Armed with the latest iPads, loaded with sophisticated analytical software, 26 of the country’s top motoring journalists will soon gather at a country hotel outside Johannesburg with a single aim in mind: deciding the South African Car of the Year (COTY) 2018.
It may seem like an insurmountable task to compare the wallet draining German marques with a Japanese or Korean compact costing a fifth of the price – or less. But the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists, which operates on a quasi-military basis when it comes to membership, has had a mountain of experience running this competition since 1986.
From an extensive list of 35 semi-finalists, just 10 models have made the cut and the finalists will be put through their paces with routes and handling tests that weren’t designed by Lewis Hamilton, but rather to emulate the average driver’s capabilities and desires.
The jury will score the mixed band of automobiles on a long list of criteria, from aesthetics to ergonomics, from fuel consumption to environmental friendliness – and most importantly on value for money.
That’s how the modest Opel Astra was able to trump the likes of the majestic Jaguar F-Pace and edge out the Audi A4 by a mere handful of points.
That was after three Porsche victories in a row and the Volvo XC90 scooping the honors with the resultant prestige and sales in COTY 2016.
“By virtually unanimously approving of the Opel Astra, the jury has again proven that experience is the key to the success of the competition,” says Car of the Year convenor Bernard Hellberg Jnr.
“The Astra is a worthy winner of South Africa’s ultimate motoring accolade.”
And it wasn’t for the first time. The Astra 160iS was top of the podium when the Springboks won the World Cup back in 1995.
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In recent years it is the model series, and not specific engine variants, that gets adjudicated and the manufacturers are discouraged from loading their entry with optional extras to impress the panel of motoring journalists.
Just like judging a forward 4.5 somersault in tuck position at the Olympics, radical low and high scores get eradicated to prevent over-enthusiasm or any hint of bias.
So, onwards and upwards to the title aspirants for 2018 and the ranges that you might be tempted to chalk down for your festive season shopping list.
BMW is the most decorated winner in the competition’s history having taken the crown six times.
And the Bavarians are back in the frame with the all-new 5-series.
<div id="attachment_34314" style="width: 509px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34314" class=" wp-image-34314" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BMW-5-series-sedan-e1510127440771-300x188.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="313" />The BMW 5 Series sedan (Photo by www.bmw.co.za)</div>
The marketing blurb may wax lyrical about the exterior styling changes with the signature kidney grille being larger and more upright, the headlight elements going from round to hexagonal and the stretched lines with the rear window being steeply raked to give more of a “fastback” appearance.
But, apart from the awe-inspiring i8 and a few other exceptions, BMW have taken the conservative road and you won’t be staggered by the new look.
Which means that you may not feel such a pang of envy if you pull up next to the latest offering in your sixth generation 528i. But when you open the door of the current 5-series you may turn very green indeed. This is where the “Business Athlete” hits the mark in virtually every aspect.
Daniel Mayerle and the design team have done an astounding job with an interior, that is modern and clean-cut without being brash, and controls and infotainment that are cutting edge yet practical.
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There is a disconnect in the premium motoring world when it comes to technology. The trend is to try and lead the race with touch-screen systems that are designed for techies at Elon Musk’s rocket factory yet it is mainly the stone-age.com generation buying the cars.
And BMW have come up with an intuitive system with enough manual overrides so that you don’t have to go through a painful and distracting series of screen options to turn the aircon up!
I tested the two-liter turbofour 530i which is faster, more fuel efficient, emits fewer pollutants and weighs in at a basic price of $62,000.
