive: 240kW and 370Nm of torque versus the 3.8’s 276kW and 420Nm. Ah. Consider also that this engine is equally responsive, free revving and aurally wondrous. Gear ratios are as…

THE THING about the BMW X6 is that although it arrived to a chorus of incredulity so loud several canaries dropped dead of heart failure, once driven, this initial cacophony was drowned out by the collective thud of jaws hitting the floor. The looks were not the accidental repercussion of an X5 barrel-rolling into a field after all! The chassis proved so accomplished that such an accident immediately became inconceivable. While this means the X6 never had the opportunity to test the theory that you could stick a BMW badge on a barge and it would still sell (subsequently disproved by the 5 Series GT?), its showroom performance has finally received the official car industry mark of approval: a rival. Enter the Mercedes GLE Coupe, which unfortunately turns out not…

Fiat 500 Which is the one to have? The Pop here is the cheapest 500 available and we wanted to include it as the original supertot. The upcoming 2016 500 will feature exterior tweaks such as redesigned headlights and new interiors, as well as modifications to the engines. But the essential 500 character will stay the same, and it’s that essence which remains the car’s coup de grace. Bargain basement means a lack of style, right? Well, yes. The Pop is the base model and inside is where the money has been saved – Pop has no funky dash, no contrasting 1950s plastics, no accent detailing. That said there’s plenty of quality, a Fiat 500 cornerstone, with durable materials for dash, door detailing and wheel. Can you invite the large-boned…

BOILED DOWN TO its essence, the brief was this: take the R8 and make it much better. Better on track, better on road, better inside, better to live with, better looking… better than a McLaren or (whisper it) a Lamborghini? Okay, the last one isn’t official policy, but why not? The V10 engine in this, the second generation R8 V10 Plus, is the same as that in the Huracan, and at 449kW, punches with exactly the same power. Uncomfortably close, but as I climb into the Audi and hit the Engine Start button I’ve only got one thing on my mind: have they nailed the brief? Straight away the answer feels like yes. The car manages to feel precise yet deliciously analogue, urged on by the sublime engine making artillery…

IMAGINE BEING STRAPPED into a sinking dinghy with a 175kW VTEC outboard motor thrusting you to your doom. Water pours into the cockpit like you’ve just taken a U-boat hit and then struck an iceberg for good measure. Gallons of the stuff fills the moulded floor like a bath. And then your shoes. And then your pants. Your brain is telling you to climb the hell out of there, but the four-point harness has other ideas. I’ve driven cars through massive water hazards before but they’ve mostly been shiny Jeeps and Range Rovers, and the water stays firmly on the outside, even when it’s up to bonnet level. But the familiar tube chassis and the shockingly open sides are telling me I’m in an Ariel Atom. This can’t end well.…

What is Tesla Energy? It’s billed as a way of weaning the world off fossil fuels (pretty unambitious, huh?). Basically it’s a rechargeable home battery pack that you stick on the wall of your house (hence it’s called Powerwall), which allows you to store energy and use it as you need it. Hang on, isn’t Tesla a car (and occasional rocket) maker? So you may have thought, but no – it describes itself as ‘an energy innovation company’ with a mission to enable zero-emission power generation. Zero emission? Where does the power to charge your home battery come from? Ideally from self-generated solar power, but it can be connected to the grid, meaning you can charge it in low-rate periods and use it at high-rate hours. Works as a back-up…

GOODBYE MONTH 12 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 2.8D 4X4 AT COUNT THE COST Cost then R521600 Cost now R575500 Resale value R412100 (retail) Cost per km R1.27 Cost per km including depreciation R7.22 BEHEMOTH ARRIVED twelve months ago without much fanfare. Naturally it was allocated TopCar’s tightest parking spot, just to test its parking sensors, reverse camera and the mettle of its new custodian – me. As the shortest on the editorial staff, climbing is the appropriate term for entering the Trailblazer and it is something I have done with increasing content over the last 365 days. With no preconceptions I was as delighted as the rest of the team by the easy and intuitive operation of GM’s MyLink touchscreen system that pairs phones in seconds, the brilliantly effective aircon with separate…

