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/ 29 November 2005
Yamaha’s MT-01 is not a superbike. At 240kg without any fuel on board it’s about 70kg overweight for the racetrack, and with just 90 ponies held captive in its behemoth 1670cc engine, it’s not powerful enough to kick any modern superbike’s backside at high speed. But the big V-twin has enough going for it to make it a great real-world motorcycle despite these apparent disadvantages.
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/ 23 November 2005
Toyota’s Yaris super mini, which has done so well everywhere it’s been marketed, has never been available in this country, so news of the impending arrival here of the latest model — just two months after it was first shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show — stirred up loads of local interest. The perky little commuter slots in between the Tazz and the Corolla.
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/ 10 November 2005
Ford’s Ka, launched in South Africa this month, nearly eight years after its arrival elsewhere, rather disappointed me. I’ve watched the company’s latest offerings with interest, and as they’ve improved immensely over the past few years I’ve become a big fan of the Blue Oval.
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/ 31 October 2005
The French have become world leaders in designing funky but practical, compact cars with loads of endearing features, and Peugeot’s new 1007 is the latest such offering, with two unusual features that stand out immediately. The first, the Open-Sesame electric sliding-door system, is brilliant, but the 2-Tronic five-speed gearbox is about as exciting as a bowl of cold oatmeal.
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/ 21 October 2005
If our rulers were REALLY serious about stopping people drinking and driving they’d do something constructive about it, other than just making money out of roadblocks in currently-disadvantaged areas. Providing a decent public transport system would be a good start. But that’s never going to happen.
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/ 16 September 2005
Honda has just announced that they’ll soon be launching the world’s first production motorcycle equipped with airbags. The new Gold Wing, due to go on sale in about a year’s time, will be fitted with an airbag module containing an airbag and inflator, crash sensors to react to sudden deceleration, and an ECU to interpret whether there’s a collision about to occur.
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/ 12 September 2005
Subaru has a reputation for building quick cars that are fun to drive, while looking very ordinary. All of their offerings are fitted with horizontally opposed four or six-cylinder engines to provide a low centre of gravity, and all deliver power to all four wheels. Until a year or two back the cars were somewhat marred by relatively low luxury specifications.
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/ 1 September 2005
Opel’s Tigra Twin Top is the latest convertible to reach South African shores. Where soft-top cars never really took off in this country due to the security problems they posed and the schlep that was involved in what amounted to pitching camp in your transport, the current offerings do all the work at the push of a button, and because the roofs are solid, security isn’t compromised.
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/ 1 September 2005
Mercedes-Benz has upped their game considerably with the introduction of a new V6 diesel and three new petrol V6 units into their C-Class range. Gone is the old single-overhead-camshaft three-valve-per-cylinder technology, replaced by double-overhead-camshaft four-valve units mated to the company’s superb seven speed auto transmissions.
So, what do you look for when buying a car? Gorgeous styling? Impeccable attention to detail? Stunning performance? Despite what the motor industry would have us believe, the average working-class South African buys largely on price. Give him all the bells and whistles at a reasonable price and a queue starts developing outside dealers’ doors.