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Baie jare gelede was ‘n goeie vriend van my skakelbeampte by Volkswagen in Duitsland en het my met groot entoesiasme vertel van hulle 4×4 voertuig wat ‘n jaar of vier later bekendgestel sou word. Dit het toe geblyk die Touareg te wees en het ek die besonderse voorreg gehad om die eerste Suid-Afrikaner te wees om die Touareg op Volkswagen se veldterrein te bestuur. Daarna het die Touareg hier aangekom en vir hom ‘n nismark uitgeslaan.
This weekend I had the fortunate experience of testing a car that I had recently experienced on its media launch. Living with a car for a few days is completely different to chasing five identical cars through carefully selected scenery in an adult adaptation of who-can-get-there-first.
Pull up a chair and settle down in the middle of obscurity and the apex of pleasantness. Volkswagen’s Passat has always been an agreeable motor car which few people understood, especially since the favoured four-door Volksie sedan on local shores has long been the Jetta.
I’m quite sure that I’ve mentioned my love for coupés before, so our invitation to the new Volkswagen Scirocco R launch in Durban resulted in a brief rock-paper-scissors competition at the office, won by yours truly. Perhaps I cheated, perhaps I didn’t, but a few days later I was jetted off to KZN.
Met die bekendstelling van die nuwe Fluence, was die plaaslike bestuur van Renault baie eerlik om te erken dat alles die afgelope paar jaar in Suid-Afrika nie reg geloop het nie. Hulle is ook baie ernstig om dit reg te stel en om so die negatiewe persepsies wat kopers van die modelle en diens het, om te swaai.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-January this year, the world’s toughest rally concluded in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 2011 (and 32nd) Dakar rally concluded after 13 gruelling stages through Argentina and Chile’s amazing but demanding scenery.
Who would’ve thought that one day you’d be reading about an exciting new luxury car from Hyundai, or discover that the car in question manages to turn heads and initiate fights between motoring journalists when the keys are being handed out.
When the cat’s away, the mice will play. No sooner had our senior journalist boarded an Airbus bound for Germany and I took charge of the office. I rearranged all thumbtacks, drank all the coffee, put my feet on the desk and got myself invited to the launch of the new Volkswagen Amarok.
Oor minder as ‘n maand gaan die poppe dans as Volkswagen van Suid-Afrika hulle nuwe Amarok bakkie op die mark plaas. Self nog nie die bakkie gesien en ervaar nie maar van my kollegas het al in Suid-Amerika, waar hy sy oorsprong het, met hom gery en was in die wolke oor sy verrigting – en waar hy orals kan gaan.
Peugeot van Suid-Afrika het vergeet om ons te nooi na die bekendstelling van hulle jongste model in Suid-Afrika. Maar dis nie die ergste nie; sover het ek nog nie van hulle gehoor dat hulle vir die kanniedood Peugeot 404 vanjaar ‘n 50-jarige partytjie gaan geen nie. Hierdie model, wat in 1960 bekendgestel is, het in Suid-Afrika (en Oos-Afrika) baie diep spore getrap.