Radio Overberg 89,4 FM précis

Mmmh, sniff that new car smell...

This talk covered price tactics when buying a new car, including: 

- what a point-million-something car costs a month;

- why guys like girls in leather,

- what Wesbank says one should budget for when buying on credit;

- which hatches (Polo 1,4 diesel) SUVs (Renault Duster, Ford Eco Sport) and bakkies (Mahindra Scorpio) we recommend for the DJ; 

- how 99,9% of all cars are not investments, despite the $38 million fetched by a Ferrari on a recent auction, and

- we give the good news of the expected lower fuel price next month.

Gideon Joubert: Alwyn jy brag jy het gister weer in 'n punt kar gery -- ek dog die pie-aars wie die een punt iets miljoen rand motors bemark, hou nie van hoe jy die duur karre se bande dalk "soms" laat rook nie?

Awyn Viljoen: Ek wil eers 'n lansie breek vir Bobby McFerin se "Dont worry..." liedjie want so twee weke terug was daar 'n studie wat gewys het mens moet net minder ambisie hê

Thrills and spills at Durban Super GP

Anthony Shelley tumbles in the first corner of the first
lap of the Super 600 race on Sunday.
Photo: Deon Venter 

BRANDON Good (19) rode the fastest time overall in the SuperGP hosted in Durban on the weekend. He was followed on the clock by Lance Isaacs (35) and Dylan White (22).
Despite the lack of grandstands, Sunday gave the punters a lot of thrills, with Clint Seller (26) defending his status as the man to beat in the second race.

Cheap scooters for SA

The Cayenne Trend 125 cc.

CAYENNE is the latest group to attempt to sway South African commuter to scooters, with a cash deal of R9 900, or a typical repayment of R799 month.

Dealer principle for the Cayenne Group Craig Langton, said customers need not pay any deposit and the first 100 buyers get a free raider package valued at R5 000.

Born in the USA, made right in Richards Bay

Not many bakkies sell for over a million rand in South Africa, but this is how the U.S. Trucks in Richards Bay do. The small factory at U.S. Trucks changes steering from left to right and has sold over 200 Dodge RAM trucks to customers in South Africa since they started. The group currently offers the the top-of-the-range 3500 Series mega cab 4X4 Laramie and the mid-level 2500 Series crew cab, both powered by a 261 kW, 6,7-litre Cummins ISB turbo diesel.

Prices for the trucks from U.S. Trucks are:

1500 4X4 Crew Cab R1 045 000

2500 4X4 Crew Cab R1 250 000

3500 4X4 Mega Cab R1 450 000

Towards zero road fatalities

Cars are the main killers of children walking to and from school.
Sweden hopes to help companies change that.
Photo: Wikipedia

IN its quest to have zero car-related fatalities, Sweden last week opened the AstaZero test track, calling it “the world’s first full-scale test environment for future road safety”.

Researcher at the Chalmers University of Technology, Rayne Emardson, said cars are the deadliest menace to pupils going to school and overall fatalities from vehicle crashes are predicted to double to 2,6 million people a year by 2030 — making vehicle crashes the fifth biggest cause of human deaths.

To put this in perspective, vehicle crashes are the 19th biggest cause of human deaths, with malaria at 17th and the number one killer is heart attack.

Emardson said current overall fatalities from road crashes is at 1,3 million a year, with 20 to 50 million

Car nuts by numbers

WE don’t buy private vehicles with our minds, but with our hearts, and it is the job of Patrick Busschau, director of the Automotive Business Unit at Ipsos South Africa, to find out which wheels make our hearts beat faster.

Ipsos — and its predecessors Markinor and Synovate — have been guiding car makers in what the market likes most since the 1970s.

