Car & Gadget Reviews
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The AA provides opinions on burning industry issues, gives invaluable travel and motoring tips and provides useful information on our products and services.
| F1 2012 - Indian Summer | ||
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With just three races remaining Sebastian Vettel is tightening his grip on the Formula One World Championship but Fernando is keeping his hopes alive with some brilliant driving. | |
| F1 2012 - Indian Summer | ||
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The moment of truth has arrived and Mark Webber has stated very publically that because he still has a mathematical chance of winning the championship he would not move over if his championship-leading Red Bull team mate was behind him. That clears that one up and paves the way for an interesting Indian Grand Prix on Sunday… | |
| F1 2012 - Vettel Victorious | ||
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Back to back wins for reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel have put him firmly in the driving seat – well, almost. | |
| F1 2012 - The Final Countdown | ||
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The driver marker is hotting up as the 2012 FIA Formula One world championship enters its final phase… and the sport’s main man is key to the changes that are gathering pace. | |
| F1 2012 - Night Flight | ||
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They say you make your own luck, and a couple of F1 drivers clearly live by that philosophy. | |
| F1 2012 - Fast and Furious | ||
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Once again, Formula One put all its diverse ingredients into the pot and cooked up a race weekend that had everyone guessing almost until the last lap, the end result being a podium with a slightly unusual complexion and a championship battle that remains wide open. | |
| F1 2012 - The Italian Job | ||
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The high-speed Monza circuit this weekend is the venue for round 13 of the FIA Formula One series. And things are hotting up as the championship enters a critical phase... | |
| F1 2012 - Crash Boom Bang | ||
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The five-week break for the high-speed Formula One circus ended with a bang at the Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium’s Ardennes region, and Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better. | |
| F1 2012 - F1 is a Go! | ||
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The moment of truth has arrived: the second phase of the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship gets underway on Sunday after a five-week Summer break. | |
| Showtime | ||
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If you’re looking for something to do in Gauteng this warm and sunny weekend, get down to Nasrec for the Association of Motorcycle Importers and Distributors (AMiD) show at Expo Centre, Nasrec. | |
| F1 2012 - Feeling the Heat | ||
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Lewis Hamilton’s win at the Hungaroring on Sunday suggests that Fernando Alonso isn’t going to have it easy in his bid for the 2012 world championship. And his Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa isn’t helping either. | |
| F1 2012 - Hungary for Action? | ||
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The Formula One circus heads eastward and on to Hungary this weekend, with the tension hopefully ratcheting up a notch too. | |
| F1 2012 - Alonso Takes Charge | ||
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The German GP at Hockenheim on Sunday produced another humdinger of a race, with the championship pecking order starting to develop some kind of structure. | |
| F1 2012 - Halfway There | ||
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As the FIA Formula One World Championship reaches its halfway point at Germany’s Hockenheimring this coming weekend, we can look back on a season that has been remarkable. | |
| F1 2012 - Sunday, Sunny, Sunday | ||
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Mark Webber became the second double GP winner this year with a well-judged victory in a – thankfully – dry British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday, 8 July, 2012. | |
| Snake Oil | ||
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Get-rich-quick schemes, hard-to-believe diet plans, anti-aging treatments and fuel-saving devices all fall into the same category: most sound too good to be true, and inevitably are! | |
| Geely Crosses Over | ||
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The Geely LC Cross is SA’s smallest SUV. Motoring editor Adrian Burford heads to the far east (Hoedspruit in this case) to drive it in and around the spectacular Kapama private game reserve. | |
| F1 2012 - Open Season | ||
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A long European tour (six races) gets underway in Valencia, Spain this weekend. | |
| F1 2012 - Lewis…At Last! | ||
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Like Monaco, the circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada is a street circuit, but in actual fact they couldn’t be more different. The one provided a procession, the other a real race. | |
| Back to Basics | ||
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The Tazz became a legend in its own lifetime…Toyota hopes that the Etios will do the same. | |
| F1 2012 - Sun City | ||
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It has always been controversial as a Formula One venue, but Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix has raised Adrian Burford’s ire. | |
