The interior has all the comforts and conveniences you could want in a car costing R154 995 : electric windows, intermittent windscreen wipers, cup holders, sunglasses pouch, pockets and storage compartments all over the place, power sockets to charge cellphones, and a split back seat that folds forwards to increase luggage by either a bit or a lot.
I gave the Matrix a typical “Mom’s afternoon” test ‒- loaded it with three kids, their satchels and sports gear, and stopped on the way home to pick up a few groceries. Turns out it’s a deceptively big car.
And that, I think, is my only real gripe. It’s a little car trying to be a big car. Stick to the speed limit up the hills around Durban and you can’t get out of fourth gear till you hit the top. Perhaps the extra 14 kw and 21 Nm of the 1,8 litre version would be more worthwhile.
There are a few things that I thought would take some getting used to. The instrument panel is in the centre of the dashboard, rather than directly in front of the driver. After a couple of kays I didn’t even notice it wasn’t in the usual place. Come to think of it, it’s an excellent idea ‒ all the gauges are visible at a glance, instead of being partially obscured by the steering wheel.
The other thing that bothered me initially was the dog-leg of a gear lever. Changing gear felt a bit awkward, but hey, after driving around in my tired old bus, where changing gear is a bit like stirring a pudding, I can get used to anything.
As usual, my passenger got whacked on the shins by the glove compartment door. This is the penalty you pay for having an airbag where the glove compartment used to be in cars of old. Surely the design boffins could come up with a roll-top door? For heaven’s sake, even my cheap plastic bread bin has one.
But these are the little things that you learn to live with, when the bigger picture is a practical yet stylish car that’s rather fun to drive.
Despite the manufacturer’s reckoning that you’ll get around 580 km out of the 55 litre tank, the trip meter on the test car’s speedo hit 704 km and the petrol gauge still hadn’t hit the ’empty’ mark.
That’s good enough for me.