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Peak hour in the ’Berg: We take a well-priced — if somewhat
in-bred — Citroën C4 Crossair to the Drakensberg’s Lost Valley, where SA’s last
‘white tribe’ allegedly also made the most with fewer
genes.
IT was a rare long weekend and we barely paused to check that the
spare wheel was inflated and child strapped in before aiming the Citroën C4
Aircross towards the northern Drakensberg.
We were heading for the Ntintwa Mountain, which has at its foot
Geluksburg, arguably SA’s tiniest town.
To get to this hamlet, the navigator can choose between three fair
to poor dirt roads off the N3.
My well-read navigator chose the road from Swinburne, as it had the
added attraction of passing the Drakensberg’s infamous Lost Valley. Locals at
the Hound and Hare in Swinburne told us the Lost Valley had its own “white
tribe” until just after the Boer War in the 1899s. Isolated from the rest of SA,
most of the tribe’s members had mums who were also their sisters, or so they
say.
I told the locals it was a fitting legend for the badge-engineered
Aircross. For as The Witness reported back in November, the
Aircross shares a chassis with the Peugeot 4008 and Mitsubishi Outlander.
Mitsubishi in fact developed the 1 998 cc engine (113 kW, 198 Nm) and choice of
transmissions on sale in both French crossovers.
On dirt, the C4 lived up to its Aircross name thanks to its 16-inch
Yokahama Geolanders. These tyres provide a 215 cm footprint and side walls that
are 70% as high as the wheel is wide, (215/70R16) giving a pliant ride. Or as I
explained to the strapped-in child: “The big wheels make the bumbs softer.”
McPhersons up in front and a multilink in the rear delivered nimble
enough handling for what is, after all, a family car. But to strap in the baby
seat, one first has to tilt the seat back an inch from its standard 90°
position. (No, I don’t know what the designers were thinking either.)
The front seats make up for what the rear bench lacks, adjusting
high enough for a petite frame to see over the long nose, without any of the
usual protrusions under the steering that jut into knees on short legs.
After 300 km, the cons list only showed an audio system that did
not like my (admittedly cheap) MP3-playing memory stick; and a rubber seal that
let in a lot of dust in the boot. The pros list showed attractive styling, lots
of mod cons and 12 km/litre.
Pricewise the Aircross punches above its weight, with more power
and standard luxuries packed into its R294 900 tag.
The main competitor in looks, Mini’s Countryman (90 kW, 160 Nm)
costs about R290k, before adding any of the C4’s goodies.
Mitsubishi’s 2,0 Outlander, makes 110 kW and 197 Nm and it costs
some R14k less, but it comes sans auto headlights and wipers.
At the other end, Nissan’s Qashqai 1,6 +2 costs R267 050, but makes
only 81 kW and 154 Nm.
