Sukasha Singh

Sleek from nose to tail, with just the right amount of muscle thrown in here and there, the BMW 3-Series coupé represents a harmonious blend of elegance and performance. Inside the two-door coupé, comfort is the central theme, with even the two rear seats offering decent enough space for two fairly tall adults.

Having established the sports activity vehicle segment in 1999, BMW was pretty cocky that the second generation X5 would once again prove to be the act that everyone else would follow. Distancing the new X5 from sports utility vehicles (SUVs), BMW emphasised that the new release was about superior agility and driving dynamics.

These days we know her as Madge. She’s married, lives in England, has a few sprogs and writes children’s books. In the Eighties and Nineties, Madonna ruled the airwaves in a clinical fashion, using her cut-throat business acumen to turn her talent into the kind of empire that no modern pop princess could ever live up to.

Despite being an MPV, the new Mazda 5 makes its somewhat chunky appearance rather becoming, and its agility adds to its appeal. Driving the 5 in Cape Town was an absolute pleasure; it accelerates easily, feels composed at all times — even when being driven hard — and fits its marketing slogan of being "surprisingly stimulating", writes Sukasha Singh.

The Avensis, which was launched last year, replaces the Camry as Toyota’s family sedan. My first impression of the Avensis was that it wasn’t a bad-looking vehicle. For a long time, it seemed as if the Camrys, much like the Cressidas they replaced, were not created with any particular attention being paid to aesthetics, writes Sukasha Singh.

While launching another addition to its Quantum range recently, Toyota took the opportunity to introduce motoring scribes to the company’s advanced driving initiative. The multi-people carrier Quantum, which was launched in 2005, is now available in 10-seater form, and Toyota tells us that you do not need a professional driver’s permit to drive a 10-seater vehicle.

I had an infuriating discussion with a close friend last year that gave me some insight in to why people are obsessed with SUVs. We were talking about what our next cars might be and she was appalled when I told her which cars I was considering buying, because not one of them was an SUV, writes Sukasha Singh.

With 905 000 Audis sold worldwide last year, the German manufacturer has achieved 13 years of consecutive growth. This global trend is echoed in South Africa, where Audi sold 1 584 vehicles in 1994, and slightly more than 13 000 last year. Audi SA believes the company’s international success can be attributed to its focus on sportiness.

The recently launched Daihatsu Materia looks to me a bit like a futuristic London cab — it’s box-shaped, has a sharp, angular design and sits higher off the ground than most passenger vehicles. Initially, I wasn’t sure whether I liked the design, but I have to admit that, after a day with the Materia, the look began to grow on me, writes Sukasha Singh.

Ford’s ST badge has garnered a great deal of respect in recent times, and with good reason. The Fiesta ST and the Focus ST have come to represent an exciting chapter in Ford’s history, so it makes perfect sense to carry that badge to other models in the Ford range such as the Territory.

For the seventh consecutive year, Lexus has been crowned as the best-selling luxury vehicle brand in the United States by selling 322 434 units in 2006. Overall, Toyota sold over 2,5-million units to become the third-largest seller in the US last year. Yet Lexus does not enjoy this kind of overwhelming success in many other countries.

How do I know the new Hyundai Santa Fé is going to be a success? Simple. When I arrived at a recent family gathering in the Santa Fé, I was asked by a group of male relatives: "Is this the new Lexus SUV?" Before I could answer, one of the guys said: "No, it’s the new Audi SUV."

Feeling very jetlagged after a long trip recently, I discovered that there’s nothing quite like a performance car to start your day. Vroom! A throaty growl from the Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG cabriolet’s supercharged engine said "Wake up, sleepyhead!" in the most arrogant way, writes Sukasha Singh.

It always amazes me how much money people spend on some vehicles. For instance, an SUV that will never see a mudsplat in its lifetime is the vehicle of choice for stay-at-home mums in Jo’burg’s northern suburbs, and they use it primarily for shopping and the school run, writes Sukasha Singh.

It’s rare that concept cars are put into production without much being changed in terms of design, but there was such overwhelming support for the Honda Civic hatch concept when it debuted a few years ago that Honda decided to put it into production without changing much of the original concept.

Ever wondered what SRS, which is written on most steering wheels and dashboards containing airbags, means? It stands for secondary reaction system, which means that, when all else fails, the airbags are deployed in an attempt to minimise the risk of injury during an accident.

It’s no secret that Italians are passionate people — they’re passionate about their food, their family, their culture and, most importantly, their cars. They are proud to the point of obstinance — try to disagree with Italians about anything that has come out of their country (including the Mafia) and they’ll argue with you until you give up out of sheer exasperation.

