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What you need to know: I hope you don’t know me personally because you’re bound to have heard the following rant on repeat… I miss boxy, practical SUV’s. There weren’t many to start with, mostly the Nissan X-Trail and Land-Rover Freelander or Discovery, but all of them were instantly recognisable and incredibly practical.
Dié wat Nissan/Datsun uit vergange dae ken weet dat perde uit hierdie stal saam met die vinniges kon hardloop, lang asems het en ook saam met die trekperde voor ‘n swaar gelaaide wa hulle ding kan doen. Betroubaarheid en bruikbaarheid was een van die dinge wat jy met die rooi-en-wit logo geassosieer het. Boonop is daar verskeie lande, onder andere Australië, waar die Nissan Patrol onder die “regte” 4X4’s die topverkoper is!
Nissan het vroeër vanjaar die derde generasie X-Trail in Suid-Afrika aan die media bekend gestel. Dit volg op die sukses van die Qashqai en hy lyk baie meer na hierdie kleiner boetie as die hoekige vorm van die vorige X-Trail. Van voor is die indentiteit van die handelsmerk baie duidelik sigbaar.
Last Friday the phone rang and someone announced that they were bringing around a cougar. As I wasn’t sure which sort of man-eater to expect, I locked all doors, put on aftershave and armed myself with a bottle of gin. Imagine my surprise when the unwanted guest turned out to be Ford’s new-ish SUV, the Kuga.
I think I may be in trouble here; after a business emergency prompted my premature exit from the recent Nissan X-Trail launch I completely forgot to write a report on the face-lifted car. In all fairness, I never drove the new X-Trail until my press demonstrator arrived last week.
I’m assuming that some of you have just returned from a long, hot and tiresome holiday trip ready to trade in the spouse’s ageing wheels. In your absence, most dealerships have steam-cleaned the driveway, topped up the coffee machine and are waiting (some, anxiously) for your visit.
Ideally you only get married once in your life and the general consensus is that you share the memorable day with loved ones and friends. As a fully paid up member of the latter group I was kindly invited to attend the big day of two great friends in an idyllic getaway resort on the wrong side of Riviersonderend.
Renault’s latest television commercial will have us believe that people have been using their dependable French cars as adventurous off-roaders for quite some time, which makes the first four-wheel-drive Renault a kind of big deal.