SATURDAY, 21 MARCH, 2015
Cheap Datsun a bestseller Despite faring rather badly in crash tests, GO sales now dominate SA’s Asegment cars ALWYN VILJOEN SOUTH Africa’s small car buy ers seem to agree with the scorn this paper has heaped on those who worried about the crash test results for the Datsun GO. The nifty little budget car fared rather badly in India’s crash tests, but this paper said those results only put the GO in the good company of all the other excellent budget cars that had also failed the tests — but still sell in their thousands each week on the subcontinent. For the reality is, most Indi ans and South Africans are des perate for cheaper cars, not safer cars. Of course, we need safer driving, but this author argues our roads can be made safer by changing our driver attitudes
and selling cars that cannot go over 120 km/h. To change attitudes, we should follow Australia’s exam ple and use gory images of fatal crashes that will burn into the mind of every motorist how easy things can and do go wrong. As for slower cars, what the crash testers don’t tell you — but paramedics do — is that even with a seat belt on, the crumple zones and air bags all fail to protect a car’s occupants at the combined high speeds of most crashes in SA. Last Sunday’s tragic deaths of two police officers and minis ter Collins Chabane on the N1, when the EuroNcap fivestar rated VW they were travelling in hit a truck at over 150 km/h bears this out.
“What the crash testers don’t tell you — but paramedics do — is that the crumple zones and air bags all fail to protect a car’s occupants at the combined high speeds of most crashes in SA.”
Longest road trip for robot car
Delphi auto tech company has equipped this Audi SQ5 to drive itself across the United States from tomorrow, on what is says will be the longest autonomous drive by a car yet. PHOTO: DELPHI ALWYN VILJOEN BRITISHBASED multinational company Del phi Automotive starts what it says is the longest coasttocoast automated drive in the United States tomorrow. They company has equipped an Audi Q5 to test and demonstrate Delphi’s sensors and sys tems. Starting near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Audi will drive itself across America along a 5 600 km journey to New York. Inside, Delphi has installed a more advanced system that Audi has in their A7 robot car “Jack”, which Audi had earlier this year driven 885 km across California. “Jack” was only allowed to drive on highways, and is programmed to insist a human take over in urban areas. Inside Delphi’s Audi, four shortrange radars, three visionbased cameras, six lidars, a localisa tion system, intelligent software algorithms and a full suite of advanced drive assistance systems, all help to steer the car on any street, anywhere. Six Delphi engineers will rotate on shifts in the Q5 on the route, as U.S. laws still require self drive cars to have a human in them at all times. • Follow the trip @DelphiAuto #DelphiDrive.
The phenomenal sales of the GO show the public doesn’t mind less safe, slower new cars, as long as they are affordable. Datsun this week said the GO had accounted for between 27% and 34% of all Asegment new vehicles sold in South Afri ca every month since October last year. Speaking at the company’s first dealer meeting held in Jo hannesburg on March 11, Dat sun South Africa GM Des Fen ner said the GO will remain priced at around the R100 000 threshold until the end of April, with payments from R1 200 per month (excluding monthly fi nance service fees of R57 and mandatory insurances, as well as a onceoff payment of R1 140, inclusive of VAT.) Repayments on the GO are less than that on a new Zero electric motorbike, which is due to arrive in SA in May. “This echoes our brand promise of offering an afforda ble, reliable and modern vehicle to South Africans who aspire to owning a vehicle of their own to unlock their economic po tential. We are committed to this and will continue to offer products that meet the needs of South Africans,” said Fenner.
Cheaper than a big motorbike, but a lot safer: The Datsun GO grabbed a third of the cheap car market since it launch last year. PHOTO: QUICKPIC