Gavin Foster

Honda has followed a 4×4 trend in making the new CR-V more of a family wagon than a true off-roader. The third-generation newcomer has a 25mm lower centre of gravity, a 30mm wider rear track, car-like styling and a more luxurious interior. All of this makes sense when you consider that very few of these vehicles are ever going to be called upon to do much serious off-roading.

Peugeot’s new 107 proves that cheap and cheerful need not translate into cheap and nasty when used to describe an entry-level car. The 107 sells in three variants, and even the base-model XR comes with five doors, dual airbags, electrically assisted power steering, ABS brakes, a rear wiper and a full-sized spare wheel. For less than R90 000 that’s a lot of specification.

Kawasaki’s all-new ZX-6R is just that — all new. The factory has developed a brand-new engine in a spanking new, twin-spar aluminium perimeter frame, blending the best features of the outgoing 636cc ZX-6R and the limited-edition 599cc ZX-6RR track bike into a single package. The new Kawasaki engine was completely redesigned from the cases up — the first in the ZX-6 range in 10 years.

Toyota has slotted a brand-new, entry-level seven-seater people carrier into its line-up, and the good news for South Africans is that the little wagon kicks off at less than R100 000. The Avanza comes in either 1,3- or 1,5-litre versions, delivering 67 kW and 80 kW respectively.

So just what is there to say about the new BMW 335i Coupe? It’s a 3-Series Beemer, isn’t it, with all the usual BMW traits, such as the fun-factor that makes it appealing to people who enjoy driving fast, the familiar evolutionary rather than revolutionary styling, and the rear-wheel-drive that’s so sadly missing in most modern offerings.

If ever the South African motoring public acknowledged that it owed a debt of gratitude to anybody, Malcolm Kinsey would be the man. Fifteen years ago the Durban-based motoring journalist decided to do an analy­sis on comparative parts pricing of the most popular cars sold in South Africa. The results shocked the industry, and within weeks the companies that had been named and shamed undertook a massive repricing exercise.

So there I was, sitting in the Lear Jet with my two colleagues and Elvis Presley, looking forward to driving the new Hummer, and wondering how on earth lesser mortals tolerate the long check-in queues ACSA forces them to endure. Okay – it wasn’t really Elvis, but an affable Scottish lookalike called Danny Fisher, who General Motors was flying down from Durban to perform at the launch of their two new brands.

Call me eccentric if you like, but I’m a large man who loves small cars. Add to that my passion for three cylinder engines and the new Toyota Yaris T1 just has to appeal. Still, I had reservations about the ability of the little one-litre unit to motivate the Yaris very well – as small cars go, the Toyota is comparatively heavy, thanks to all the bells ‘n whistles that are built in as standard.

Being different is good – car dealers’ showrooms are overflowing with boring vehicles that all look the same. "Oh, look! They’ve given it a big silver grille and moved the cab right forward. We must remember to do that that next time!" A couple of year’s later all the offerings in the class look the same, and the designers are hard at work crafting something a little "different."

I’ve long maintained that if I came into some toy money, the 350Z Coupe would be my weapon of choice. The car looks great, it goes well and, I believe, offers serious value for money. When I drove the pre-facelifted model with its 206 kW and 363 Nm, I reckoned that it felt like a true musclecar, although another 30 kW would have been welcome, writes Gavin Foster.

George Bernard Shaw got about on a Lea-Francis, and his good friend Lawrence of Arabia killed himself on a Brough Superior. Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen, George Orwell, King Hussein of Jordan, Howard Hughes, Bob Dylan, King George VI, Sammy Davis Jr, Billy Idol, Mark Knopfler, Liam Neeson, Keanu Reeves, Buddy Holly, Lauren Hutton, Kings Albert I and II of Belgium, George Clooney – the list of famous motorcyclists is endless, but none is as revered as Che Guevara.

Ever since the Hyundai Getz arrived in South Africa in 2003, it’s been a winner for AMH, importers of the Korean brand. Although Hyundai doesn’t report sales figures, rumour has it that about 1 000 of the little cars are sent off to new homes each month, which makes it a serious player in a hotly contested segment — for every Getz sold, there’s a Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault or other brand salesperson crying into their tea.

Call me eccentric if you like, but I’m a large man who loves small cars. Add to that my passion for three-cylinder engines and the new Toyota Yaris T1 just has to appeal. Still, I had reservations about the ability of the little one-litre unit to motivate the Yaris very well — as small cars go, the Toyota is comparatively heavy, thanks to all the bells and whistles.

Just imagine if the Lexus brand was owned, not by Toyota, but by Eskom. This thought popped into my head as we flew into Cape Town for the launch of the new Lexus GS300 and IS250 models. We were handed fancy "Western Cape Energy-Efficient-Zone" passports, issued at the airport by the national power company, writes Gavin Foster.

