Gavin Foster

We drove the Toyota 160i RX at the launch of the RunX range in January this year and were impressed with its build quality and the level of specification offered. Now, after driving Toyota’s South African Car of the Year finalist for a week we see no reason to change our minds.

Hyundai Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (HASA) is introducing the HD72 medium-duty commercial vehicle to the South African market.

The zooty new Volvo V50, unveiled earlier this month at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy, offers specification levels more in line with the larger V70.

WesBank have come up with a concept that will allow people to test drive, finance and buy a used or new car on the same day at the same venue. Any individual with a car to sell can pay R20 to display it alongside others in its price range and buyers can cough up R20 for a track-time voucher that will allow them to test drive each of the vehicles on their short-list.

Sixty kilowatts (80 horsepower) isn’t usually enough to get excited about, but when the car those 80 horses are pedalling weighs just 790kg the effect can be startling. So be startled by the new smart roadster and smart roadster coupé.

Fiat’s Panda has been named the European Car of the Year 2004 by 58 trade journalists representing 22 European countries. No decision has yet been made as to whether we will see any Pandas in South Africa.

Fiat has added another string to its South African bow with the launch of the Stilo. The new car — available in hatch and Multi-Wagon guises — moves into new territory to take on mainstream competitors like the Toyota RunX, the Renault Megane, the Volkswagen Golf and the Peugeot 307.

Hot on the heels of the revamped Ford Ranger series of bakkies comes the new Mazda Drifter, aimed at the lifestyle buyer rather than the owner who needs a workhorse.

Nissan South Africa has started the process of identifying customers affected by a global recall campaign on some X-TRAIL and Almera models. The offending component is a rotating sensor.

As a motoring journalist I get to drive between 75 and 150 cars a year. All are good, and all have a place in the market, but the vast majority of them are just – well, cars. But every now and then you get your paws on a real beauty and this week, without a doubt, the Alfa Romeo 156 JTD makes it more than worth my while.

Those who buy cars because they actually enjoy driving them will be pleased to note the arrival of the new Peugeot 206 Gti 180. The Flying Frog is powered by a development of the proven two-litre, 16-valve 100 kW engine fitted to the current 206 Gti, upgraded to increase both power and torque.

Chrysler’s PT Cruiser has finally grown into the car it deserved to be in the first place. The Mercedes-Benz-derived four cylinder 2,2 litre turbodiesel delivers 89 kW of power at 4 200 rpm and a very generous 300 Nm of torque from 1 600 to 2 600 rpm. Top speed is claimed to be 183 kph.

When writing about the newly launched Ford Ranger Super Cab we stated that because there are no rear seats fitted the bakkie is classed as a commercial vehicle, allowing VAT to vendors can claim back the tax on the vehicle, saving over R30 000. Reader James Motlanthe took us to task. Here’s the deal.

Subaru’s fourth generation Legacy range was unveiled to keen viewers at the Durban Motor Show earlier this month, weeks before its official launch and will create considerable interest from two areas of the market.

After taking a walk around Hyundai’s new Terracan 4X4 at the Durban Motor Show, but before I heard its price, I reckoned that if the importers could keep the price below about R370 000 they’d be onto a very good thing.

The keenly awaited Mazda RX-8 put in an appearance at the recent Durban Motor Show. If it goes as well as it looks sports car lovers shouldn’t find themselves disappointed, and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t.

Congratulations to Toyota on setting a slew of new speed and distance endurance records at Gerotek last weekend. With their eight bakkies covering 84 887 kilometres in just three days the company ended a 14 year drought of endurance record breaking in South Africa in style!

When I first heard the phrase "safe sex" I thought I was being encouraged to go out and pomp a Swede. After all, no other nation is as concerned with safety as are our Scandinavian cousins, so much so that they often seem to have forgotten how to enjoy themselves. But with the arrival of the new Volvo S60R that’s all changed.

Delta has launched a new offering in the compact MPV class with the Opel Meriva, smaller brother to the Zafira. The Meriva uses the crafty FlexSpace seating system to rapidly configure its interior without removing any seats

As we all know, nothing succeeds like excess, so the Dodge Tomahawk should prove a real winner. After all, what’s more excessive than a 375 kW motorcycle with an 8 300cc Dodge Viper V10 engine that costs just under R4 million and can’t even be ridden?

Three years after the arrival of the New Beetle in South Africa, Volkswagen has announced that they’ll be bringing the cabriolet version to this country in time for summer. The open top Beetle will come with an 85 kW two-litre engine – good enough for a claimed 185 km/hr and a 0-100 sprint in a shade under 12 seconds.

Giniel de Villiers has been confirmed as one of the four works drivers who will compete for Team Nissan in the 2004 Dakar Rally in France, Spain and North Africa next January. The 31-year-old South African, who finished fifth in his debut on the 2003 Dakar Rally this January, will compete in an evolutionary version […]

Audi this week launched the current generation S4 in South Africa. This sporty flagship in the A4 range utilises Audi’s powerful 4.2 litre V8 engine which develops an eye watering 253kW of power at 7 000 rpm and 410 Newton metres of torque.

Chevrolet has returned to SA. But don’t start clearing space in the garage for a fleet of Corvettes and similar exotics yet. The cars sold as Chevrolets in this country will be sourced and imported from South Korea and Australia, and will in fact be Holden and Daewoo products. Is this a wise move? We think not.