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| There is a lot of history behind this badge. Pity the new one is so darn ugly |
Summary of topics covered on Radio Overberg by host Gideon Joubert and trucking scribe, Alwyn Viljoen.
Tell us about the the new Chevrolet Trailblazer,
In South Africa we don't work on the "win on Saturday, sell on Monday" principle, but on "he who has the best 4x4, sells".
Trailblazer now 12 years old, can you believe, and latest models are now more expensive than the competing Toyota Fortuner and Ford Everest.
Because we don't buy expensive 4x4s to save money, but to show status, this expensive pricing may turn into a good thing for Chev.
Besides, Toyota and Chev will soon have to adjust their prices if predictions for the South African Rand's slide against the dollar comes true. Meanwhile, the Ford Everest currently offers the cheapest top of the range 4x4, and the Chev the most expensive, with the Fortuner the budget buyer's choice for people looking for a seven seater 4x2 model.
Can adults fit into the 7 seats of the Trailblazer
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| Learning how to use the electronic ESP to stop spinning and transfer power takes time. |
The women only want to know about cupholders? Can I at least put a beer somewhere when I park next to the fish waters?
Eleven of them for all the seats - also four 12 V sockets, so you can plug in a little fridge even in the rear bench.
Right, enough advertising for Chev, tell us how we are paying for Redisa to collect tyres
R260 million in levies a year and dealers are asking why are their tyres not being collected. I met with Hermann Erdmann and must admit he is a very committed recycler who's pioneering system can be adapted to any of themore than 30 waste streams in South Africa.
This is because he wants to give money to the waste pickers at bottom of the feeding scale, who currently burn about half of SA's waste tyres for the iron in it.
Instead of getting 80c a kg, he wants to pay thousands of waste pickers thousand plus for a load of tyres, and to this end Redisa needs more transporters - anyone older than 18 with a bank account who lives within 100km of a depot and who is NOT white, can apply.
And the reason why tyre dealers are moaning is because of the legal delays in all the court battles to stop Redisa from operating - Erdmann points out they have been officially working for only nine months in their 5-year programme and dealers must bear with them, they are rolling out as fast as possible.
And what's this about the most dangerous road in South Africa?
A British group analysed stats avaialble to the World Health Organisation and came up with the N2 highway between PE and Mthatha being the most dangerous, and of course this is the road which the pilgrims to Madiba's grave will travel as well.
It is not the road itself -- which is excellent -- but the drivers who are totally lawless. Hence the British analysis of the statistics say the Eastern Cape drivers are the most dangerous in South Africa.
Ways to save fuel
Drive less, high gears, low revs, cycle or -- and finally the irony -- get a V8 for long roads.
Of course, because the smaller engines work so much harder. We play out with Golden Earing's "Radar Love".
