Testing a Jimny for a lady who wants one

It may be small, but like the elephants hiding in Africa's bush, there's big abilities lurking in the Jimny. 

Dear lady who wants to buy the new Jimny.
I HAVE now spent over 15 hours in the cute-as-a-button Jimny, driving as many dirt roads as I could find from Hazyview in Mpumalanga to Maritzburra, and my kidneys aren’t bleeding.
That tells you all you need to know about the soft ride the new Jimny offers.
In fact, it’s almost too soft for some of the muddy slopes I tackled, but what it loses on the bumps, it

Festival of motoring

Chinese car builder Baic, ahem, pooled its resources to sponsor snooker in South Africa.

In comparison to SA's oldest car festival, the annual Cars in the Park in Pietermaritzburg, the third installment of the Festvival of Motoring is tiny, taking up the pit area at the Kyalami Race Way.
But in terms of importance, the new kid on the block this year offered more new model launches per

A bantam bakkie battle

Suzuki's pack donkey to take on those of  Daihatsu, Tata

THE bakkie fans on the staff became all excited when they heard news of homologation tests for a Suzuki bakkie.

When these payload nuts then also noticed that six Jimny bakkie were sold in South Africa last month, they made the usual ass out of you and me, assuming the much-wanted Jimny bakkie has finally crossed from Namibia’s Suzuki dealers to South Africa’s keenly anticipating buyers.

But it was not the fun Jimny play bakkie, but the Super Carry that landed on our shores, imported

Panda just eats speed humps

At first, the Panda Cross left me, well, cross, so I went bush.

AS a big fan of the third generation all-wheel-drive Fiat Panda Climbing (very few of which sold in SA) I keenly awaited the arrival of the latest, fourth generation Fiat Panda Cross.

Back in 2007 I had on a whim taken the Climbing over SA’s highest dirt road at Naude’s Neck Pass, which crests at 2 920 m and along the way averaged 4,8 l/100 km with the little 1,2-litre engine. Ten years later I could only get 8,1 l/100 km in a combination of city and off-road driving from the new two-cylinder 875 cc turbopetrol. 

That was the first of three frowns the little Fiat inspired.

The second was from the new Uconnec infotainment system, which the spec sheet says has

A butch little purple dress

The Kadjar is the cross-dressiest cross-over yet.

WHEN the hardworking South African band Boo! broke into the European scene with their new sound in 1997, lead singer Chris Chameleon quickly made a name by play their edgy “Monki Punk” sound in 17 countries, all while wearing that little purple dress.

Back home in Joburg, young Afrikaners embraced his cross-dressing appearance as proof that not all Boertjies had a two-tone-shirt-in-a-Hilux mindset.

Back then, some of them “could even like to drive” the cute little Suzuki Jimny or Toyota Rav4. 

In the decade that followed, the number of vehicles that made like Chameleon with his purple dress

Baic aims at Mzansi's offroaders

The BJ40 Plus, which will sell in South Africa as only the B40, despite being a 4x4 with really spunk.

KYALAMI — One of the more intriquing vehicles launched yesterday at the start of the Wesbank Festival of Motoring was the “Beijing Jeep”, or BAIC B40 Plus.

BAIC is the acronym for Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company, a Fortune 500 company that builds everything from small electric cars to big lorries in China, with licence agreements from several big brands, including Jeep.

The B40 Plus is a serious 4x4 on a ladder frame. Build for Chinese army use, this Wrangler-based

Slew of offers for operators

Lisa Steinborn admired the button-cuteness
of the Suzuki Jimny with a roof-rack.

ALL the action at this year’s Tourism Indaba in Durban happened outside the Albert Luthuli hall, where a bewildering array of tourist-transport options were on display — all of them with special discounts and rates.

One Western Cape tour operator was looking for suitable wheels to transport adrenaline junkies to a tube adventure and otter hikers to their drop-off point.

Defender 90 has only three competitors in Seffrica

Land Rover has launched the short wheelbase Defender 90 in South Africa. Customers can order any of 16 models driven by a choice of four engine options — two diesels and two petrols — on top of which customers can add four accessory packs. 

Prices are aimed at owners of oil wells, starting at R1 095 600 for the D240S and top out at R1 575 000 for the P400X (all excluding CO2 tax).  

In South Africa, the Landy 90 has only three competing two-door 4x4 sport utility vehicles — all three at much lower prices.  

