SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
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 road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday July 14, 2012
Thomas Buerkle is passionate about his job as head of Hyundai Motor Company’s European Design Centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany and it shows. “Nothing is more powerful than new thinking,” he says, “because design is any progressive company’s core competitive advantage.” That is partly why the company introduced its “My Baby” programme in which individual artists go off at tangents in open time to design whatever they please. Anything goes - new toasters, chairs, stereo components, shopping centres – whatever it takes to get a designer’s mind off the daily grind and return refreshed to his or her core objective, that of bringing beauty to the customer.
The new i30 follows Hyundai's “fluidic sculpture” design theme, in which the inexactly defined element appears to be one of liquid or molten materials formed and transformed by Nature’s tools into objects of beauty. Passion is great, but discipline is important, too. We don’t mean just building a box conforming to certain legal requirements into which we pack basic elements like drivetrain, suspension, seats and safety kit.
We need continuity as well. Just as human family members have similar faces, so is each one unique. That is why there are continuing themes or elements in each model’s design. Small Hyundais have hexagonal grilles while bigger family members sport wing shaped versions, but all share a commonality of fluidic sculpture in their overall appearance.
Continuing with continuity, this i30 is still the hatch version of Elantra and shares most basic dimensions, although the new car is 55mm longer, 5mm wider and 10mm lower than the outgoing model. Engines come straight out of Elantra, with the 1,6-litre unit continuing and the old 2,0-litre power plant being dropped in favour of the slightly more powerful, albeit marginally less torquey, Nu 1,8 motor that debuted a while ago.
Because hatchbacks and sedans appeal to different buyers and aren’t necessarily direct swaps for each other, certain specifications differ. All i30s have six airbags for example and the distribution of transmissions is different. People looking for small automatic hatchbacks are usually quite happy with 1600s, while the performance model in the range should preferably be manual. That’s why 1,6-litre i30s are issued with six-speed manual and automatic transmissions while 1800s only drive with stick shifts. It’s for a similar reason, quantity, that no oil burners have been offered yet. In the “C” segment, diesel engines account for only 16 percent of offtake. Hyundai prefers to play with the bigger numbers. Nothing personal – it’s just business.
What stays the same is safety kit and basic specification. You will continue to find ABS brakes with EBD, ESP and vehicle stability management (VSM), but something new in small family cars is active yaw control (AYC), an electronic limited slip differential that transfers torque to the wheel needing it most. First to use it was apparently Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution lV, which means it was quite a while ago. Other new safety kit includes a crumple zone in the bonnet to prevent it from whacking up against the windscreen and rather impressive side impact protection that keeps the passenger cell intact after the drone has centre-punched your car. We see some graphic footage in this game.
Basic specifications still include an Eco-drive shift indicator, tilt and telescopic adjustments for the steering wheel with its audio, cruise and Bluetooth remotes, a fully sized alloy spare, height adjustment for the driver’s seat, front and rear fog lamps, automatically dimming interior mirror, follow-me-home lights, autolocking, keyless entry, automatic demisting of the front screen and dual zone climate control with chilled glove box. A six-speaker radio with CD and MP3 player and the expected plugs, an onboard computer, electrically powered windows and outside mirrors and all the usual lights and gauges, are part of the package.
Front suspension uses industry standard McPherson struts with gas-filled dampers, while a torsion beam axle with double-acting gas shocks looks after the rear. European cars use a multi-link back end but the torsion beam is cheaper. Please don’t feel cheated. Your tester was driven by a maniac on the day of the press launch and be assured; the torsion beam goes beyond being simply “effective.” Brakes are 280mm ventilated discs in front with 262mm solid ones at the back. Wheels are alloy on all models with the 1600s running on 205/55 R16 tyres and the 1800 on 225/45 R17s.
We said nothing about power steering earlier. It’s the by-now obligatory electrically assisted system but with an added feature. Hyundai has introduced a three-option “Flex Steer” capability that tweaks the steering motor to provide differing levels of assistance – ‘Comfort’ for city driving and parking, ‘Normal’, and ‘Sport’ to sharpen things up for winding, mountain passes.
The familiarisation session revealed that the new i30 has decent cargo space – 378 litres expanding to 1316 with the seatbacks folded, enough room in the back for fairly tall passengers and quite generous storage opportunities in the cabin. We drove 1600cc automatics and 1800cc manuals. Performance and comfort were up to the usual Hyundai standards and road holding was, as the Australians say, “bloody decent,” even with a hooligan driving.
The numbers
Prices:
1600 manual – R229 900, 1600 automatic – R243 900, 1800 manual – R249 900
Engines:
1) 1591cc, DOHC, d-CVVT, 16 valves, four cylinders
Power: 95 kW at 6300 rpm
Torque: 157 Nm at 4850 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10,5 seconds (manual) or 11,5 seconds (automatic)
Maximum speed: 195/192 km/h (man/auto)
Average fuel consumption (comparative): 6,4 l/100 km (man), 6,8 l/100 km (auto)
2) 1797cc, DOHC, d-CVVT, 16 valves, four cylinders
Power: 110 kW at 6500 rpm
Torque: 178 Nm at 4700 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,7 seconds
Maximum; 190 km/h
Average fuel consumption (comparative): 6,5 l/100 km
Tank: 53 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km with roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km at 15 000 km intervals
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) 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 I do actually exist.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8