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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A Swiss knife or sprayers

Matt Tatham, area sales manager for Greenfields Agricultural Holdings,
and Leon Martins of Silvix Enviroquip with the multi-spraying system that
has been developed in PMB to ease the life of foresters, cane farmers,
greens keepers and even chicken farmers.
THE weekend’s agricultural show at Eston saw the launch of a unique go-anywhere, spray-anything system designed to ease the life of foresters, cane farmers, green keepers and even chicken farmers.
Its Pietermaritzburg-based designers, Leon Martens and Julian Pybus, both shareholders in Silvix Enviroquip, said the hard-working little ute was like a mobile Swiss army knife designed to meet companies’ growing need to mechanise.

Urban prowler for Audi mom

The Q5 is an urban prowler delux, but too pricey against
more than 30 competitors, including the Q7 - if you are a man
ALWYN VILJOEN explains why Audi Mom does not care a fig about the Q5’s price handicap.
THE Witness has already criticised the turbo lag of the 3,0 TDI and sung the praises of the smooth duel sequential gearbox and unending power in the Audi Q5, so we won’t repeat it here.
One issue had, however, remained ignored like a silent fart in a crowded lift. This is the issue of price, which is the Q5’s biggest handicap.
In the big print, the Q5 is averagely dear. In the small print, things change a lot. How it works is best illustrated by an old joke in the car industry.

Africa's most romantic picnic spot

Lie on your back to really feel the daisies
 RIGHT now, the daisies are in full bloom in the otherwise arid Namakwaland, and anyone who can afford to go, must drop everything and do so.
Apart from offering the most romantic picnic in Africa, the regional food is fantastic.
This week’s reports from travellers say that the Skilpad area especially in the Namakwa National Park is still a carpet of daisies, with good rains having prolonged the natural extravaganza.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Scooters make you thin, so why won't we ride?


Photo: Jonathan Burton
Roads in other developing countries are a mass of scooters, because they save fuel, are easy to park and some even come with a roof, as shown here by Salesh Ramsurab riding his tuk tuk in Pietermaritzburg. 
Yet South Africans refuse to ride. We ask why.

Guess the hatch

Quess the hatch before 29 August for a chance to win.
One lucky reader who can guess which car this is, stands a chance to win a goody bag with a ‘technotrap’, which holds all-size smart phones and other digital accouterments in one place, a peak cap, a pen and notepad. 
Read the article for clues and e-mail your answers to alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za The editors will make the draw and their decision will be final. T’s and C’s apply.

