SATURDAY, 12 MARCH, 2016
Kind to pedestrians SA’s car of the year for 2015 is the big, luxurious Volvo XC90 sport ute ALWYN VILJOEN THE country’s top car writers this year heeded criticism and elected as South Africa’s car of the year not a Porsche, but a Volvo. The XC90, to be precise, and the big sport ute is a deserving winner on our roads if only because its Swedish designers engineered it to go soft on pe destrians. In South Africa, pedestrians form over 40% of fatalities from road collisions, often contributing to the crash in the first place by walking in dark clothes in the road at night or — dare we point out — slowly cycling on fastmoving mo torways. Any technology that will help to bring down this horror statistic deserves a win. Volvo dealers had in February handed the keys to 43 new XC90 units to their new owners. This sounds low, but among the competitors in this league, BMW moved 55 X6 models, Porsche sold 46 Cayennes and Audi signed over 48 Q7s over the same period. And Subaru, a manufacturer widely lauded for offering the most value in the allwheeldrive segment, sold only 50 units across the range. Time will now tell whether this latest award in over 60 accolades for the XC90 will help sell more of the 14 derivatives of the XC90 that Volvo exports to South Africa. Prices start at R841 800 and move in jumps of about R10k to top out at R1 117 700, and at least one Wheels24 reader has already posted that the Car of the Year awards always seem to be awarded only to topend vehicles with prices that are out of the reach of average buyers’ budgets. To which this author would like to re mind budget buyers that Ford Fiesta had been a Car of the Year winner once, back in 1998. And with Volvo, you are not paying
Durban’s Casey Hornsby with the Tata Bolt she won with her social media skills. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Tata reveals car winner
See where the money goes: The interior of the 2016 Volvo XC90 Excellence is aimed at rich Chinese owners, who like to be driven and demand ultraluxurious accommodation in the rear seat. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
“Time will now tell whether this latest award in over 60 accolades for the XC90 will help sell more of the 14 derivatives of the XC90 that Volvo exports to South Africa.” mostly for the badge. Put foot and you immediately feel where all that money went. Even the “entry level” D4 front wheel
drive produces 140 kW and 400 Nm, giving the bulky car a grininducing, 0100 km run in under eleven seconds. The top end T8 allwheeldrive Rde
sign almost halves this time with its elec tricpetrol combo powertrain that push es out numbers that would make a train driver jealous — 300 kW and 640 Nm.
Key Durban helps Eston pupils achieve their dreams A DREAM to produce matriculants in the Eston community near Durban has finally been realised. Uminathi Christian College, that was officially launched this year, was born out of the desperate need for a high school in the area. Previously, many barefoot pupils had to walk for more than 20 km to the nearest high school every day. Opened under the guidance and man agement of headmistress Zanele Shange, the R500 000 Uminathi Christian Col lege upgrade was made possible by fund raising done by nonprofit organisation, the Robin Hood Foundation and the GM ChildLife Foundation through the Key Durban dealership. Uminathi Christian College was built on land donated by Macala Gwala Tradi tional Council and boasts six classrooms to accommodate the 78 pupils. Shange started off by renting four classrooms on the premises of the Mbutho Primary School for Grade 8 and 9 pupils who are now all housed at the new school, together with additional Grade 10 pupils. “I am so grateful for the new class
Renewed hope: Pupils of the Uminathi Christian College celebrate the opening of three brand new classrooms at their school. PHOTO: QUICKPIC rooms. Thanks to this generous dona tion we are one step further to realising our dream of producing the first matric ulants at the school in 2018,” said an elat ed Shange. Key Durban managing director Glynn Crookes said it was an honour to provide the pupils with an environment in which they can grow and learn. “With a school
closer to home, more youngsters can be come educated in the Eston area. We wish all of the pupils that will pass through the school in years to come ev ery success,” said Crookes. The dealership regularly supports the efforts of Robin Hood Foundation in KwaZuluNatal and took the initiative to apply to the GM ChildLife Foundation
for funding to support this project. The GM ChildLife Foundation is an initia tive of General Motors South Africa (GMSA), its dealer network and GMSA Financial Services. Over the last five years the GM Child Life Foundation invested R15 million in 61 child focused projects countrywide. — Supplied.
CASEY Hornsby of Durban not only won a new Tata Bolt after winning the recent WinaBolt national promotion as first re ported on in Wheels last year, but also got a very worthwhile contribution of R25 000 towards her studies. Hornsby, a secondyear BCom student at Varsity College, West ville, took the cash instead of a job with Tata Motors, as she first wants to complete her studies before starting work. Besides the generous contribu tion towards her studies, Horns by has been offered an interview with the possibility of an intern ship with Tata Motors when her studies are completed. The competition, which ran from October 2015 to the end of January, offered the winner not only a new Bolt hatchback, but also a job with Tata Motors. En trants were required to create their own Bolt advertisement highlighting their love for this small hatchback, a new arrival in SA from Tata Motors. The entrants had to ensure that the advertisement involved a real Tata Bolt by either going to a dealership or attending a shopping mall activation. The ad vertisement could take the form of an image, a video or an arti cle which had to be uploaded to www.boltpromotions.co.za. Entrants were encouraged to share their entry and drum up votes. Entrants who got more than 100 votes and who had driven a test car or engaged at a mall activation qualified as fi nalists. All the finalists were then loaded onto Facebook for a final round of public voting in which the advertisement with the most votes was declared the winner. All the finalists had also been requested to send their CV to Tata Motors because a job rele vant to the winner’s qualifica tions was part of the prize. “We were delighted at the re sponse to this competition which required all the entrants to try and think out of the box,” said Kyri Michael, the CEO of Accor dian Investments, which markets Tata cars and light commercials in South Africa. — Supplied.