Busschau said such research, which basically quantifies the passion we feel for our cars, is

Reducing test drive fraud and theft

TRANSUNION has renamed its award-winning Dealer Guide app “1Check”.
The group says the name reflects the app’s powerful capabilities and ease of use, which now incorporates powerful new features designed to assist dealers to reduce their risk of test drive fraud and theft.
Kriben Reddy, head of product development at TransUnion Auto, said uses a database of over 19 million consumer records as well as TransUnion Auto’s database — the largest database of vehicle manufacturers, financing and valuation records in South Africa — to offer motor dealers the ability to make instant, informed decisions.

Renovo puts ICE in the shade

Renovo proves even an electric drive train can look the part.

THE most interesting car at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance last week was a super electric car built by Renovo Motors and it puts most internal combustion engines (ICE) in the shade.

Using a factory-modified Shelby American CSX9000 rolling chassis that resembles the Cobra Daytona Coupé in every aspect outside, the electric Renovo Coupe features twin mid-mounted sequential axial-flux motors producing more than 370 kW and 1 356 Nm of torque under the hood. That is an old-fashioned 500 horses and 1 000 pounds per foot.

The van that steers like a Fiesta

WHENEVER people ask me “what is the best bakkie?” I tell them it is not a bakkie, but a panel van — basically any panel van.

And when they then ask “right, what is the best panel van?” I point to the Ford Transit.

Yep, the one on the right ----->

The end of the car is near(er)

A visual guide to how I predicted car making will change in the next 85 years,
which for those reading this in future makes it 2098.

A GERMAN last week announced a weird car that added a fourth blib to my radar screen monitoring future car designs -- and what a relief that was.

For as 2013 drew to a close, I went and predicted which trends and technologies will change how we make cars. Considering the size of the corporations, nay, dynasties
involved, I put my head on a block by daring to state — in print and on air — that today’s babies won’t buy our cookie cutter cars when they are old enough.

Mahindra doing well on all fronts

Brad Binder in his Ambrigio suit. 

“WIN on a Sunday, sell on a Monday” is the old adage in motoring, but with cars, motorbikes and tractors to sell, Mahindra is applying this maxim a bit differently.

The family-owned empire is achieving top results with motorbike races — under a ’seffrican rider nogal; recognised top farmers for the second year running with agricultural awards in India; and has also been supporting owners in the Mahindra Great Escape to hold 62 rallies across the subcontinent since 1996.

SA rider doing well

Mahindra’s 250 cc motorbikes are doing well on the international

Hub motors on futuristic Deliver

The Deliver

BRITISH company Liberty Electric Cars (LEC) recently demonstrated its full electric panelvan concept in Maastricht.

Dubbed the Deliver, the 2,2 ton vehicle can carry a payload of 700 kg. The concept deploys the latest electric vehicle technologies with in-wheel motors that has two-speed transmission. The battery pack has 80 prismatic Li-NMC cells to increase energy efficiency and total range.

The cabin has a wide opening without a B-pillar on the kerb side to facilate loading.

The van was tested at the Aldenhoven Testing Center and can travel 100 km at 100 km/h.

The project, which is co-funded by the European Commission as part of the European Green Vehicles Initiative and gathered ten partners in consortium from seven countries. In a statement, LEC said “the Deliver represents an attractive proposition for light commercial vehicles with urban and intra urban applications such as postal, parcel, supermarket and city council service operations”.

Tuning you straight on turbos and dealers’ markups

Modern oils in red hot turbo's need only a slow drive to cool. 

Q: THE new Alfa Romeo 4C uses an automatic cool-down system to protect its turbocharger — much like the Tata Telcoline bakkie. 

But I’ve learned that driving a car with synthetic oil slowly for the last kilometre before switching off gives the oil enough time to cool down. 

This presumably prevents the “thermal stress” Alfa says will happen to “very hot oil” if the engine suddenly stops pumping it through the turbo. 

Must we keep our turbos idling after a normal drive, or not?

JENS Denks at Denks Motors answers: Alfa always tries to be a step ahead, but instead they

Historic track open for pushing the limits

Riaz Chotoo and Iggy (that's the iguana) got
all excited about the rare Nissan 200GS. 