Monday, August 19, 2013

V8 frugality

ALWYN VILJOEN did not like Americans much, until he drove the 2014 Grand Cherokee VTR8.
FULL disclosure first: I have always hated Detroit muscle cars for their shoddy handling and I don’t like what America has done to airport security since 9/11.
My perception of the Land of the Free is that its citizens are anything but — and talking of butts, have you seen the size of some of them!?
So it was with the hazy idea that anything American has to be big, slow and wasteful that I took my first drive in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee VTR8 up the to the Drakensberg.
I came back a changed man, now knowing that while a lot of Yanks sure are big, including the Grand Cherokee, that does not translate into slow or wasteful. At one point on the highway, the average consumption in the big Jeep was 8,6l/100 km. That is 11 km on each litre, twice as far as I get in my ageing Land Cruiser on the same road.
Sure, the clever Yank cruises on only four of its cylinders on the highway. And by tapping the standard paddleshifters to keep the standard eight-speed auto in its top gear, anyone can get fantastic mileage.
But check this: after various stops on the back road to Winterton, the average was still a very good 9,1 l/100 km.
This from their not exactly new 5,7-litre V8 that makes 259 kW at 5 200 rpm and 520 Nm at 4 200 rpm.
Like most guys who had experience of the automotive dreadfulness that was Made-in-the-USA in the 1980s, I was also totally unprepared for what awaits inside the Cherokee.
I expected wall-to-wall, ill-fitting plastic nastiness. Instead the cabin has real, open-pore wood trim; a couple of cows worth of real leather; and an 8,4-inch touchscreen with satnav.
Everything fits together too. Gone are the days when the Jeep Wrangler’s handbook advised the owner to gently hammer the removable roof back on.
This SUV is as luxurious as the Vogue or Merc M-Class, with the difference that in the Cherokee, the luxuries come standard with the price.
And to get the level of luxury that is standard in SRT8, like seats with built-in ventilation to prevent your backside from sweating, you will have to start paying closer to a million rands in these competing 4x4s.
Jeep offers the 2014 Grand Cherokee in the same four models as the 2013: three petrol and one diesel.
The 3,0-litre V6 diesel, which Chrysler and Fiat’s media manager Richard Slowman told us makes up roughly half of all Cherokee sales, is expected later this year. Among the bunch, my lotto winnings will go to the 3,6-litre Pentastar V6, (210 kW @6 350 rpm and 347 Nm of torque at 4 300 rpm).
Like the other engines, it is matched to a proven electronic mapping system that adapts to driving conditions to keep the rev needle in the green band for better fuel consumption. In the SRT, a 19-speaker, 825-watt
The new 8,4-inch touchscreen is the biggest in the business
and is as user friendly as a digital device can be.
Harman Kardon surround sound audio system makes even that hop-hip stuff the youngsters listen to sound mawé. The off-road ability of the previous and current new, new Cherokees is long proven.
There is only one thing. At its maximum ride height of 280 mm, the Quadra-Lift air suspension system will make knocking sounds.
Fear not, for as the man at Garden City Motors explained to me, if it does not knock, that’s when you worry. (Information gathered on a launch sponsored by the manufacturer.)
Prices
3.6 Limited: R584 000
3.6 Overland: R646 990
5.7 Overland: R679 990
SRT8: R879 990
3.0-litre CRD: tbc



Defender Love

Living with a Landy Defender has as much to do with Stockholm Syndrome as it does with sunstroke. ALWYN VILJOEN explains why.

EVEN the most hardened Landy loyalist will agree that there is no logic behind the continued sales of new or used Land Rover Defenders.
Not when the rugged outdoor enthusiasts who buy the brand can also choose between the Freelander, the Range Rover, the Discovery or the sleek Evoque — all equally capable in the rough, and every one of them light years more comfortable than the iconic Defender.
None of them can, however, do to their drivers what the Defender does best, which is to snag, poke, coop up in a cramped position and, finally, bestow token mercies — like not breaking down.
These are all elements that go into the creation of capture-bonding, better known as Stockholm Syndrome. This happens when the captive falls in love with the captor after a few days of being held in cramped confines.
Wikipedia explains that the captives typically “express empathy and sympathy, and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them.
“These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.”
This description fits every Defender owner I’ve yet met.
The free online Medical dictionary states that “the Stockholm Syndrome can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding”, which does not necessarily require a hostage scenario, but which describes “strong emotional ties that develop between two people where one person intermittently harasses, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other”.
Which just about sums up the driving experience in any Defender, from the moment the protruding door jam snags a belt loop while the driver gets in, to the cramp that slowly develops from having to match the pedal position on one side with that of the steering wheel on the other, to when the drive shaft snaps.
Craig Dutton, organiser of the first Landy Festival in KZN and host of the website: http://mylandroverhasasoul.com/ best summarised all of above.
"My Landy is not here right now, its being repaired," he said as the first campers gathered for a wet, cold weekend. 
Asked why they were not in front of the telly at home on the coldest night of the winter, one particularly rugged individual wordlessly pointed over his shoulder to the nearest Landy’s door. On it the legend read: “One life. Live it.”
Which is why I will be at next year’s Land Rally.
For life is too short not to fall in love.
Even if it has to be a traumatic bonding with a Landy Defender.