MONTH 2 CITROËN C4 CACTUS This is what an award winning engine looks like I don’t want to bleat on about PSA Peugeot-Citroen’s class win in the 2015 International Engine of the Year Awards (in the hotly contested 1.0- to 1.4-litre class), but day-in, day-out the 81kW/205Nm 1.2-litre e-THP continues to impress. Rev counter deletion I’ve gone through every menu on the touchscreen, even resorting to the handbook but the rev counter is still to be unearthed; likewise an engine temperature gauge. Instead you get a subtle suggestion to change up a gear when it thinks you’re exceeding your rev quota… Styling by Pikachu The styling of the Nissan GT-R was inspired by Gundam robots, the Lexus LFA was inspired by Katana swords, so why on earth is our Frenchie…

KEY INDICATORS – JUNE 2015INDUSTRY TOTAL 50 251 | PASSENGER CARS 33 035 | LCV 14 756 | EXPORTS 31 422 BLAME WHO YOU will, and there are plenty of culprits out there, but what we are all seeing reflected in the vehicles sales reported to Naamsa in June is a scaling back. Consumers have had a long, hard look at SA’s economic growth prospects, balked at the plummeting value of the rand and taken caution from the threat of rising interest rates as inflation ratchets upwards. Most will have grunted in dismay at the price of a full tank of fuel, and cursed more than once as power switches were thrown in their residential or business area just as a day’s work broke out or dinner was on the…

Longer, wider, roomier ‘The car is slightly longer [rear legroom is up 23mm] but it looks even longer, more elegant,’ continues designer Lamberty. ‘We have an important character line running down the side of the car. The glasshouse is low, quite chopped [though front passenger headroom is up 24mm], but this car is honest as a sedan – we didn’t try to do a coupe with this car. The increased track widths also give us strong shoulders and nice strong arches, to emphasise quattro.’ Lighter, with an improved ride and better steering ‘Weight reduction was one of our main goals,’ explains Dr Horst Glaser, head of chassis development [Audi claims the A4’s 120kg lighter than the old, depending on model]. ‘We have used more aluminium parts in combination with high-strength…

DUDLEY BENJAFIELD AND Bertie Kensington-Moir. racing drivers with names like these deserve a closer look. Then there was Woolf Barnato – diamond millionaire, triple Le Mans winner, heavyweight boxer, powerboat racer, scratch golfer, racehorse breeder and wicketkeeper for Surrey in his spare time. Was there ever a more compelling band of sporting brothers than the Bentley Boys? They drove hard (winning Le Mans five times), drank hard (Veuve Clicquot was apparently a favourite), partied energetically (the Savoy was used for one memorable post-race binge in ’27) and – more than any individual vehicle or model, single race or marketing stunt – made Bentley the exceedingly British brand that it is today. My favourite was Glen Kidston. Okay, the name was disappointingly non-Woosterish. His factual exploits, though, make Jean-Claude Van Damme’s…

FIAT FANCIES ITSELF as a trendsetter, and – in the passenger car market at least – rightly so; the jelly tot 500 and anti-Banting 500L accent innovation, originality and a healthy dose of la dolce bloody vita. Inevitably then their buyers are design aficionados rather than Everyman, mode enthusiasts more interested in hemline trends and Florentine espadrilles than baby seat anchor points or Lane Assist innovations. The problem however is that there are only so many Undaunted Strivers – the rest of us are altogether more Savvy Maximisers, and Fiat seemed to have cottoned on to this marketing inevitability. Here then is a Fiat for everyone, the Jones’ next door, the U Mobile starters, the weekenders, the empty nesters. This Italian chooses the middle ground, ostensibly to win friends that…