They are the Jeep Wrangler, with the 3,6 Rubicon listing at some R880 k; the 1,5-litre Suzuki Jimny, the top-end, automating model which sells for some R373 k; and the very capable 2,5-litre Mahindra Thar, which lists for R306 k.

Cheapest autos in 'Safrica'

Stick shifts are going the way of the buggy whip and right now, no-one sells a cheaper auto than Suzuki.   

SUZUKI’S dealer network broke all existing records in June with sales numbers that returned to pre-lockdown levels.

The affordable Suzuki S-Presso led the charge, with 555 new units sold in June — the first full month of sales after Suzuki launched the model digitally shortly before the start of SA’s lockdown.

“With a starting price of only R139 900, including a service plan and 5-year warranty, the S-Presso seems to be the perfect vehicle for cash-strapped South Africans looking for a reliable new car,” said

Baja-ready and OK with a tree hug too

Ford baddest Raptor goes on sale in 2017,
but the order book is already open

GO ahead. Make snide remarks about men having to compensate, but I likes me a beeeg bakkie.

And they don’t come much bigger and badder than the Ford Ranger SVT Raptor.

Ford may well have called it the EST Raptor, as this is the group’s strongest, fastest, biggest and hottest bakkie yet.

Sadly, for us big bakkie lovers in South Africa, a right-hand steering version will not be made, so the Raptor will not go on sale locally. (Although there is a way around this. Sort of. More below.)

Ford plans to launch its new Baja-style performance Raptor only in 2017. For those who don’t know, the Baja is a desert race in Mexico that the Americans deem almost as tough as the Dakar. (For more

Racer against Tourer

The Toyota Rav4 is designed to explore the byways and find things, like these sculptures inspired by Yugan Govender, owner of Global Scrap Metal in Pietermaritzburg.

IN South Africa, the most popular vehicle shape after the double cab bakkie is the sport utility vehicle, or SUVs.

My ageing mother calls them “big station wagons” and like the stations wagons of yore, the SUV’s are made for family life with lots of space. Unlike those lumbering wagons, modern SUVs also add a dash of speed — some more so than others.

Courtesy of Hyundai and Toyota, I had me one of each type last week, in the shape of the Tuscon 2.0D Elite Sport and the 2,0 RAV4 AWD GX-R.

Back in 2016, when the new Tuscon arrived, it was the most sold sport ute in SA, with seven in every 10 SUVs coming from this Korean factory — most of them the Tuscon 2.0-litre Elite with an automatic transmission.

Desmond Govenden, owner of DY Performance and one of KZN’s top drag racers, says the best thing about the Huyndai Tuscon 2,0d Sport is its handling on those big low profile tyres.

Fast forward to 2019 and Hyundai has given the Tuscon a bespoke body kit and model-specific alloy wheels. Under the hood, they also boosted the power quite a bit in the Elite, to the point where this auto manages to chirp the wheels in first second and third gears, with little tugs of torque steer when the engine pile on its 460 Newtons.

This is the kind of power you want to pull big trailers, and the Tuscon is licensed to pull a braked trailer weighing 1 900 tonnes. Not that we recommend doing this, as pulling such a heavy trailer is the job of a heavier vehicle, not a light sport ute.

All wheel drive in the RAV4 means no fear on slime slick surfaces.

This power comes in at a low 1 750 rpm and continues unabated to 2750 rpm, with a torque-converter shifting smoothly between eight ratios to deliver acceleration that tempted me to take it to one of the many illegal drag races held late at night in several parts of Msunduzi. I did not give in to this temptation. Instead, I met up with Desmond Govenden, tuning guru and a former drag racing and drifting champion, to get a second opinion on this Korean.

He was impressed with the way the high-riding SUV handled around the bends on its big, 19-inch wheels clad with wide, low profile tyres (245/45).

Sure, its is not quite as firm as a big Beemer, Range Rover, Jaguar or Merc, but then the Tuscon does not cost well over a million rands, as do the top SUVs of these brands.

Ventilated disk brakes front and rear initially did a good stopping job, but after a few runs, it was clear that these disks are engineered for civilian use, not repeated hard braking into corners.

Which was when we did a drag, and when I discovered it was a good thing I did not pit the Tuscon against the lads’ hot hatches at the illegal drags.