Drive hard, rub gently

The French used to make cars that look like freedom feels,
like this 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atlantic. The world will have to wait for 3D printing
of car panels to become commonplace before cars will look like
this again. Meanwhile, the Citroën’s DS3 is daringly different.
IN the 1984 film Karate Kid, Pat Morita showed the young Ralph Macchio how to “wax on, wax off”. The handbook of the 2013 Citroën DS3 ragtop teaches differently: “only sponge gently and never rub hard”. Otherwise you would damage the moondust grey fabric roof, optional at R5 000.
The Citroën difference continues at the back, where the boot lid pops out and then up, to end quivering like a guillotine blade above the tiny boot opening.
The boot lids pop up and out to quiver like ze quillotine
blade above ze purse mouth of ze boot, qui?
Behind that letter-box opening awaits a size­able, 245-litre boot, but to get a suitcase in there you must first go back to the front — qui? — to lower the back seat so that you can wrestle the suitcase past the B-pillar.
Better then to stay single and travel in the DS3 with just a credit card and the roof down, non?
And travel it can, at least as well as the Beetle 1,4 TSI Sport. But in the DS3 the turbo just keeps on piling more power when other cars want to shift up.
As Witness Wheels correspondent Gordon Hall reported from the launch: “the 115 kW, 240 Nm motor designed in collaboration with BMW is quick, responsive and pulls well throughout its rev range”. The firm ride stops just short of being kidney-pulping. As with all ragtops, expect a rattle or two when throwing this hot mini into a corner, material not being a good chassis stiffener. The wheels will remain planted at speed. And when the wind noise gets too much, close the roof en route, even at at 120 km/h.
Our test model came with assorted extras that added more than R56 000 to its base price of R297 900. With the optional Freedrive warranty and maintenance plan of R16 400, the DS3 cabriolet ends up playing in the same price range as the Mercedes-Benz A-class TD or Volvo C30 T5 R-Design, both of which offer as much desirability in their designs, but have more power.
For those who wants to go fast with a soupçon of style, there are half-a-dozen contenders that sell for a few thousand less than the DS3.

FAST AND STYLISH CONTENDERS

• Opel Astra 1,6 Essentia Plus R251 700
 Ford Fiesta 1.6 ST R254 500
• Peugeot 208 GTI R259 900
• VW Beetle 1.4 TSI sport R308 600
• Nissan Juke AWD Tekna R322 520
• Honda CR-Z R332 800
• Toyota 86 R334 500
• Mini Cooper S R347 375
• Citroën DS3 R354 100
• Merc A250 Sport 2.1TD R355 000
• Volvo C30 T5 R-Design R476 000


THE NUMBERS
THP 155 – 1598 cc, turbocharged four-cylinder developing 115 kW at 6 000 rpm and 240 Nm at 1400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,3 seconds and 214 km/h maximum
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 
4 years/60 000 km

Amarok to the rescue

In eThekwini, Netcare 911’s rescue manager,
Konrad Jones, said he does up to 500 km a day in an Amarok double cab
KZN Health has thrown the Amarok into the deep end, deploying the relatively new Volkswagen bakkie alongside the legendary Land Cruiser as mobile clinics in rural areas.
While the field workers in Eskom’s distribution centre have long proven the durability of the Land Cruisers under a constant maximum load, the jury is still out on how the Amarok will fare in KZN’s deep and steep valleys.
Muzi Mbatha, of Health’s Emergency Medical Services in the Amajuba District, told Witness Wheels that he has had his Amarok emergency response vehicle for only a few weeks. Having driven an Isuzu double cab before, he is looking forward to putting the big Volkswagen through its paces in the valleys around Newcastle during the coming rainy season.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Bus operators want higher subsidies


The South African bus operators association (Saboa) has warned the parliament portfolio committee on transport that unless the R4.5 billion in subsidies paid annually to operators like Golden Arrow and Putco are increased, even these large bus operators would  go bust.
At the heart of the problem lay increased diesel prices and higher operatoring costs.
Saboa said the subsidies, which was created to make up half of the ticket costs passengers pay, had to increase on average with 7,45% per year since 2009 to keep pace with cost increases, but has only inceassed on average by 1,78% per year between 2009 and 2013.
Saboa represents more than 75% of the bus services in South Africa and transport more than 1,5 million commuters each day.
Another problem is that route contracts are renewed monthly, a temporary system that has been in place for the past 17 years.
Tiyani Rikhotso, spokersperson for the departement of transport, said they were aware of the situation and that bus operators want three year contracts.
He said effecting changes to the current temporary system differed for each of the nine provinces  and could not tell the committee when the process would be finalised.