FLOOR THE THROTTLE and 700Nm of torque lights up all four wheels to a distinctive V8 bellow sufficiently characterful to disguise its force-fed nature. In a few hundred metres we’re hitting 160kph and the braking point for Killarney’s 180-degree left Turn 1. Lift-off is met with crackling fireworks from the exhaust while a hefty stab on the comically huge – 420mm up front – carbon ceramics reins the 2.2-tonne battleship in as though a physical anchor was digging up the tarmac behind. The impressive retardation results in a perceptive downchange from ZF’s brilliant eight-speed auto. When it’s this good in Sport mode, there’s really no need to tug on the fixed paddleshifters. Turn-in brings with it yet more delight. Having driven quite a few Continental GTs , I’m expecting to…

WE MAY BE IN a Mustang in San Francisco, but this is no Bullitt re-enactment. There will be no chassis bending jumps careening down iconically steep streets, and no high-revving, tyre-shredding turns across oncoming traffic – a deep-seated will-to-live, plus omnipresent ‘black and white’ Explorers take care of that. But there certainly will be some McQueen-like posing as we crawl through low-rise residential and retail suburbs en route to the Golden Gate bridge. The ’Stang chosen for this quick jaunt California’s boulevard cruising champion, the 5.0 V8 GT Convertible. Probably best experienced with the top down in sunnier LA but this is Frisco and there’s a biting chill in the air. For the most part, the ride’s pretty decent until we hit the chopped-up oft-repaired link between the city’s outskirts…

AS FAR BACK as 1982 Suzuki was heavily involved in India. Maruti, conceptualised by the Indian government in 1970 and tasked with finally ending the era of the death-trap Hindustan Oxford, could not produce a good enough car to satisfy the demanding conditions of the subcontinent. So they called for international partners and Suzuki came calling. Years of productive though sometimes uncomfortable partnership followed, until in 2007 a new government sold its shares in Maruti to local investors and Suzuki became the managing shareholder. So Suzuki is no Johnny-come-lately to India, battling new challenges in production and standards as it gets used to a strange land with unusual practices. It’s been there for decades. I relate all this because Suzuki’s latest offering in South Africa is a surprisingly well put…

IF EVERYTHING REALLY is all in the details, I rather like that Volvo elected to name the new XC90’s daytime running light signature ‘Thor’s Hammer’. It is but one instance of the sheer attention to minutiae that has clearly been lavished on this very modern interpretation of the SUV. The stakes are particularly high because new XC90 is not only the follow-up to an SUV so well received it was still selling strongly when death finally reconfigured the production line 12 years after its original launch, but also quite literally the embodiment of new Volvo, the first fruit of the firm’s own Chinese-backed labours since being freed from the chattels of Ford. That handsome face, punctuated by an illuminated double-homage to a divine smack-down tool and a more prominent version…

THE ASTON MARTIN Vantage GT12 also made an appearance at Goodwood, even though all 100 have already been sold. It’s tempting to think of the GT12 as a last hurrah for the decade-old Vantage, the car that kept Aston alive through the financial crisis. It’s certainly hard to see how Aston can improve on the 441kW of its 6.0-litre V12 without cramming the Vulcan’s 7.0-litre under the vented bonnet. And after an automotive 5:2 diet of lightweight materials the GT12’s handling ought to get close to the Vantage race cars it’s based on. The name was due to match the racer’s too – GT3 – but Porsche’s lawyers cleared their throats at the car’s Geneva launch. The new GT12 name just draws attention to the 911 GT3’s serious cylinder deficiency.…

How much for a used R8, then? Anywhere from R1.75m for a 2013 V10 Plus to around R770k for a 2008 V8 manual, which means you could be driving a supercar for substantially less than the price of a BMW M4. And this ain’t no highly strung prima donna with financially crippling suicidal tendencies – it’s an Audi. Which one to buy? Forget the big-money V10s and limited editions – we reckon prices still have a way to drop before they become collectors’ items. Go for an early 309kW V8 manual, and enjoy the rear-biased 4wd in combo with that magic open-gate shift action. What goes wrong? Not a huge amount. Sensor and earthing issues can be painful to diagnose, the R Tronic auto ’box eats clutches faster than the…