GOOD news for all car nuts in KZN, the Roy Hesketh race track in Pietermaritzburg has appointed Wesley Le Roux of We Are Driven Events as the track’s ambassador.

While the long-term lease agreements still stipulate no racing may be staged at the venue, Le Roux said

Radio Overberg Précis

The New Holland CR10-90 Elevation. That is not a cabin dude.
It is called a suite. Oh, and it cuts wheat, maize and rice. In mud.

This talk ranged (some would say deranged) from Schenzen's head light punishment to New Holland's strongest combine harvester yet, with the world's fastest hot tub in the middle and my usual diatribe against run flat tyres, as well as the Suzuki SX4s limited abilities over the rough and South Africa's 2014 Bike of the Year. 

Daar stop hy nou, ons trokdrywerskrywersvriend Alwyn Viljoen. 

Alwyn, voor ons oor dinge wat rol gesels, moet ek eers seker maak jou kop gaan nie rol nie, ek sien op Wheels24 jy hou deesdae piekniek met kaalvoet brunette, wat sê jou Rooikop daarvan?

Solank sy weet waar ek is, het Rooikop nie probleme nie. Die brunet is Katherine Malherbe, haarself 'n kranige

There be rebels in the grass

We plant wheat for that sweet glucose rush.

Humans may be rebelling against our addiction to grasses, but there be canny sugar cane on them thar KwaZulu-Natal hills, warns ALWYN VILJOEN.

EU-style tyre fixing

The inside of a run flat tyre, which tyre dealers
won't use themselves, but love to sell.

TYRE and Exhaust Centre in Pietermaritzburg has quietly pioneered KZN’s first mobile tyre workshop to repair or replace from run-flats to tractors wheels.

They have for the last six months been fixing mainly truck tyres around Msunduzi, but can also handle car run flat tyres up to 22 inches on their wheel balancer installed in the mobile van.

Like all tyres experts, Paul Lallchander loves to hate runflats. “Look, as tyre repair specialist I like them because they bring me business, but as a driver I will not have them.

“When you get a puncture and drive a run flat for 80 kilometres, you have to throw it away.

“I would just buy a spare tyre, and when I do get a flat I can change tyres and the repair bill will be

Why we hate hadidas

They are the curved beak, metallic-sheened spawn of a one night stand between Satan and a pterodactyl.
Called hadedas, a name that mimicks their raucous, conversation-stopping shrieks while flying, these birds supposedly has a useful role digging up God's little elephants and then pooping them out again.

Car pool to save fuel

No worries mate, this is how Australians car pool in Perth.
(Photo: abc.net.au)

Q: What is the best way to save fuel?

A: MARTIN Janse van Rensburg from Budget Insurance says just stop driving, and car-pool instead.

“Car pooling is by far the best, yet the most overlooked, way to manage, and afford, rising transport costs. At the same time, you get to reduce the amount of time you spend at the wheel, and lessen wear and tear on your car.

“Sharing lifts with just one person means you can cut your fuel costs by half. Increase the number of people in the car-pool to four and you reduce your travel costs to a quarter of what it costs you to

No sloshing on wet salt

Phillip Weicker and Duncan Forster sloshing around.

IRONICALLY, the attempt to set a world speed record for the fastest mobile hot tub at the Bonnievale Salt Flats in Utah was rained out this weekend.

“It’s with heavy hearts that we announce that Speed Week 2014 is cancelled. Weather wouldn’t co-operate. But what a ride,” tweeted engineers Phillip Weicker and Duncan Forster after three inches of rain had turned the salt flats into a shimmering lake.

One year later in Wheels

Alwyn Viljoen in the BMW he likes most.

Transport editor of the Wheels supplement in Afica's oldest ongoing daily, Alwyn Viljoen looks back at our first year and warns of more fun to come.

THIS is the 52nd edition of Wheels, making us one year old in newspaper speak.

To celebrate arriving at this milestone, Wheels have brokered a hefty R2 000 discount on an advanced driver training course for our readers — and one of you can win a free entry.