New System shouldn't delay trucks to Moz, much

South Africa's Customs hopes the official roll out their new Interfront Customs Border Solution will speed up the flow of good especially into Mozambique. 1pm Friday 16 August 2013.
But the roll out means the current Declaration System will be down from Friday 16 August 2013 from about 13:00. 
If cargo is cleared by Friday, trucks will still be able to move through the borders over the weekend. 
In terms of system downtime, contingency plans have been set up to ensure that emergency declarations will be processed and cargo enabled to move through the borders on faster.
Click HERE to download the official letter from SARS Customs relating to the Implementation of the new 
Declaration Processing System.

In instances of emergency cargo release from Customs during the weekend, you can contact a special Customs Operations Room on the following numbers which will be operational 24 hours per day over the weekend: 
+2712 422 7178, 
+2712 422 6971 or 
+2712 422 8852
For technical matters that may arise, your trade intermediaries and their service providers have established channels with SARS through which these matters will be escalated. As a back-up, the following number is available for technical, policy and modernisation issues: 
+27860 22 2736.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Scrum movers

The members of the first-team scrum at Voortrekker High School
who helped to rate the people movers currently on sale.
Front: Zako, Francois, Wynand, Bouwer, Aubrey.
 Locks: ‘Omo’ Mondré and Jason. Eighthman Bandisaaption

Rugby parents who have to transport half a squad used to have only the VW Kombi and the Mercedes-Benz Vito to choose from. 
Then Nissan, Renault and Opel introduced a badge-engineered van — now only on sale as the Opel Vivaro — and Hyundai shook the market with its H1. 
The arrival of the Ford Transit Torneo then spoilt the rugby dad for choice, while Nissan’s seven-seater MV200 cut through the bigger vans like a sevens player to add to the confusion.
All these vans have the latest in music-playing connectivity, air bags, disk brakes with ABS, at least seven seats and bigger-than-normal boots. 
While the warranties differ, the parts not excluded in the fine print are about the same and all have 15 000 km service intervals. 
To help pick a player from the bunch, we asked the first-team’s pack from Voortrekker High for their views on the scrum movers currently on sale in PMB.

Ranger girls

From left: Chloé Boshoff, a photographer from Pietermaritzburg,
and Donatella D’Aloisio, a restaurateur from Durban and
Dania Petrik, a student from Cape Town. 
Two women from KwaZulu-Natal were among the 10 contestants who competed in the 22-day safari.
Chloé Boshoff, a photographer from Pietermaritzburg, and Donatella D’Aloisio, a restaurateur from Durban, had to impress the judges on the Odyssey for a chance to win a fully accessorised Odyssey Ranger 3,2 XLT 4x4. Alex Cruickshanks (28), from Randpark Ridge, beat out nine other hopefuls to the ultimate prize: a fully accessorised Odyssey-edition Ranger Double Cab 3.2 XLT M/T 4x4

PMB-built Rangers for Dakar

PIETERMARTIZBURG will have two Ford Rangers, each selling for more than R4,9 million, in next year’s 35th Dakar cross-country race in South America.
South African Chris Visser and South America’s Lucio Alvarez will be driving the five-litre, V8 Rangers over the 2014 route between Rosario in Argentina and Valparaiso in Chile via Bolivia.
Team manager Neil Woolridge told Witness Wheels that 18 permanent staff members had for two years been working on designing and building the Ford Rangers from a blank piece of paper. The full Dakar team will have 28 personnel.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

What vehicles are South Africans buying?

The Polo remains South Africa's most popular car, not counting the i20.
Vehicle sales in July 2013 closed at 58 140 units, making it the best sales month in South Africa in six years.
Bear in mind that Amalgamated Motor Holdings, which sells the popular Renault, Hyundai and Kia models among others, only provide aggregate numbers to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, which association released the monthly sales numbers below.

How the fuel levy gets wasted

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is investigating the near doubling of the costs of Transnet’s new multiproduct fuel pipeline from Durban to Gauteng, in a move that could herald closer scrutiny of big cost overruns on state infrastructure projects.
Nersa has assigned an independent expert, Cresco Project Finance, to conduct a "prudency review" of the project’s first phase.
The outcome of the probe could also have implications for petroleum pipeline tariff hike requests in the future.