EAT, CHARGE & SAVE THE PLANET BIOLITE CAMP STOVE By simply collecting twigs you can make Bear Grylls wish he were you. Cook meals, and thanks to what can only be described as dark magic (thermoelectric technology), charge your portable electronic devices. Heat converted to electricity powers a fan to make the fire ultra-efficient and the extra juice goes to your electronics. Oooh. R3350 www.yuppiegadgets.com OCD SUFFERERS REJOICE AUGUST SMARTLOCK We’ve all done it, hit the highway when suddenly: ‘Did I lock the door?’ With the August Smartlock no U-turns are needed. Simply use an app to see the status of your door lock. If it’s unlocked you can lock it, and visa versa. Score! $250 (+/-R3000) www.august.com STEER YOUR DREAMS CONSOLATIO CAR BED Sitting up in bed sucks unless…

MONTH 3 BMW 335i GT I JUST hate it when this happens. It comes without warning. Mild panic sets in and eventually there’s nothing else you can do but curse quietly…to yourself. I’m talking about that annoying puncture. Sometimes it may come in the form of a dangerous blow-out but if you’re lucky – like me – it might just be a nail or something minor. As a TopCar staffer I’m very fortunate to drive a long-term BMW that’s loaded with kit, including a tyre pressure monitoring system which began playing up a week ago. Most of the time I don’t get too alarmed when this happens as it’s usually just the cold winter temperatures wreaking havoc with the sensors, but I always check the pressures just to be safe.…

SO THIS IS the Giulia, the first of the new Alfa Romeo saloons. With rear-wheel drive no less, and in this flagship Cloverleaf form, a 375kW twin-turbo V6 that dusts BMW’s M3 to the tune of 58kW. It’s fair to say we were not expecting such a high performance thrust, when the Italians invited us to Arese to witness Alfa’s rebirth. It was the most Italian of world premieres: soaring rhetoric (‘It’s more than a car, it’s an Alfa Romeo!’ ‘Other premium brands are cold, technocratic, even boring: it’s time to go back to feeling the car and the road again!’), delirious passion, even blind opera singer Andrea Bocelli thundering Nessun Dorma as the car was revealed. There’s a lot at stake. A range of eight all-new Alfas is charged…

NO PERSON DID more to mobilise the masses in the early days of the automobile than Henry Ford. Now the company he founded is broadening its focus from cars to smart mobility – with the ultimate aim of delivering next-level connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data. Before your eyes gloss over and your mind begins to wander back to thrashing the new Focus RS around an empty race track, consider this… our cities already face serious traffic congestion, China is adding one megacity (population 10 million plus) every year and that humans are projected to number as many as 10 billion by 2050. Thinking about solutions for smart mobility now seems pretty essential. How we use our cars is about to change forever. No need for panic…

THE MEGA-Merc, the SLS AMG, was the baddest Benz ever to snort up the white lines of the road and next to it the AMG GT looks compact, almost like a retro racer. My take is Affalterbach clearly styled it this way in response to the 50-year-old 911 – to give it heritage, make it look more established than it actually is. Fair play, but don’t misjudge its calculated façade - this is a hi-tech and supremely well-packaged car. Thanks to dry sump lubrication, AMG has sunk a 4.0-litre V8 into that platypus-low bonnet. Downsized it may be but twin-turbos inside the hot V means a blitz to 100kph in 3.8sec; on to 200kph just 8sec after that. And it’ll do those numbers time after time, thanks to an improved…

BLINK AND YOU’LL miss it. No, I’m not referencing the new flat-grey Stealth body paint on the 2016 Focus ST, rather the barely perceptible tweaks to the exterior. Gaze upon its chiseled visage and note how the sharper creases bring it in line with the current Fiesta ST. There’s even a hint of Mustang in there, I’d argue, with squinty-eyed headlamp clusters a la Clint Eastwood staring into the sun. At the rear it’s more of the same, with an apron that now floats underneath a blackened diffuser. Neat. But there’s no new performance here to match the sharpened visuals, a pity then since the Ford Focus ST has always been the people’s champion of the hot-hatch segment. On duty is the same 2.0-litre EcoBoost turbo that debuted in 2013…

