MG and Rover are officially back in South Africa and will soon be selling sports cars and luxury sedans from three outlets in Durban, Cape Town and Gauteng, writes Gavin Foster.
Thanks to its backers boasting enough export credits to allow the import of fully built-up MGFs and Rover 75s at competitive prices, MG Rover South Africa hopes to kick off with sales of about 700 units a year.
MG Rover South Africa financial director Dawie de Klerk (left) and managing director Piet Rademeyer (right) recently attended a function at the British consulate where the return was announced.
South Africans will be offered Club and Connoisseur versions of the plush Rover 75, both powered by a quad-cam 2,5 litre V6 engine rated at 132kW and 240Nm. Pricing will be in the R220 000 to R260 000 bracket. Sports car enthusiasts will get the top-of- the-range MGF, powered by the 1,8 litre 109kW VVC engine, for an estimated R229 000.
@Chrysler’s universal serial bus
REVIEW
Gavin Foster
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler’s recently launched new Voyager is sleeker and more spacious than its predecessor. It’s also more powerful. The 3,3 litre V6 petrol derivative offers 128kW, which is a 24% improvement on the earlier model, and an all-new 2,5 litre common-rail direct-injection turbo-diesel generates 104kW. The 2,4 litre 108kW power plant remains an option.
The new Voyager is available in three equipment levels, starting with the basic SE. All have ABS, remote central locking, electric windows, power steering, aircon, self-levelling suspension, dual-frontal as well as side impact airbags and temperature control. The LX also offers, among other features, a trip computer, leather upholstery, power seat adjustment, and steering wheel mounted controls for the sound system and cruise control. The top of the range Limited really pampers you, with heated seats and an industry first power operated sliding side doors and tailgate with obstacle-detecting safety sensors. The doors and hatch can be operated from the central-locking remote control, via a dash mounted control or by pushing buttons inside the rear cabin area. They can also be operated manually.
Almost 9-million Voyager units have been produced and sold world-wide, and more than 2 000 have been snapped up in South Africa since Chrysler’s return to this country in 1997. Right-hand-drive versions of the newest MPV from the United States company are actually built in Graz, Austria, and the engine used in the diesel version is an Italian unit. Owners tend to replace Voyagers with new Voyagers, so perhaps, to pinch a computer term, it really is a universal serial bus.