Road test
| by Howard Keeg
Trail on Trial
As a grumpy old man I am starting to get frustrated. I am finding it increasingly difficult to find any faults with the
modern motor vehicle, and I am starting to yearn for the good old days.
I
cut my teeth on a 1969 VW Beetle.
It was my pride and joy, and it had
character. The whistling of the air
through the front windows, the high
fuel consumption, the challenging road
holding in high winds, the inability to pass
slow moving trucks against oncoming
traffic 500 metres away, etc. etc.
I could go on and on, but I still loved that
car. If I did a road test on that Beetle, I
would have had a whale of a time.
But today I am being force fed a diet of
very good vehicles, with little to complain
about. It is boring, and it is frustrating.
Take the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV for
example. I took the 2.5D Lt model on
a road test to Malelane and back, a
distance of well over 800km, and when I
got back the trip computer still showed
that I had some 100km left in the tank. So
even though the Trailblazer is a large SUV,
its fuel consumption (apparently 8l/100km)
would have been sensational for my 1600
Beetle sedan. So I can’t complain about
the consumption.
But I did have help – the Trailblazer has
economy gauges that give the ideal
throttle position, and just for good
measure you can also review your
historical fuel economy for the last
50 km. With the Beetle it was just voet
in die hoek! Once again, the Trailblazer
achieves this consumption with the
help of double overhead camshafts, an
aluminium cylinder head, and a highpressure common rail fuel injection
system (apparently 2.0 bar) with
turbocharged and intercooled induction
systems. My Beetle just had a flat four
cylinder engine with “intercooling” from a
rather large fan!
The Trailblazer also has a fancy
infotainment system called MyLink, which
allows for mind blowing integrated media
use. So there goes boredom out of the
window – although my Beetle did have
a rather large aftermarket 8 track tape
player, mounted under the dash, which I
kept on bumping with my knees when I
got into the car.
| words in action
76
august 2014
And I am not even going to get into
comparisons to the reversing camera
–suffice to say that I have a crick in the
neck from my reversal technique of yore.
I could go on and on with the
comparisons, so I will just conclude by
saying that I took a lot of paraphernalia
to the Nelspruit Partinform trade show,
with ease and comfort, and that it would
have been the same if I was carrying six
passengers.
The Trailblazer is a seriously
practical SUV – ‘nuff said.
And if you’re interested,
the 2.5D LT 4x2MT goes for
R386 500,with a 5 year
/ 120 000 km warranty
and roadside assistance
package, as well as a 5 year /
90 000 km service plan.