Off-road parks are a novel idea – you have off-road trails designed specifically to be conquered, within a short drive of the city, and you have experts to help you out along the way should something go wrong. But off-road parks are tried and tested; everyone knows they can be conquered. So what would happen when we deviated from the norm and decided to take on a construction zone and some naturally occurring terrain in an unlikely candidate, the Subaru Forester XT?
This comparison may be deemed to be unfair in many ways, but what the heck! We took a Subaru Forester XT, an SUV that makes no claims at being an off roader, and pitted it head to head against the Renault Duster 4×4, in diesel power format, to see whether they could deliver or not.
With the current W204 C Class looking and feeling a bit old in its lifespan, the time has come for the leaks and details of the all new W205 Mercedes-Benz C Class, due for release in 2014, have started to appear. Just yesterday Mercedes released photos and details of the body technology and interior design of the new sedan, highlighting an entirely new interior look and a host of new technologies.
The Alfa Romeo 4C is making waves as we await its local launch here in South Africa. But while we wait, it’s been going about its business rather well, including taking on the Nurburgring to set a record for cars under 250Hp (184kW) with the help of some duct tape.
‘Grasshopper Green’ – buy it in that colour, and don’t let us catch you even considering one of the other 3 paintjobs on offer. Yes, we’re talking about the Opel Corsa OPC Nurburgring Edition, which has just landed in SA. The green pays tribute to the Green Hell, which lends it’s name to this OPC model, but to what extent?
Over the years, ever since the original MK1 VW Golf GTI, there has always been an iconic hot hatch. Every new generation of spruced up hatchbacks has brought with it a new icon; or sometimes, just a new iteration of the original. In recent times, we have seen the Golf V GTI pass the mantle on to the Renault Clio RS, which was by all rights one heck of a driver’s car, but now the time has come for there to be a new king.
1.3kviewsWhat’s better than buying a brand new car? Buying a classic, a real classic car, with beautiful, timeless lines and styling that could last centuries. But, and this really is a gargantuan but, buying a classic car entails far more than the up front purchase cost. Anyone who has ever … Read more
A manufacturer’s job is to sell you their car, to do anything within their power to quote facts and figures, performance times and fuel consumption, all in an effort to swoon you into joining the corporation for which they are employed. But as much as this is the case, it’s truly rare when such claims can be met in an everyday world, by everyday drivers, without the slightest bit of hassle. I encountered such a situation on my recent test of the Subaru Forester 2.0X, the entry level model of the Forester range.
“Nice isn’t a very nice word,” my English teachers used to tell me growing up, it’s a bland adjective and one no one would be happy to be described with. They were right, but wrong, for if there was no such word as “nice”, what would we compare all other adjectives to? You see, we need the boring, we need the bland, we need the mundane, especially in the automotive world, otherwise we’d never know an exciting car when we drove it. So would our Polo Vivo Maxx be mundane or mouth-watering to test out?
A bakkie is a bakkie is a bakkie…or is it? Foton have decided it’s time to take on the big boys in the bakkie world, and brought us the latest Foton Tunland double cab to test, so we could see just how close they are to competing with the rest of the pack. We received the 4X2 2.8 ISF Luxury model, which retails for R289 950, nearly 60 grand less than the closest similarly specced competitor. But how does it stack up?
“VW Golf”, a name synonymous with the term “the people’s car”, after all, most of us at some stage or another have driven a Citi Golf, or owned one, or learnt to drive in one; not to mention the fact that many of our parents did the same. So the Golf moniker has been around for some time, and it has always been known as the hatchback to set the bar, the benchmark so to speak. Now, with the 7th generation at hand, we begged the question, does this once again retain “benchmark” status? We had a week with the new Golf to find out…