SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.
My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.
Posted: 20 January 2015
The cheat sheet
Price: R274 900
Engine: 1996 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 105 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 305 Nm between 1800 and 2800 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 14,8 seconds
Maximum speed: About 150 km/h
Fuel index: 10,0 l/100 km
Tank: 70 litres
Ground clearance: 194 mm
Approach/departure angles: 30/24 degrees
Tare: 1720 kg
GVM: 2770 kg
Warranty: 5 years/100 000 km; with 2 years roadside assistance
Optional service plan: 5 years/60 000 km; at 10 000 km intervals
Moving beyond its budget workhorse image, Great Wall Motors SA introduced a further two ranges of pickups recently. You can still buy a “taxi”-engined 2.2-litre Steed 5 for a whisker below R155 000 or any of eleven other single- and double-cabs at prices up to R290 000, but Great Wall wants a piece of the leisure- and personal wheels markets too.
For this reason the company introduced Steed 5E; four double-cab units with a choice of petrol or diesel engines and two levels of trim, and Steed 6; diesel-only but with the same choice of specification levels.
Our test unit was a 5E Xscape fitted with the 2.0 Variable Geometry Turbocharged (VGT) Diesel that replaced the old 2.5-litre oil burner a couple of years ago. Five E’s primary selling proposition is that, while basically the Steed 5 you know, it has been refined.
Engineers paid particular attention to controlling noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), resulting in a significantly quieter, more relaxed, cabin environment. Other refinements:
• The roof-mounted aerial is gone; now integrated into the windscreen,
• New, quieter and more effective windscreen wipers,
• Side indicators incorporated into the wing mirror housings,
• Extra sound-insulation material to quieten the cabin,
• Rear seat cushions revised to improve long-distance seating comfort.
Further, Steed 5E gets a revised facia with new instrument panel, modernised centre console and new audio and climate controls. There are soft-touch leather inserts on the door panels and lots of piano-black trim. Then, to make sure you don’t miss it, GWM gave 5E an Amarok-like front end. It bamboozled some confirmed VW fans too.
While basic SX specification gives you ABS brakes with EBD, two airbags, 16-inch alloys, front and rear fog lamps, climate control, a competent radio and CD player with USB and auxiliary, satellite buttons on the steering wheel, powered windows and mirrors and polyurethane seat- and steering wheel covers, Xscape goes further.
This level adds side steps, a roll bar, combination leather upholstery, a limited-slip differential, a quick-view tyre pressure monitor built into the rearview mirror and a touchscreen audio system with Bluetooth. Just one thing: The fancier music box does without CD, but lets you play MP3 music stored on SD cards. We found that SD playback wasn’t generous with track information and did not display album covers, but USB was friendlier. This is probably not very important in anyone’s life; like the fact that the car is apparently aimed at male drivers only – no makeup mirror on the right hand sunvisor – but if that’s all we have to beef about, it can’t be too bad can it?
Looking at Steed 5E purely as a leisure vehicle, we felt that power was adequate if not exciting. The rev. counter showed 2400 rpm at a steady 120 km/h in top (sixth) gear while roll-on acceleration and maintaining speed up reasonable inclines was good. Ride, as already mentioned in our review of Steed 6, was a little harsh but would probably improve with a load in the bin.
Because it is, after all, 255 mm shorter than Steed 6, rear seat accommodation and ease of exiting was not quite as good. Such issues have traditionally been part of the double-cab experience, but one now has choices if space for big-boned crew members becomes important.
Our overall impression of the interior is that seat design and covering, and general ambience, is not quite as upmarket as on the new top models, but is fine considering that it costs R45 000 less than its Steed 6 Xscape sister. As it is, it’s a good cost-saving alternative.
Test unit from GWMSA press fleet
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.
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