Gavin Foster

I’m not given to using exclamation marks much — I believe that even the most verbose person should use at most one a week, otherwise we devalue them. It is thus with interest that I direct my gaze at the file in front of me, marked "Test Car Notes and Specifications". At the bottom of the page for the Ford Fiesta ST, in my unmistakable scrawl, I see "lovely, lovely lovely!!!" and "9,5/10!!!"

The biggest difference between the Subaru Legacy 3.0 R car and its sibling, the Legacy 2.0 GT, is that where the smaller version uses a turbocharger to extract 190kW and 330Nm from its four cylinder engine, the 3.0 R generates ten kilowatts and 33 Newton Metres less from a naturally aspirated flat-six displacing 50% more.

Toyota’s new Hilux is stylish, it’s big and it’s well specced. A surprise bonus is that it’s cheap — nine of the fifteen models in the new range cost less than the models they replace. It’s going to make a lot of grown men who work for the opposition cry!The new Hilux styling is stunning, with more rounded lines and a steeply sloped windscreen providing better aerodynamics and reducing wind noise at speed.

Motorcyclists past, present and future will converge on Kyalami this weekend for the fifth annual Mecer Motorcycle Expo. There they will be exposed to the very best of motorcycling, with quads, superbikes, commuter machines and scooters from all the importers being available for testing.

Ford has launched a new high-performance version of its excellent Fiesta in South Africa. This two-litre Ford Fiesta ST completes Ford’s performance ST (Sports Technologies) range, alongside the Mondeo ST220 and the Focus ST170. The factory claims that no other car in this price range can match the Fiesta in terms of outright performance.

Toyota South Africa has revealed full details of the Japanese manufacturer’s IMV (internationally manufactured vehicle) programme. This will see the South African Prospecton factory churning out 10 000 Hilux bakkies every month by the end of 2007. The plant will be one of five making the vehicles for worldwide distribution.

The all new Land Rover Discovery is without doubt the most important new product from Solihull in decades. It’s also a genuine class leader, with a solid mix of hi-tech electronics complementing tried and tested 4X4 mechanicals to give it superb on and off-road performance. <i>Wheels & Deals</i> went to Namibia for the launch.

It’s been 36 years since Jaguar brought out their first XJ6, and a number of my good friends have bought them over the years. This was not because they were great cars, but because they were so — well, crap. But that was then and now is now. Since Ford absorbed Jaguar into their Premier Group stable, the British products have improved in leaps and bounds.

Spare a thought for the humble tyre. Its entire working life is spent exposed to the elements, it gets dragged along the roughest of road surfaces with scant regard for its well-being, and it receives little, if any, tender loving care. Yet these rubber hoops are what keep our cars and our families safe on the road.

Triumph’s long-awaited all-new Sprint ST sports tourer has arrived, loaded with testosterone while retaining the user-friendliness that made its predecessor a hit. Gavin Foster rode it at the world launch in Cape Town.

For really serious off-road use there are a few basics that you simply can’t do without, no matter what the manufacturers tell you. Nissan’s Patrol has got the lot. It’s fully equipped, great value for money and is superbly comfortable to boot.

Triumph Motorcycles South Africa has imported one of the last batches of the 955cc Triumph Sprint RS triples to sell at an extremely affordable R69 995 — considerably less than the current cost of any remotely comparable one litre sports tourer.

Eight cars, one winner. Choosing a Car of the Year from the eight finalists has never been tougher. Gavin Foster spent three days with the cars, helping give the bean counters the data they needed to pick a winner.

Renault’s Kangoo Multix 1,4 follows a recent trend — it’s an affordable and useful little entry-level MPV based upon a delivery van. The Renault’s panel van heritage shows through in the interior fittings, with loads of painted metal where one would normally expect to find plastic panels. Gavin Foster loved it.

Renault’s Kangoo Multix 1,4 follows a recent trend — it’s an affordable and useful little entry-level MPV based upon a delivery van. The Renault’s panel van heritage shows through in the interior fittings, with loads of painted metal where one would normally expect to find plastic panels. Gavin Foster loved it.

Just a year after launching its lively and attractive Comet 650 Streetfighter, Korean manufacturer Hyosung Motors and Machinery has followed up with sporty, fully faired and half-naked versions of the increasingly popular machine.

Imagine the advertisement: "Wanted: CEO for national motor distributor. Must be able to cook!" Okay, so that wasn’t really a requirement for the job, but Ray Levin, CEO of Kia Motors South Africa, really is a fully qualified chef. Levin reckons that there’s a huge divide between his previous career and the one he pursues now.

At what point do you stop being considered an underdog and receive recognition as a world leader in your field? That’s a question for South African motorists to chew on following the remarkable performance of Hyundai in the enormously influential JD Power South African Initial Quality Study (IQS) released last month.

Kia Motors has launched another new model in mid-sized four door sedan or five door hatch models. The Cerato’s aimed at giving the Toyota Corolla/RunX family and all their competitors severe headaches, and with the value-for-money it offers we think it’s likely to succeed.

How do you find out which cars are the least trouble-free out there? Why, you go out and ask thousands of new vehicle owners to list the problems they’ve had with their purchases in the first few months of ownership. JD Power and Associates have been doing these studies for over two decades in the USA, and the results of their first South African survey have just been released. Some of their findings are very unexpected …

German cartographer Karl Mauch would have approved. He was the man who first mapped the Sabie area in the 1860s, and nearly a century and a half later the German-built BMW R 1200 GS was put on the map in the same region. The R 1200 GS is lighter and consequently handles better than its predecessor over difficult terrain.

So smart cars are funky little toys that look very cute but cost a lot of money and don’t have enough power to get out of their own way, right? Wrong! The smart forfour is a real car that can keep up with the real world. Pity about the kitsch e.e.cummings lower-case letters in the name, though, writes Gavin Foster.

"And from the moment I rolled the throttle open words such as ‘overweight’, ‘underpowered’ and ‘slug’ were ripped from my lexicon — I suppose you could say it was disemvowelled." Gavin Foster puts the DL 650 V-Strom Suzuki to the test and finds that there’s no question about who has the finest engine in the range of two wheelers.

Kia’s still in attack mode, with a brand new saloon that may not compete directly with BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi, but certainly provides a much cheaper alternative. Gavin Foster looks at the latest Korean offering.

BMW’s GS series boxer-twins have long been leaders of the pack when it comes to big dual purpose motorcycles. The massive R1150 GS with the beak-like front mudguards and odd-sized headlights that resembled a drooping eyelid earned the sobriquet "duck on drugs" when the company brought out a bright yellow version. But now there’s an even better adventure tourer around, and it’s also built by BMW.

Farmers and commercial users can go back to basics with the Tata Telcoline bakkies. Where the rest of the pickup industry has industriously converted their cart-horses to show-jumpers and race-horses over the years, Indian motor manufacturer Tata has concentrated on delivering the goods — cheaply.