The Mail & Guardian looks at three vehicles recently launched in South Africa
Citroën C4 Picasso
I’ve driven vehicles with so-called panoramic windscreens before, but none has ever given me the sense of space and openness I experienced in the new Citroën C4 Picasso.
Citroën calls it Visiospace and it translates into one of the biggest windscreens I’ve ever seen, which, in turn, means that peripheral vision is like nothing you’ve experienced before. It also means that the African sun beats down on your exposed noggin, but the clever sun visors have an extendable sliding section that will protect you if you don’t fancy a bit of a tan.
The C4 Picasso is beautiful from every angle and it gives one the feeling that the French manufacturer has been burning the midnight oil to design a vehicle that lived up to its artistic badge, despite it being an MPV.
During the recent launch in Kimberley we drove both models on offer: the 1,8-litre petrol engine, which pushes out 92kW of power and 170Nm of torque, as well as the 1,6-litre diesel, which produces 80kW and 240Nm. Both models are only available in five-speed manual, but there might be an automatic seven-seater by the end of the year.
The interior is roomy enough to fit a baby elephant and with the sweeping windscreen he won’t feel like he’s cooped up in a box.
Features such as the aircon controls are situated, not on the centre console as you would expect, but underneath the airvent on the driver’s side. The steering wheel is another feature that shows off Citroen’s non-conformist approach to vehicle design in that the centre of the steering column is fixed while the actual steering wheel rotates around the fixed section.
The one thing I didn’t like about the interior, though, is the placement of the digital speedometer in the centre of the dashboard, not only because everyone in the car will know what speed you’re driving at, but because you have to take your eyes off the road to look at the speedo.
Both the petrol and diesel versions felt athletic enough to earn journalists on the launch a few speeding tickets if the traffic police in Kimberley had paid attention to us, but thankfully they didn’t and we drove about 400km without getting tired or uncomfortable.
Citroën claims the fuel consumption for the petrol model is about 10,5l/100km and 8,5l/100km for the diesel.
Among the standard safety features are seven airbags, ABS, stability control and traction control. Modcons include a multi-function steering wheel, electronic parking brake, cruise control and much more.
The petrol version costs R219Â 995 and the diesel will set you back R249Â 995. — Sukasha Singh
Alfa Romeo GT Q2
Alfa Romeo’s press release for the new Q2 version of the Alfa GT diesel asks the question: “What is power without control?” That sounds very jolly until you read further and discover that the 3,2 litre petrol version of the same car, with a more than 50% power advantage over the 110kW diesel, doesn’t benefit from the option of the self-locking front differential that was developed to improve handling and control of the front-wheel-drive car.
I suspect that a system capable of handling the extra performance of the petrol engine is still under development.
The Q2 system ensures that when drive to the inside wheel is lost through wheelspin during hard cornering, torque is partially transferred to the outside wheel, reducing the understeer that so often occurs in front-wheel-drive cars and ensuring that speed out of the corner isn’t lost.
Torque-steer that plagues high-powered front-wheel-drive cars during hard straight-line acceleration is also claimed to be reduced, and the electronic traction control system doesn’t need to chip in and back off the throttle as often as would usually be necessary to keep the driver out of trouble.
The very sexy Alfa GT Q2 costs R299Â 000, which is R13Â 000 more than the standard GT JTD, but the buyer gets a fair bit more than just fancy electronics for his or her money.
The Q2 version comes with lowered suspension, fancy 18-inch alloy wheels shod with low-profile tyres instead of the standard 17-inch units, twin chrome tailpipes, chrome exterior mirrors, chrome scuff plates with Q2 badging, black sports leather seats with red stitching and the Alfa logo, a leather steering wheel cover with red stitching, a chrome gearknob and aluminium sports pedals.
You lose out on the space-saver spare wheel that comes with the standard Alfa GT JTD, though, because the Q2 comes with only a tyre inflation kit, which is not such a good idea in Africa.
The Alfa GT in any guise is a great car and the Q2 version adds value to the range. Most of the time you won’t even know the system is there, but if it keeps you out of trouble just once in the time you own the car you’ll appreciate having spent the extra money. —Gavin Foster
Kia Picanto
I’ve been on the motoring scene for about three years now and have never been on a new vehicle launch where I’ve barely driven the vehicle in question. Normally vehicle manufacturers annoy journalists by setting out grueling schedules where we drive anything up to 700km a day, but there are those who stick to what we think is a happy medium and set out routes that entail us driving an average of about 250km in the space of a few hours and that’s usually enough for us to be able to write about what that particular vehicle might feel like.
But on the recent, face-lifted Kia Picanto launch I drove roughly 30km and was a bit disappointed because I spent a great deal of time being stuck in traffic.
The Picanto is quite successful in this bracket of entry-level vehicles because it’s a good value-for-money car and the new nipped and tucked version feels pretty solid for a small vehicle. But I never got to drive it at more than 100kph, so I’m not sure what it’s like at cruising speed, but at low speeds the Picanto is very comfortable.
The clutch isn’t as smooth as it could be, but the Picanto’s soft suspension makes up for the sometimes notchy gearbox, as does the steering, which doesn’t feel as light and non-responsive as other vehicles in this segment.
The exterior and interior design is pretty easy on the eye and Kia has somehow managed to make a fairly cheap interior look good.
A nice feature on the new range is the standard iPod adaptor cable, which allows you to easily play music off your iPod.
Air-conditioning and a driver airbag is standard across the range, with electric front windows, while the top-end models feature ABS with EBD and dual airbags.
The cute little Picanto, which is powered by a 1,1-litre engine, which produces 48kW of power and 98Nm of torque, is quite an energetic vehicle. Fuel consumption for the five-speed manual is claimed to be an impressive 6,2-litres/100km for a combination of city and long-distance driving.
The new Picanto is priced from R77Â 995 for the base manual version to R115Â 995 for the top-of-the-range automatic.
Ultimately, small cars such as the Picanto are bound to be considered by more than just first-time buyers looking for an entry-level vehicle. Cash-strapped South Africans facing the prospect of significant increases in electricity and rates bills will be looking to stretch every cent by buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the Picanto is as good as small cars get and is definitely worth considering. —Sukasha Singh