Note, all you young petrolheads, this is NOT that Drifting 101 course you have all been begging for. Instead, Wheels will teach drivers in their own cars how to predict and stay out of trouble in day-to-day traffic, pending monthly demand. 

(But stand by for news on that drifting course too.)

In a province bisected by the busiest highway in South Africa, inculcating safer driving habits is the least we can do.

‘Not the usual statistics and s**t’

Radio Overberg précis

Choosing members is the tricky bit when starting lift clubs.
Photo: Ryan Schude/Guinness World Records

This talk covered the structures for lift clubs,

from car pooling to non-profit organisations to the best vehicle to get currently;

sung the praises of the new Elentra, "still the COTY of 2012,  just better," and

we moaned about the taxes South Africans have to pay for toys like the Polaris Slingshot and Alfa Romeo 4c. 

Daar stop hy nou, ons trokdrywerskywersvriend, Alwyn Viljoen. 

Alwyn, ek is nogal trots daarop dat ons na my wete die enigste Wiele program in die wêreld is wat ewe hard gesels oor lekker nuwe motors as wat ons praat oor hoe om petrol te spaar deur juis die motors nie te bestuur nie.

Een van die maniere om nie te bestuur nie, is saamryklubs, maar van ons luisteraar wat nou al hieroor gedink het, wonder dis seker nie net 'n geval van karre deel nie? Weet jy iets van saamryklubs?

Durban bikers gets tourist-candy circuit

Hudson Kennaugh, one of many internatioal
riders from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

THE cancellation of the international leg of super bike racing at Phakisa in the Free State will not affect this month’s Super GP in Durban.

The South African round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, provisionally scheduled to be held at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State on October 19, will now no longer form part of the 2014 series but could be included in the 2015 calendar, possibly as early as March.

But the organisers GAS Sports assured Wheels its all systems go for the national championship motorcycle races in Durban on August 24.

Wheels for a lift club

Have a seat: The interior of the Relay
recommended here.

EVEN with this month’s slightly lower fuel price, it costs at least a rand just to drive a kilometre in an average 1,8-litre car. A lot of neighbours have done the sums and are asking if they can save money by starting a lift club.

The answer is always “yes”, but aspiring lift-club members who aim to transport more than four people in a car need to discuss thoroughly the insurance and driver licensing issues before they decide which vehicle to get. For clubs that need to transport 10 to 15 people, a midi-bus provides the most comfort and greatest cost efficiencies.

Good times sure to come

Fresn from the UK and just in time for South Africa's
summer is Paul Sansom, new boss at Audi.

WHILE South Africans are still buying fewer new vehicles, used car sales continue to rise and a cyclical upturn awaits.

Absa banks points out most of the year-to-date decline in new car sales can be ascribed to the impact of the Mercedes Benz C-Class line being set up for production, the discontinuation of an export model by a major manufacturer and the industrial action.

Bicycles rethought for city use

The Solid bike did not make it, but a pretty lass will
always get top spot on this blog.

AMERICAN cyclists have voted for the Denny, designed and built by the Teague and Sizemore team, as the United States’ most innovative new commuting bicycle.

Teague and Sizemore competed against five design teams in five U.S. cities in the Bike Design Project to make a better bicycle for city use. The Denny bike will now be made commercially by Fuji Bicycles. To vote, people had to watch each of the five bike videos and register over a week-long period. 

The latest buzz on e-buses

This British-built Optare MetroCity single-deck
electric bus is one of six currently on trial in central London.

KWAZULU-NATAL is a late-comer to rapid bus transport (BRT), but work on eThewkini’s R22 billion BRT plan is going ahead and in Msunduzi consultations are under way.

The track record of implementing BRT systems in other cities shows it takes a lot of fuming before the chaotic, but effective, swarming system of minibuses can be replaced by predictable, linear lanes, on which a bus runs every 10 minutes.

While the operators debate, the vehicle suppliers are watching with interest how world cities, in which