WAPPING ESCORT FOR Focus back in 1998 represented more than just a change of nameplate for Ford. Here was a car with class-leading dynamics and brave New Edge design both inside and out that was finally able to tackle VW’s Golf head-on. The latest generation, launched in 2010, really turned on the charm to become a global best seller. Five years on, the frenetic pace of change in the car world demands more than just a tweaked bumper to retain freshness. So Ford’s thrown the kitchen sink at this facelift with an all-new engine lineup, sharper exterior style, a heavily revised interior and an impressive suite of optional driver-assistance features. We test it in 1.0-litre turbo Trend guise. In the frame Like the facelifted Fiesta before it, this latest Focus…

IF THE HANDBOOK for the new Aston Martin Vulcan contains running-in instructions, I don’t think Darren Turner has read them. This 600kW-plus horsepower, £1.8m (R35m) hypercar is just two days old. It was finished at 3am on Wednesday and briefly shaken down at Turweston aerodrome later that day (‘I’ve only really driven it in a straight line before,’ says Turner) before being trucked to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to make its rolling public debut. This is the first prototype, but it has already been sold to a Swiss collector who also has the prototype One-77 and is sitting trackside, watching what we’re about to do to his car. ‘What would you rather have, a bankrupt Aston Martin or a crossover in the range?’ The marshals wave us off and…

1 A motorist slows down at a T-junction but fails to see a motorcyclist approaching at 65kph from the left on the main road. Thinking the road is clear, the motorist accelerates and turns right, putting SUV and bike on a collision course 2 High-power sensors mounted at the front of the SUV quickly scan the road, giving a field of vision of +/- 45 degrees. The motorcyclist is detected 3 The driver continues not to react, so the sensors relay messages to the car’s control system. A broad field of view and advanced algorithms mean that the system does not need to instigate full emergency braking, instead slowing the SUV enough for the motorcyclist to safely pass 4 Collision avoided, the motorcyclist and SUV driver continue safely on their…

HELLO THERE MONTH 1 MAZDA 6 WHEN MAZDA announced its Ford-free ‘return’ to South Africa a year ago, it pulled out all the stops – a group of journos went off to Hiroshima to drink the Kool-Aid and (hopefully) return as converts. Whole pages were devoted to explaining Mazda’s Kodo ethos, lots of blue sky thinking about archer’s arrows, accelerating cheetahs, subtlety filled with tension. You get the picture, lots of talk. All of which is just so much hot air wrapped in a pink ribbon if you make a dog. And dare I say, usually the more yada yada, the doggier the car. Usually. Fast forward to a couple of months ago. I had, frankly, not interacted with a Mazda since driving a B1600 off a bridge in Zimbabwe.…

MONTH 11 TOYOTA LAND CRUISER PRADO 3.0DT VX ‘CURIOUSER AND curiouser’. Now, I don’t own a lot of khaki, nor a jerrycan and I don’t cure my own biltong. If you do, I don’t mean to alienate you, I’m really just admitting something about myself – let’s call it a character flaw. So here goes – I’m not truly at home on a 4x4 course. I’m not useless. I know that I shouldn’t curl my thumbs around the steering wheel for fear of severing them in the twirly melee caused when the front wheels snag an obstinate bit of terra firma. I also know that speed (and by association sheer power) is not the solution to every obstacle, and I generally have an okay idea of which way the wheels…

‘If this car was a footballer, I would say it is skilful’ – that’s how Edward Motale described the Chevrolet Cruze, having spent a day driving the car around Soweto, one of the largest townships in South Africa. ‘Magents’, as Motale was affectionately known in football circles during his heyday in the 90s, spent the better part of his teenage life in Soweto attending school at Orlando West High before going on to play for one of the country’s most-loved sides, Orlando Pirates. As we drive off, Motale compares the initial Chev driving experience with playing in his first Soweto Derby – arguably the biggest match on South Africa’s football calendar. ‘I’ve never driven a Chev and it feels like the first time I played in the Soweto Derby for…