It may not push your adrenalin to the limit, but will take you to the ton in a shade over six seconds and is smoother than George Clooney sipping a Nespresso.
If you have a penchant for fancy features, you’ve come to the right cabin. How about Gesture Control so that you can just swipe your hand to the left to disconnect a call from the boss or rotate your finger clockwise to raise the radio volume.
And wireless charging for your cellphone by just placing it on the neat pad in front of the gear selector.
The list of options is overwhelming – which makes ordering the right specifications for your new chariot a compelling and possibly expensive exercise.
The Porsche Macan, Cayman and Boxster have all taken the laurels before and now the incredibly roomy four-seater Panamera is in the mix with its controversial rump getting some remarkable aluminium surgery. It is now the complete looker we have come to expect from the Stuttgart stable where the cars are sculpted rather than designed.
And the attention to the rear end is a total disservice to the Porsche team which has been so energetic and visionary in producing a vehicle where virtually only the badge remains the same.
The V-shaped array of controls has been replaced by touch screens which burst into life when you ignite the turbo and it is a bewildering experience getting to know your way around this cyber cockpit. Maybe a prime case of techno overkill?
What I could feel by the seat of my pants is that the Audi-developed 2.9-liter V-6 Turbo, very ably assisted by the new 8-speed gearbox, propels the Panamera 4S to 100km/h in 4.2 seconds.  The series must be a serious challenger.
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Land Rover is yet to take the title as South Africa’s Car of the Year, but the new Discovery, which has shed 400 kilos and has reportedly got astounding off-road ability, may have what it takes to go beyond its rivals in the market.
What the Discovery hasn’t shed is the dollars. With a base price of $72,000 it may battle in the value-for-money stakes.
On the financial front, the Alfa Romeo Giulia is well placed among its obvious rivals in a cash-strapped economy. The base price for the perky two-liter petrol with 8-speed automatic transmission is a touch over $40,000.
Compared to some boring teutonic monikers, the Italian name conjures up images of passion, style and performance and the Giulia doesn’t disappoint in terms of ABS – Adrenalin Boost per Second. After all it is the runner-up in Europe’s Car of the Year.
The winner overseas? The fashionable Peugeot 3008 SUV which is not the first French voiture to strut its stuff on the local COTY catwalk but could be the first to drive away with the prize.
Honda call the CR-V a comfortable runabout vehicle. They have sold more than nine million of them in 150 countries around the world with the more robust and chunky fifth generation set to keep the cash register ticking.
Then there is the futuristically-styled Toyota C-HR which takes crossover sportiness to a new level and undercuts the Honda and Peugeot by a substantial margin.
Toyota won the very first Car of the Year way back in 1986 with the Corolla Twin Cam, and the C-HR leads the charge for the country’s leading automaker.
But heavy competition in the crossover/SUV stakes (along with a bigger dent in the bank balance) comes from the latest Audi Q5. No visually dramatic changes but bigger, lighter and with 10 liters more luggage space.
The pint-sized Suzuki Ignis crossover hits our shores at a quarter of the Q5 price and is practical yet fun to drive with some modern, youthful interior touches. Amazingly it accommodates my lanky two-meter frame with ease!
I’m not sure if the Kia Picanto would do the same, but the third-generation looks set to put some zing into the competition with its “tiger-nose” grille and price tag of under $10,000.
And finally there is the Volvo S90, taking on the likes of BMW, Merc and Audi in the full-size luxury market. Volvo are hoping to complete a hat-trick for the Swedish automaker after are putting a massive capital injection of $11 billion behind the fray.
Now it is down to the motoring jury to tap their iPads at the beginning of 2018 and assess every aspect of the chosen 10. The irony is that none of them will know the final result until the curtain is drawn around the winner of the Car of the Year at the big reveal in March.
Drivers, start your engines…
&#8211; Written by Derek Watts