| F1 2012 - F1 at the Seaside | ||
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The last weekend in May means its Monaco, a race which more or less guarantees drama. Let’s hope no one crashes in the tunnel this time round! | |
| Freeways Still Free | ||
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How many ways are there to skin a cat? If it is the motoring public, there are many – especially in a country where there is a sorry lack of decent public transport, forcing the vast majority of economically productive people to commute by car. | |
| F1 2012 - Williams Reigns in Spain | ||
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Guessing a winner in Formula One isn’t getting any easier, and we may just get six from six after Monaco on 27 May … | |
| Reinventing the Wheel | ||
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Honda’s innovative U3-X gives a new meaning to the phrase ‘personal transport’. | |
| F1 2012 - Lotus Looking Good | ||
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The next, and fifth, chapter in what is turning out to be a thriller of an F1 season gets underway this weekend in May 2012. | |
| F1 2012 - Feeling Bullish | ||
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The Bahrain Grand Prix last Sunday has given the sport food for thought, though tyre issues were somewhat overshadowed by reigning champion Sebastian Vettel taking his first win of the season. | |
| Twin Peaks | ||
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Want some driving pleasure and visual appeal from a Korean middleweight? The Kia Optima might just fit the bill. | |
| F1 2012 - Thriller | ||
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Round three of the FIA Formula One world championship in Shanghai on Sunday produced a third winner – and some interesting ‘firsts’. | |
| Big Mac | ||
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In this job (writing about cars) you have rare ‘must’ve-died-and-gone-to-heaven’ moments that make up for a dozen ordinary cars tenfold. I’ve just had one. | |
| F1 2012 - The Sleeping Giant | ||
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This weekend sees the hosting of the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Soon they’ll be on the track as well as in the grandstands, it seems. | |
| Pedal Power | ||
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South Africa, or South Africans, don’t seem to be able to get their head around the idea of a bicycle as a commuting solution. Adrian Burford wonders why. | |
| F1 2012 - A Very Mixed Bag | ||
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Guessing a winner in Formula One isn’t going to be easy this year, and torrential rain plus a series of unpredictable events made it doubly so in Malaysia on Sunday. | |
| F1 2012 - Melbourne | ||
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Hopefully, winning the season-opener at the beautiful Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia on March 18 will make people sit up and take notice - not that they should’ve let Jenson Button disappear off their radar in the first place. | |
| Hyundai Elantra wins COTY 2012 | ||
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Hyundai’s Elantra has scooped the 2012 Wesbank Car of the Year award, marking the first time a Korean brand has taken top honours. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Citroen makes waves with DS4 | ||
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The DS4 follows in the footsteps of the DS3, and being short-listed as a finalist for the local Car of the Year is an achievement in itself. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Take the Bus | ||
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I suspect that the South African Car of the Year competition – based on the history of recent victors – unwittingly conspires against specialised vehicles such as MPVs, SUVs and double cabs. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Alfa Doing Better | ||
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Alfa Romeo is trying to rebuild in South Africa, a market where it once had a large and loyal following. COTY honours for the Giulietta 1.4 Distinctive would be a great stimulus. | |
| Motorsportsman | ||
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With all the hype and excitement surrounding the Wesbank Car of the Year competition it is easy to overlook the achievements of the individuals in motorsport, and the Guild of Motoring Journalists, with sponsor Bridgestone, annually hand out a Motor Sportsman of the Year award. | |
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| COTY Countdown 2012 - Jetta Standard-Setter | ||
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Betta Getta Jetta…if you’re 45 or older, you may remember the refrain from the car’s advertising campaign in the early 1980s, with the original Jetta (then very much a Golf with luggage space) using some clever wordplay to get people interested. Adrian Burford looks at its COTY chances. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Focussed Enough? | ||
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Some good points and some mediocre ones leave Adrian Burford pondering the Ford’s COTY chances. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Fast, Stylish, Safe but Still not the COTY King | ||
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Probably the easiest car to eliminate from the 2012 COTY running is the Mercedes-Benz 350 SLK, the most expensive of the 10 cars in the competition. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Small, but Perfectly Formed | ||
