SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday July 25, 2013
Take a couple of urban SUVs built by people with similar cultures and home languages; equally equipped in most respects, but different in execution and engine types, and you have a family bus buyer’s decision making nightmare.
They arrived within an hour of each other; a Kia Sorento 2.2 TCI 4x4 seven-seater and a Toyota RAV4, 2.5-litre petrol powered 4x4 five-seater. While different, they shared so much that comparisons were inevitable; although the Sorento’s flip-up, occasional seats are really only for small fry, so what say we call it a five-plus-two?
Different engines aside, there are quite a few similarities.
Both have on-demand all-wheel drive with 50:50 lockable differentials, six-speed automatic gearboxes, monocoque construction, leather upholstery with electrical adjustments and seat warmers in front, dual channel air conditioning, almost identical safety aids, HID headlamps, keyless access, similar performance, powered sunroofs and parking assist alarms with backup cameras.
Powered windows and mirrors, cruise control and Bluetooth-equipped music centres are taken as read. On the subject of outside mirrors, both cars can fold theirs in and out by means of buttons, but neither will automatically redeploy them on the move. Neither car locks its doors automatically once in motion, either.
Although the engines differ in size and type, power output levels are fairly close; 132 kW for the RAV and 147 for the Sorento. The turbocharged diesel of the latter obviously develops a lot more torque; 436 Nm vs. 233. Front suspension systems are similar with both using McPherson struts and coil springs. At the other end, the Sorento uses a multilink setup while the RAV opts for double wishbones. Again, both cars are suspended on coils. Brakes are discs; ventilated in front and solid at the rear, for both.
As size goes, the Sorento is 115mm longer and 40mm greater in width, height and wheelbase measurement. Its advantage lies in greater initial luggage volume behind the second row of seats; 512 dm3 against 368 on the RAV, although with the seatbacks folded, things equalise somewhat when the RAV boasts 1480 dm3 vs. the Sorento’s 1432.
Our completely unscientific test of rear seat comfort also put the RAV slightly ahead, scoring higher on both headspace and knee room, but lower on foot space under the driver’s seat. The Japanese car’s doorways appeared to be wider too, with entry and exit being easier.
Each car has features not shared by the other, so here’s a brief rundown: Sorento offers self-levelling suspension, rollover protection and 15mm greater ground clearance, along with a more modern interior and secondary buttons placed where they are easier to find. The driver’s chair stores two memory settings to allow for different drivers, whereas that on the RAV needs changing manually.
The RAV brags with one more airbag - seven rather than six, an electrically powered rear hatch, downhill crawl and a choice of drive by wire settings. These include eco that’s best avoided because it renders the car unbelievably sluggish, normal with both buttons deselected, and sport.
This quickens steering- and throttle response and immediately diverts ten-percent of the engine’s torque to the rear wheels to make handling more sure footed. If understeer does develop, torque transfer to the rear wheels is automatically increased up to 50-percent through a yaw rate feedback control to provide front tyres with improved lateral grip.
Out on the boondock trail and a rough dirt road, performance and comfort levels were very similar. Both cars are quite firmly sprung, so neither was a model of magic-carpetness. Subjectively, we liked the Toyota’s gearbox better; finding it a bit quicker and more intuitive in operation. The Kia, on the other hand, scored with its more open and airy feel.
For the long term, the diesel-engined Sorento is lighter on fuel, its warranty is longer and it offers five years of maintenance rather than just service. The RAV, on the other hand, boasts dealers in every country hamlet and very competitive value for money.
Test units from Kia SA and Toyota SA press fleets
Kia numbers
Price: R479 995
Engine: 2199cc, four-cylinder, turbodiesel
Power: 147 kW at 3800 rpm
Torque: 436 Nm between 1800 and 2500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,9 seconds
Maximum speed: 190 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,2 l/100 km
Tank: 70 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km; with 3 years’ roadside assistance
Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km
Toyota numbers
Price: R399 900
Engine: 2494cc, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated
Power: 132 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 233 Nm at 4100 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,0 seconds
Maximum speed: 210 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 10,0 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty; 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km
This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.
My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.
Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8