Who Will Be The Best Of The Best?

Keeping up with the international motor industry is a lot more complicated than Keeping Up With The Kardashians – with just as many family squabbles, scandals and break-ups.
Emerging at the top of the family tree is Volkswagen, ending 2016 as the world’s largest automaker with sales of 10.3 million; just a shade more than Toyota. Face-saving news after pleading guilty to three charges in the diesel emissions affair and paying a $4.3-billion fine to settle the US Department of Justice investigation.
And remember the German giant includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Porsche. In turn, Audi owns Lamborghini, and Lamborghini owns Ducati. Yes, it’s complicated.
The number three spot goes to General Motors (GM) – or to be more accurate General Motors Company LLC – emerging with a changed name from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 thanks to a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the US Treasury.
Most of that money has been paid back and a study by the Centre for Automotive Research reveals that the GM bailout saved more than a million jobs and preserved nearly $35 billion in tax revenue.
All of the Big Three made it onto the list of finalists for the South African Car of the Year 2017. Volkswagen with the new Tiguan, the most stylish Passat ever, and the technically supreme Audi A4.
Toyota ticked the right boxes with the rugged yet comfortable Fortuner (the bestselling SUV in the country) and have kick-started 2017 with record sales and the claim that one out of every four new vehicles that found homes at the start of the year was a Toyota or affiliate brand.
GM waded in with the Opel Astra which has been gathering international and local awards along with cousin Corsa.
The voguish Astra won the 2016 European Car of the Year award in one of the toughest automotive battles of the decade and the Corsa 1.0T Enjoy drove off with Compact Hatchback of the Year at the Cars.co.za Consumer Awards.
There has been a quiet revolution happening in the ‘more affordable’ car sector over the last couple of years. In essence, it used to be a sector where (and I’m not joking) a passenger airbag was considered to be an optional extra. And ABS was by no means standard!
Now many models hovering around the $25,000 mark boast more standard features than the luxury sedans selling for four times the price tag.
Take the Opel Astra 1.4T Sport. Cruise control, halogen headlights, daytime running lights, tyre pressure monitoring, side blind zone alert, hands free parking and heated sports seats and steering wheel are all included.
And there’s more… the Driver Assist Pack helps to warn drivers of an impending collision, picks up speed restriction signs along with the following distance and automatically throws out emergency anchors to reduce the impact of an unavoidable collision.
While the tech boffins in Stuttgart and Munich seems to be intent on making simple functions like turning down the aircon a life study, the Opels are blessed with IntelliLink – the most amazingly simple communication and media platform. Which complements the modern, free-flowing interior where the instruments are stark and easy to read and the controls are ergonomically excellent – or more simply, right there at your fingertips.
Although the budget hatches seem to be poured out of a common mould, the Astra manages to distinguish itself with a touch of exterior style – in fact the Sport model is quite a stunner.
You don’t have to spend too much time on engine choice. They are all petrol and all turbo charged. Starting with a single liter of displacement, through the 1.4l to the 1.6l manual which has a claimed top speed of 235km/h and hits 100 in less than seven seconds. Youssou N’Dour would be proud.
All very impressive – as it should be. There have been many decades for research and development. The Astra has been around for more than 80 years and sold over 25 million units!
Again it’s one of those intricate family affairs. Production hasn’t been consistent since 1936 and you may be more familiar with the name Kadett. And to complicate things even further, the UK models fall under the Vauxhall banner.
Now the new Opel era beckons. The Rüsselsheim-based carmaker has enjoyed the highest sales in five years with an increase of 46,000 units. The Astra was the main driver of increased sales across Europe, being newly registered more than 285,000 times. Overall Opel managed to increase sales in 18 of 22 markets including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland.
The resurgence of Opel in South Africa is gaining momentum – over the past two years Opel sales have grown by 9.6%, compared to the market decline of 15.5% over this same period.
And no resting on their laurels. Opel is in the midst of the biggest model offensive in its long history and intends bringing 29 new models to market before 2020. Seven of them this year – hence the motto ‘7 in 17’.
“With these seven new models for 2017, Opel will become a completely different brand within the next 12 months,” says Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann. “We are making electro-mobility feasible for everyday driving with the Ampera-e.”
The Ampera-e, introduced at the Paris motor show, is designed to be the compact range champion with the ability to clock up 500 kilometers on a single charge with sports car performance.
Then the flood gates open with the new flagship Opel Insignia Grand Sport, an all-wheel drive sedan with a coupé-like silhouette. The Sports Tourer, the Country Tourer, the Vivaro and the Crossland X – a new stablemate for the Mokka X.
So the future looks bright for Opel, but it may not be with General Motors as parents. They have been in talks for some time with French automakers Peugeot SA (which includes the Citroën brand) and some say it is a done deal which will rock the European industry.
The major concern is that the deal with PSA and BNP Paribas doesn’t introduce any new barriers of additional tariffs in the shadow of Brexit.
With the addition of Opel and Vauxhall, Peugeot SA will become the second largest automotive company in Europe with a market share of 17%.
“We are proud to join forces with Opel/Vauxhall and are deeply committed to continuing to develop this great company and accelerating its turnaround,” said Carlos Tavares, chairman of the Managing Board of PSA
And back in Detroit, despite ending 2016 with $11 billion of cash on the automotive side, the share price took a knock. Why? Well mainly because of President Donald Trump’s threatened wall. A full 14% of vehicles sold in North America are manufactured in Mexico!
Indeed there is more intrigue in the global car field than you will find in the 13th season of the Kardashians… even with Kanye West joining the fray.

