December 25, 2024
JULY saw the Ford Fiesta overtake its big brother the Focus to become the biggest-selling nameplate ever in the United Kingdom. No fewer than 4,1 million cars have found favour across Mud Island but I’d wager that those who have spent their money on the EcoBoost 1.0 litre…
JUST in case you have a very short memory, may I remind you that the Hyundai Elantra was SA’s Car of the Year in 2012 as judged by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists. I mention this because just more than two years after that momentous victory for…
IN RECENT times, manufacturers have been showing more overt signs of a growing interest in African markets and the reason is not hard to find. While China has become something of a soft touch when it comes to volumes and has attracted nearly all the big players, more…
CAR ENGINEERS and accountants, colloquially known as bean counters, don’t go together well as the latter are well known for forcing cost-cutting solutions in order to keep selling prices within target. That’s exactly why you’ll find some apparently identical models sporting different suspension systems, examples being torsion beam…
IT SEEMS some manufacturers see good prospects for expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and others, not least VW, don’t. It’s only a matter of days ago that I was on a Jaguar event designed to introduce specific features to journos from the SSA region and hours later, Nissan…
I GUESS I shouldn’t have been so surprised. “By what?” you may justifiably ask. Answer: By the quality of the second generation Nissan Qashqai I recently sampled on its South African and sub-Sahara African launch that took us on a variety of roads in the Magaliesberg region to…
JAGUAR’s rapid renaissance was not predicted by too many pundits when Tata took control of the then ailing brand from Ford. But those pundits didn’t factor in the positive reception accorded the XF luxury saloon that startled show goers at the Frankfurt Salon in September 2007 and which…
OVER many months now, Top Gear has featured full-length reports on specific car models so, just for change of scenery, I thought I’d dig around and serve up a miscellany of motoring-related stories and thoughts. Performance claims First up, let’s take what I think is an objective look…
THERE’s an understandable tendency when a new model is launched for the outgoing model to earn negative press but in the case of the W204 C-Class, specifically in face-lifted form, I‘ll go on record as stating that this model range has endured remarkably well right up to its…
Adding the descriptor “Grand” to what is essentially a near-entry-level model may seem a little incongruous and so it is because the brand new Hyundai Grand i10 is in reality a replacement for the long-gone Getz which did so much to cement the brand’s acceptance in South Africa.…