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Mirror, mirror on the wall, is the Kia Picanto the fairest of them all? Many pundits see the little Korean - the cheapest car in the 2012 Wesbank Car of the Year competition - as a likely winner. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Is the Suzuki 2.4 SDLX Manual the Best Car in the Land? | ||
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Number three in our countdown to the announcement of the winner of the South African Car of the Year title on March 14 is Suzuki’s compact middleweight sedan. | |
| Peugeot Maintenance | ||
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If you’re going to talk the talk, then you have to walk the walk. And every brand out there will tell you that they’re working hard and making big strides with customer car and aftersales support. Problem it is hard to quantify this unless you’re an owner and even then, it is still a sample of one and statisticians will tell you about samples of a small size… | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Hyundai Take on the Establishment in Local Car of the Year | ||
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The Hyundai Elantra has just been announced as the North American Car of the Year, and I’m not surprised. In fact, I reckon it’s the hot favourite to win here, come the announcement of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists’ COTY on March 14. | |
| COTY Countdown 2012 - Is the Audi A6 the Best Car in the Land? | ||
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Over the coming weeks we’ll take a look at the 10 finalists in the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists’ Wesbank-sponsored Car of the Year competition for 2012, focussing on them one by one - and in no particular order - as we count down to the announcement of the winner on March 14. | |
| Citroen’s C4 Makes the Grade | ||
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The business of evaluating modern cars is fraught with challenges: after living with a carefully-designed assemblage of space-age technology, advanced safety features and high-tech materials for a week, we’re meant to be able to confidently decide whether it is good, bad or indifferent and impart this information to you in a few hundred words. | |
| Beauty Maybe Skin Deep? | ||
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I desperately wanted to like the Alfa Romeo 159 1750 TBi Progression: it is a truly beautiful car, or as the Italians would say - Bellissimo! I love that long bonnet with the heart-shaped emblem at its prow, the slender light clusters and almost delicate doorhandles... | |
| The Bear Facts | ||
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In the Summer 2011/12 issue of the AA Traveller, on sale now, we evaluate four ‘chirpy cheapies’ in our Driving Evaluation section, and here’s one which we couldn’t fit into the mix due to space constraints. | |
| World's Fastest Ever Crash Test | ||
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This is the terrifying moment a Ford Focus smashes into a solid concrete wall at 120mph (192km/h) in the world's fastest ever crash test. Industry experts EuroNCAP normally crash vehicles at speeds of 40mph (64km/h) when giving production cars a safety rating. | |
| New Sedan Moves Peugeot Upmarket | ||
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Peugeot’s new 508 executive sedan adds up to 13 if you crunch the numbers, but they’re not worried about that. In fact, 50 is the number they’re after, and that’s what they hope to sell on a monthly basis. | |
| COTY Winner… Not as Good as Baby Brother? | ||
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The South African Guild of Motoring Journalists, custodians of the Wesbank-sponsored Car of the Year Competition (COTY), announced at the recent Johannesburg Motor Show its 10 finalists for 2012. And it they’re a talented bunch, almost making me glad not to be a judge any longer… | |
| JIMS to Open its Doors on Thursday | ||
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Make sure your best walking shoes are in order and get ready for a feast of cars, accessories, 4x4s and much more, because JIMS is in town! Adrian Burford gives the inside line on what you can expect at the continent’s biggest motoring show. | |
| Good Fortune With the Toyota Fortuner - Adrian Burford test drives the new Toyota Fortuner | ||
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Toyota’s Fortuner is one of the most desired vehicles on the market and the sales figures prove it. In August they sold just over 1 700 of their rugged 7-seater. Motoring Editor Adrian Burford flies to Zambia to drive the Toyota Fortuner to Lake Kariba. | |
| Toyota Adds Emotional Appeal to its Cruiser Range | ||
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AA Traveller’s motoring editor Adrian Burford has been motoring around in the Swag mobile, or to give it its proper name, the Toyota FJ Cruiser. And it is a real showstopper, creating more excitement than cars costing three times as much. | |
| Something Great is Coming - Suzuki Kizashi | ||
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Well, that’s what Suzuki would like us to think and the arrival to which they refer is of the Kizashi – which in English translates to ‘Something Great is Coming’. In terms of the cars Suzuki is traditionally known for it is great too – in physical dimensions anyway. | |
| It's Very Evoque-ative | ||
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For a few glorious hours I was part of the in-crowd, even though I don't own a Blackberry. Adrian Burford cracks an invite to the South African unveiling of the Evoque. | |
| Sun Like it Hot - BMW 6-Series | ||