From a standing start, the Tuscon’s big turbo takes a second or so to spool up, despite having variable vanes that limit this turbo lag to the point where one does not notice it when driving sensibly in diesel-saving Eco mode. In Sport mode, this lag would have had me eating humble pie against all the laities in their tuned hatches.

But once the blower forces air into the diesel, you will run out of road long before you run out of acceleration in the Tuscon. Where the road run out is where the RAV4 comes in.

The Tuscon where its most at home, an old race track.

SEPARATING MEN FROM WOMEN

This is where the men are separated from the women, who have been the main buyers of the RAV4 since the first, much more rounded model launched when we had our first democratic elections back in 1994. (You can still find those old RAV4 curves in the Cherry Tiggo, which is surprisingly good on dirt.)

To get a women’s perspective on latest RAV4, I asked Shay Kalik to give her views. While Kalik liked the new edgy exterior, she loved the interior with its orange trim and soft-touch cladding.

“Its a lot more like a Volvo than the Toyotas I know in here,” was her first comment.

The interiors in both SUV’s are sumptuous, but the panoramic sun roof and keyless entry in the Tuscon put the Hyundai ahead on the useful luxuries count.

Toyota and Hyundai is on par when it comes to easily connecting Bluetooth devices, and the first thing you want to do in the RAV4 with continuously variable transmission is to connect your music to drown out the continuously varying drone. CVT-boxes keep an engine humming in the optimum power band for the most effective work rate and the new RAV4 has ten settings — like a 10-speed box — but that drone does require getting used to.

Inside the 2019 Tuscon Sport.

Call me old school, but I much prefer the eight-speed Sport Direct Shift transmission which Toyota fits exclusively to 2.5-litre RAV4.

Toyota said in a statement the new RAV4’s all wheel drive system automatically adjusts different vehicle systems — steering assist, brake and throttle control, shift pattern and drive torque distribution — according to the drive mode selected. ‘Mud & Sand’ and ‘Rock & Dirt’ modes are available.

But it is not a patch on the four-wheel drive abilities of the first to third generation RAV4s, and we had to back down from The Slope with our tail between our legs. Officially we did not force the RAV4 up there because the axle benders on our steep, test hill demand the higher road clearance of the old RAV4 or the new Jimny.

It came as a bit of a let down for me to learn the new RAV4 is now a soft-roader and no longer an off-roader, but this did not bother the 586 people who bought a new RAV4 last month. And as Kalik says, normal people consider dirt roads to be pushing the limits, so for normal people, the RAV4 works fine.

Inside the 2019 Toyota RAV4. 

All RAV4 models carry a three-year or 100 000 km warranty and a 90 000 km service plan with six-services built in. This is rather shorter than Hyundai’s seven-year or 200 000 km warranty, which breaks up into a five-year or 150 000 km warranty on the vehicle and two years or 50 000 km on the powertrain. Hyundai also has a five-year or 90 000 km service plan.

The Tuscon and RAV4 compete for the hearts and budgets of motorists against the Volkswagen Tiquan, which was SA’s second-best selling SUV last month with 574 units sold; and the best seller, Ford’s much smaller EcoSport, which last month sold 658 units.

Buyers can also kick the tyres of the newcomer Haval, which Chinese premium brand is still offering a lot of SUV in three sizes at relatively low prices.

(First published in Witness Wheels.)

Rides I remember best

Look no further than farm equipment for truly alien wheels.

I made this list because my late father, a long-distance driving enthusiast who owned more cars than most people had hot breakfasts, never made his.

I haven't owned nearly as many vehicles as he did, but in my 50+ summers as delivery boy, conscripted cop, publisher, sheep farmer, trucker and finally transport journalist, I did get to steer some extraordinary wheels. 

These wheels range from a 3-speed Challenger bicycle on which I made those runs as delivery boy and pedalled the 13 kms to primary school, (its internal gearbox is still part-magic, part-science to me); to a Russian Hagglunds tank-track.  Among them were some truly alien wheels used on farms, like above forklift. 

But the weird wheels are not the rides I remember best. When the road stretches as far ahead as my memories go back, the rides that stand out from the blur have all enabled a Life Lesson or a Milestone Experience -- from chases to races; new liaisons to break-ups; also break-downs, meltdowns and even the odd arrest. (Which is why I still don't stop in Beaufort West, what with that dead dorpie's thinly disguised hatred for all things trucking.)