Nomical

Astra-Nomical

I felt green to the core. The Vice-President of the United States (US), Al Gore, was coming to South Africa to deliver his An Inconvenient Truth address at Maropeng and I was going to introduce him to a packed audience.
But there was a slight challenge. Gore could only travel from the airport in a small convoy of hybrid vehicles.
A Japanese luxury vehicle manufacturer had recently brought out a range of stunning hybrid SUVs, with enviable fuel consumption and low emissions, and were keen to supply them for the trip to the Cradle of Humankind. But the reply from his office was quite prescriptive; he could only be seen in a hybrid sedan.
This was duly arranged and the Maropeng gathering was supercharged with Gore’s mission to save the planet and how we could make a difference.
The missing link is how did he return to OR Tambo that evening? Well… in a rather large helicopter. In some ways I turned from dark green to light green in a matter of minutes.
Make no bones about it, I’m not saying that we don’t need to preserve fossil fuels and cut down on all forms of pollution. I wouldn’t dare argue with the experts who have exposed holes in the ozone layer and correlate this with dwindling ice caps.
By its very definition, pollution has harmful, and even poisonous, effects and you will find it difficult to get an appointment with an ENT specialist in many of the areas around Africa where industry rules the airwaves.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4198" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Thampapon-Shutterstock.com-002-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" />
And when it comes to vehicle emmissions you can’t help but be totally shocked when the US Environmental Protection Agency calculates that the average passenger car spews out
4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year!
So, for many of us, it was a like Tiger Woods moment when the Volkswagen (VW) scandal over rigged emissions tests broke and our minds went back to the ads for the Beetle comeback which showed flower power over two generations.
It is a gaffe that has denuded faith in VW and is likely to have long term affects on their market value, and possibly even the German economy. It is the biggest crisis in their 78-year history.
Media reports say the overall cost of the debacle could amount to $86 billion – that’s $30 billion more than the BP oil spill in 2010!
VW say that the defeat devices were fitted to around 11 million vehicles worldwide. But it seems not every owner will have to rush to get their cars refitted or reprogrammed. Volkswagen Group South Africa says that no action is required on the part of their customers or dealers.
Here is where things get complicated. According to VW Brand PR Manager Andile Dlamini, the irregularities reported overseas relate to a nitrogen oxide emmission standard known as Euro 5. In South Africa, the compliance standard is EU2.
So the VW and Audi diesel engines in question comply with South Africa’s regulations in relation to nitrogen oxide and, according to Dlamini, the software does not negatively affect the carbon dioxide values – which leaves me feeling that I should have concentrated harder in science class.
So any recall of cars around Africa will depend on that country’s specific emission standards.
Surprisingly, in terms of numbers, this won’t rate among the biggest recalls in history.
The automotive world is still reeling from the defective Takata airbags which can shoot out sharp metal shrapnel when deployed. Around 35 million vehicles may be affected in the US and an additional seven million have been recalled worldwide.
Nearly two dozen brands have been affected in this rather frightening scenario which has left some dealers disabling the airbags and affixing ‘Do Not Sit Here’ stickers to the dashboards as a temporary measure!
If we focus on a single manufacturer, then the recall record goes to Ford in the late seventies. It involved a failed safety catch which allowed all Ford automatics to slip from Park to Reverse with no warning. The safety defect was blamed for 6,000 accidents and 98 deaths. Repairs to 20 million vehicles and a host of law suits reportedly cost Ford $1.79 billion. A fortune back in the day!
It was a testing start for Mary Barra when she took the helm of the General Motors Company (GM) in the midst of a massive recall at the beginning of last year. Under the spotlight of becoming the first woman to head a major automobile manufacturer, she faced revelations about faulty ignition switches and pressure from investors to return more cash to investors.
Listed by FORBES as one of the Top 10 most powerful women in the world, Barra inherited the ‘new’ GM which was founded in 2009 after the trials and tribulations of bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 reorganization. And the leaner operation has been declaring profits since 2010 despite the costly recall and a dip in share prices.
GM sold over 180,000 vehicles in their Africa markets last year – which represents a 10% market share. The President and Managing Director of GM Sub-Saharan Africa, Ian Nicholls, says he is excited about the growth potential of the business.
“We are finalizing the details of our agreement with Isuzu to build higher volumes of vehicles in South Africa. The Isuzu range has a reputation for reliability and capability, and is engineered for local conditions,” says Nicholls.
The Chevrolet portfolio extends from that tiny Spark, through the Captiva, to the daunting Trailblazer. The updated Trailblazer is handily placed to take a slice out of the Fortuner market with an attractive and comfortable cabin, in grey and black trim, and the model I tested with the 2.8-liter Duramax turbodiesel engine has grunt to spare with a fairly stable fuel gauge – well a claimed 8.5l/100km.
Strangely it’s the infotainment system of the beast that impresses me the most. The Chevrolet MyLink setup, with rearview camera included, is the essence of simplicity and makes you wonder why so many German marques make choosing a radio station a life study.
But it’s Opel that is really turning heads and order books.
“The Opel brand is on the rise with sales volumes up more than 76 percent year to date, on the back of a product onslaught,” says Nicholls.
For me one of the surprise packages of the year is the tiny Opel Adam, available in funky guises of Jam and Glam, with a one-liter turbo engine that loves to canter. It’s even more appealing than a Fiat 500 and has more standard features than any luxury car I have tested.
Little wonder it is bagging international awards.
But despite these positive outlooks, GM and virtually all car manufacturers, many surviving as hybrids born of takeovers, must be nervous about further major recalls that could spell financial disaster.
And here’s what will make them even more wary. The British government is to start its own enquiry into car emissions, running new tests on engines from across the industry and comparing the results with on-the-road emissions.
These independent tests could even challenge the claimed fuel consumption figures which, in many cases, seem to have been calculated on some of the steep downhills of the Tour de France.
Accountability is going to be the name of the game.

Tag: Opel Astra

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