The first impression you get as you walk towards the new Peugeot 107 is: "Hmm, funky-looking little thing. Hang on, weren’t we just told during the press presentation that it’s a five-door, so then where are the … oh, there they are." The two rear doors are so far back over the rear tyres, it’s hard to believe they are, in fact, doors and not some gadget the French have invented to access the boot from the side of the vehicle.

Open-air motoring has an appeal that is sometimes indescribable. You can drive a R1-million car and barely anyone will turn to look at the car twice, partly because there are so many cars breaking the R1-million mark. However, pull up in a convertible and nine times out of 10, people will look at you with barely concealed envy.

What really bugged me about my impending foray into the bush was my friend’s attitude toward camping. Practically everything I asked her (a seasoned camper) about, she would reply: "Don’t worry, we’ll make a plan." The more she said it, the more I worried, writes Sukasha Singh who left the city behind and discovered the joys of the Jeep Commander.

If there’s one common denominator about being South African and owning cars, it is that at some point in their lives most South African drivers have owned a Toyota. It might have been because Toyotas have a reputation for reliability or it might have been the attraction of buying a car that doesn’t depreciate as much as others do over time.

There’s a detectable split in loyalty between people who buy mid-range performance vehicles much the same way there is a split between those who buy luxury sedans. In all likelihood, those people who are well-oiled and passionate about cars are either dedicated Mercedes-Benz, BMW or even Audi fans.

The Audi RS4 has the same effect on other road-users as Dirty Harry did on criminals, asking with his lips curled in barely concealed revulsion: "Do you feel lucky, punk? Well do ya?" The answer was obviously no, in most cases, because as stupid and reckless as most Gauteng drivers are, they know that some cars are not to be messed with.

Lexus is going all out this year to beef up its product line-up, obviously to gain a bigger slice of the vehicle sales pie and to prove its worth as a premium brand in its own right, not just as Toyota’s bigger, well-heeled brother. I can understand why it needs to be seen as more than just another Toyota brand, but I don’t understand why the association is interpreted as negative, writes Sukasha Singh.

When Nissan’s Navara range was launched last year in 4×2 form, it was generally accepted as the best-looking bakkie on our roads, but journalists were concerned about the future of the Hardbody. Nissan accepted that some cannibalisation would occur, but almost 12 months later sales of the Hardbody haven’t decreased and the Navara has managed to capture its own slice of the SUV pie.

Women in the motoring industry are looked upon as token appointments who couldn’t possibly have a passion for cars, who couldn’t possibly enjoy the thrill of pushing a car to the edge of its abilities. It all gets a bit tiresome sometimes and it is for this reason that I felt slightly better about life, the universe and everything else at a recent Subaru vehicle launch, writes Sukasha Singh.

The BMW Z4 M Coupé is the kind of car that makes you realise that there are those among us (guys and girls), who have an extremist streak that makes them push the limits of recreation beyond reason. The Z4 M is a slick-looking two-seater sports car that feels about as comfortable as bouncing around on a pogo stick.

The German Touring Car championships (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters or DTM) is a racing series that takes place in and around Germany and, while not receiving as much international coverage as other racing championships, is a hotly contested series.

Like any late arrival to a party, Audi’s new Q7 has everybody turning their heads to take a look. And, just like a late arrival, it has ruffled the feathers of those who made the effort to be on time. Audi says the Q7 arrived late on the luxury SUV scene simply because it’s a small brand that has been concentrating on growing brand awareness and making a success of its established products.

One of the first James Bond movies I remember watching as a child is <i>Goldfinger</i>. Sean Connery (the quintessential Bond) played the as-slick-as-a-politician-turned-BEE-millionaire secret agent 007 for British intelligence agency MI6. The movie featured the first in a series of Bond girls with daft names (Pussy Galore), but, more importantly, it featured Bond’s Aston Martin DB5.

The new Volvo S40 2,0litre replaces the 1,8-litre as the entry-level model in the S40 range, and it makes a bold entry at a competitive price. Driving the 2,0-litre, I could see why the S40 won the Car of the Year competition last year — it is easy on the eye and has a refined presence, with everything from the chiselled bonnet to the chunky rear lights combining to make an attractive vehicle.

Okay, let’s be honest, there are very few of us who are going to read about the B-Class and wonder really if it isn’t just the A-Class, only bigger. While the A-Class is, no doubt, a great vehicle in it’s own right, nobody really wants a vehicle that offers just slightly more than another, slightly cheaper vehicle in the range.