The King is dead — long live the King! Nah — that’s not really true. The Camry never was King in this country. It was a big car that often didn’t match the specification levels of its rivals, and it lacked something in the desirability stakes, so it never sold in huge numbers here.

Whatever else you can say about maverick motorcycle millionaire Simon Fourie, he’s never boring. As a penniless law student and apprentice public prosecutor in Durban back in the 1970s, he moonlighted as a taxi-driver to fund his expensive motor-cycle racing addiction. He soon discovered that most of his clientele were sailors who wanted to be taken first to a bottle store, then to a brothel.

The debate is officially over. With 147kW of power on tap, Kawasaki’s ZX-14 is the most powerful production motorcycle in the world, and its 0 to 100kph acceleration time of 2,5 seconds makes it the world’s fastest accelerating production machine, on two wheels, or four.

With Toyota’s venerable Tazz having finally reached the end of the road, Fiat is taking aim at the 1 500 to 2 000 budget-car customers that will now be looking elsewhere for sound, basic transport each month. It has introduced the eCo, a low-spec version of its Palio.

Come on, admit it. There wasn’t a diesel car owner in the country who didn’t have a tear in his eye when Audi won the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans in their diesel R10 sports car. After years of being condemned to use the leaky old diesel pump around the back of the service station, drivers of oil burners have finally earned the right to be accepted at all levels!

Honda’s newly launched Civic hatchback makes a refreshing departure from the norm, where the succeeding generation of virtually any model grows a little larger than the car it replaces, eventually leaving room at the bottom of the ladder for an all-new small car.

The business of building and selling motor cars, as the modern world knows it, is changing. While the established mainstream manufacturers struggle to keep costs down to remain competitive, their workers demand even higher wages. China, in the meantime, has an already enormous motor industry, largely owned by the state.

Despite what the do-gooders and nanny-state mentalists would have us believe, we’re not all the same. Some of us want bland cars that can carry a family of five with two weeks’ worth of luggage, and run on the sniff of an oil rag for 30 years without much in the way of servicing, while others will take performance over functionality every day of the week.

When industry giant General Motors (GM) announced that it had bought the Korean minnow Daewoo a couple of years ago, and would in future brand the Asian products as Chevrolets, I questioned whether South African motorists would buy either the story or the cars, writes Gavin Foster.

New best life fire passion Fiat … I’m sorry. This isn’t really working, is it? It’s just that, having driven the new Fiat Grande Punto at the launch, I returned to my office and opened the press pack to see if I’d missed anything during my 600km on the road, only to be assaulted by a 36-page press release, loaded to the gunwales with no less than 11 885 words, writes Gavin Foster.

Competition has become fierce in the entry-level sedan market, with Tata’s Indica and Indigo, Hyundai’s Atos, Kia’s Picanto and the Chevrolet Spark all taking huge chunks of market share away from their long-established opposition. Of these , the Corsa is by far the most modern package, and stands the best chance of survival.

Where three players have for years been used to taking 95% of half-ton bakkie sales, the rules have suddenly changed. The arrival of Fiat and Proton’s small pickups has caused a moderate stir, and Ford, General Motors and Nissan will in future all have to work harder for smaller slices of the growing sub-one-ton pie.

You could take a modern sports car and add or subtract 100kg of ballast without the average driver feeling the difference, even when driving it to the limit around a racetrack. Motorcycles, especially superbikes, are a totally different kettle of fish. They’re now so technologically advanced that designers of new models battle to trim any weight at all.

Motorcyclists, ex-motorcyclists and wannabe motorcyclists are in for the treat of the year at the sixth annual Association of Motorcycle Importers and Distributors (Amid) motorcycle and quad lifestyle expo at Kyalami next weekend (May 5 to 7).

Renault may have needed a little goading in the form of unfavourable comparisons in Malcolm Kinsey’s annual reports on spares pricing, but the French company has reacted by reducing prices and improving availability of spares considerably.

"The Mazda MX5 delivered to us for test purposes got me thinking along these lines, because it’s such a gorgeous driver’s car that I’d seriously contemplate buying one, if I had the money," writes Gavin Foster. "The Mazda is, quite simply, the closest thing to the traditional British sportscar that money can buy, without the irritating foibles."

While true 4×4 enthusiasts love to mock the Toyota RAV4, every month between 200 and 300 South Africans reach into their wallets and vote quietly for the little soft-roader. Why not? It’s very well built, it’s capable of more than most buyers would expect off-road, and it’s a Toyota. It symbolises eternal youth, and as such, they reckon, it sends out a message that you’re, well, special.

Hyundai’s first full-size luxury car to be sold in South Africa, the Azera, is hard to fault. The Korean company’s new flagship is powerful, spacious, comfortable and safe. It’s also extremely quiet and delivers a very plush ride, which renders dreams of uniformed chauffeurs and bottles of champagne being consumed in the back seats quite plausible.