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Nope, no Lotto win in this household, but I have been lucky enough to have a BMW 650i convertible in my driveway for the last week, which certainly had some of my neighbours wondering whether my luck had changed. | |
| X Marks the Spot - Adrian Burford test drives the new Subaru Forester X | ||
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Every great car needs an X-factor and I reckon the latest Subaru Forester has got it. I’ve long been a Forester fan: few other cars are so obviously functional as the Japanese all-wheel-drive wagon, combining an exceptionally rugged design with acres of cabin space…it’s exactly what you need if you have a genuinely active lifestyle. | |
| Great Wall Motors Striving for Greatness | ||
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The days when people knocked Japanese brands have long since passed, and the time when Korean cars were the butt of various jokes are also a fading memory. Fortunately, we still have the Chinese to ridicule when it comes to things automotive, but I suspect the mirth may soon be replaced by admiration. | |
| Born to Serve | ||
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Modern production methods have seen the quality gap between cheap cars and expensive cars close dramatically in the last decade, and today it is the purchasing and aftersales experience which influences long-term customer loyalty. | |
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| Bountiful Boot for Polo | ||
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Volkswagen’s much-awaited Polo sedan is finally here, giving the brand a veritable arsenal in the important B-segment battleground. The sedan joins the hatchback (available since January 2010) as one of the premium offerings in the segment... | |
| Micra's Indian Summer | ||
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Car launches are the staple diet of the mainstream motoring media and a lot of them – living year in and year out in a bubble of suspended reality where the stay in hotels and drive cars which they’d never normally be able to afford – are a notoriously hard bunch to please... | |
| Home from Home | ||
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There’s never been a better time to be a soccer mom and the latest-generation of multi-purpose vehicles make transporting kids and their accoutrements easier than ever. Not only that, but there’s a stylish new wind blowing through the sector... | |
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| Small Wonder | ||
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There’s a lot to be said for owning a really compact car, especially if you’re a suburbanite. Ease of parking and general manoeuvrability are just obvious two advantages which spring to mind, but there’s more, says Adrian Burford. | |
| It’s Showtime | ||
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Motor shows…they’re the bread and butter of the industry, acting as the perfect medium to reveal the new and the innovative, show off the weird and the wonderful, measure public response to futuristic design trends, and to give car-mad men the opportunity to check out the girls. | |
| Production Slowdown | ||
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The after-effects of natural disasters in northern Japan is starting to impact on car production around the world, with South Africa likely to be affected in the longer term. Car plants as far away as Louisiana in the USA are starting to experience fallout from Japan’s earthquake/tsunami disasters... |
| Amarok Rolls in | ||
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Technology generally moves slowly in the 'bakkie' market and the double cab has remained, to all intents and purposes, largely unchanged since Toyota introduced the first one back in the early 1980. But the latest generation – and specifically the brand-new... | |
| French Flair and More | ||
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Read a driving impression of a French car on the internet and as surely as night follows day the brickbats fly thick and fast where there's a forum for reader responses. There's nary a good word to be said about anything automotive from the land of Paris, pastis and... |
| Could This Be Purr-fection...? | ||
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Grace, space, and pace... traditional Jaguar traits and the new XJ has all three in spades. Jaguar has come out fighting in the luxury super-sedan segment with the XJ, two letters which have adorned big, luxurious cats for the last 40 years. But this isn’t... | |
| The Range Rover... 40, Not Out | ||
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The Range Rover idea was born in 1966, as was the author. It went on sale in 1970 and is still going strong 40 years on. Adrian Burford peers into the past and pays tribute to a special motor car... | |
| A Bit of a Goddess - Adrian Burford test drives the new Citroën DS3 | ||
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They're calling it the coolest car of its generation, possibly of all times. The car in question is the brand new Citroën DS3 and 'they' is the world's motoring media. I have to agree with them: Citroën's new small car is quite something... | |
| Boost Your Battery Life | ||
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Flat batteries are one of the most common reasons the AA is calling out to assist stranded motorist. Over 80,000 battery-related calls are attended to each year. To prevent you from becoming part of that statistic the AA has put together a list of tips to get the most out of your battery. | |
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