I had the fantastic opportunity recently to spend some time at the offices of CAR Magazine and find out how the leading motoring publication in the country is put together.
In addition to meeting the talented and inspiring team of journalists, art directors and road test engineers who put together the magazine, I also wrote a few articles which were posted on the magazine’s website (www.carmag.co.za).
Below is one of these articles which was later published in the October 2010 edition of the magazine. It is a piece on the return of the Lancia Stratos. You can still pick up a copy of the October issue which will remain on sale until the end of next week.
I remember Hyundai’s mid-90s inception into the South African market rather well – at least, as well as an 8-year old boy possibly could.
A close neighbourhood friend at the time stayed directly across the road from me and his dad purchased a bottle green Hyundai Accent almost as soon as the vehicle was launched here.
1995 Accent - one of the first Hyundai models to reach South Africa
For many years, Hyundai’s were the source of plenty of sniggers in the highly badge-conscious market we find ourselves in. Not only were they burdened with a name initially pronounced as everything from “Hun-die” to “Hi-yoon-die”, but many thought the Korean manufacturer’s badge design mimicked that of Honda’s a little bit too closely for comfort, creating an early perception of Hyundai as an inferior, copycat brand in relation to its more established brethren. A similar modern-day comparison can be seen should one peruse the exterior design of the GWM Florid, which looks exactly like a Toyota Yaris.
Early Hyundai models also suffered from rounded, lacklustre designs that mimicked big blobs of jelly – the luminescent colours many of them were painted in further highlighted how fitting they’d look when drenched in some custard.
Of course, at just eight years old, I never realised too much of the above. The chance to go for a drive in my neighbour’s brand new car was always welcomed. But it was a drive to Hyundai’s Open Day in Cape Town that I will never forget.
All new Hyundai owners could enter the event free of charge and the festivities were off the scale, including free everything – food, carnival rides and even a trip in a helicopter!
Here was clearly an automotive brand pulling out all the stops to prove to its throng of new supporters that they had all made the right decision to purchase a bright Hyundai instead of a white Corolla like the rest of the country.
15 years later, and it appears that Hyundai has more than lived up to the fanfare I witnessed on that mammoth Open Day. It is not at all uncommon to find Hyundai Accents well over 10 years old still trundling along on our roads. Initially Hyundai’s South African staple model, Accents have proven to be tough little cars from the get-go.
However, it was the Hyundai Getz that really found its way into the hearts of local buyers, its cheeky good looks a departure from the aforementioned bubble designs. In terms of sheer ability, the Getz more than held its own against the previous generation Polo.
But beyond their practical strengths, it took just one casual observation a few days ago to realise how far Hyundai has come; I spotted the new Sonata in a parking lot and next to it stood a current BMW 3 Series. A little reminder is in order before I go on – the Sonata of the 90s looked particularly horrible when parked alongside the E36 3 series of that decade.
The classy new Sonata
And yet here, in 2010, the Korean looked vastly more striking than the German. Perhaps the BMW’s ubiquity has something to do with that, but I believe much of it is down to Hyundai having established itself so well in the areas of reliability and value, that the brand now possesses the confidence to endow its designs with some real fluidity and emotion.
The iX35 SUV is another case in point, coming across as a thoroughly modern shape and one that turns heads for the right reasons. A stint in both an i20 Hyundai and a Toyota Auris is enough to demonstrate that the gap in quality hasn’t shrunk – it has closed.
Beyond its dramatic progress throughout the model range, Hyundai is also fresh from its participation in the 2010 Fifa World Cup as official automotive host.
From above: The striking iX35 and the neat i20
Other than a Topgear comment I sniggered at some time ago about the Atos being “uglier than a bucket of smashed crabs”, finding negative talk about any Hyundai in 2010 is mostly a futile exercise.
Together with Kia, Korean automobiles have established themselves comfortably amongst the best of their European counterparts and as an option that should be on the shortlist of anyone looking to buy a new vehicle.
I think most car fanatics can trace way back to the very first cars that caught their attention; for me, it started when I was just 3 with my mother’s E23 BMW 728i – of course, I was just 3 and it was nothing more than a big, white, amazing beast that I didn’t know too much about.
Two years later, however, and I was already noticing features on cars and picking up bits of detailed information about them that no kid that young had any business doing.
This brings me to a sunny Sunday afternoon in the early nineties. I think I was about five years old when my parents took me along to test drive one of the cars that was largely responsible for igniting my passion for all things motoring.
You may be surprised then, to know that the car in question was an ultra-conservative, beige-hued 1984 Mazda 626 SLE. It certainly didn’t look like much and was pretty much your typical Japanese sedan – a promise of much reliability but not much to stimulate the adrenal glands.
Mazda also produced coupe and hatchback versions of the '80s 626
This Mazda, however, was an amazing car (by the way, my parents were smitten with the thing and quickly banished any thoughts of the alternative, a Ford Sierra 2,3 GLE) for a number of reasons.
It was the range-topping SLE, automatic model (my mom only ever drove an automatic, being convinced that all manuals were rubbish and the work of the devil) and it served as the family car for around seven years.
We were a family of six and we spent much of that time living on a virtual farm off a terrible dirt road in the Southern Suburbs. Needless to say, CA 378-318 didn’t have anything close to an easy life.
My dad’s carpeting business at the time meant that the boot was always filled to capacity with carpet samples.
But it is the features fitted to this dogged Mazda that amazed me. It sang a little song at every available opportunity: one when the boot wasn’t closed properly, one when a door hadn’t been closed and one when the fuel level dropped down too low.
Bizarrely, I still remember the exact tune of each warning jingle to this very day...
The SLE came with air-conditioning, power steering, often-faulty central locking, electric windows and mirrors, an alarm clock (taking the grand total of tunes inside the car to a stunning four!) and by far my favourite feature, electrically moveable air vents!
These amazing vents moved on their own from side to side, very effectively circulating air around the vehicle. I thought – and still think – they’re an amazingly practical feature and I don’t understand why no other manufacturer seems to have caught on.
Sadly, in the latter half of the car’s life, use of the air conditioner resulted in all kinds of mechanical shudders so the electric vents soldiered on only as a party trick.
Then, there was the driving experience. Of course, I never got to drive it myself (although I did mischievously start it up when my mother ran into a florist one day…) but my parents both maintain it was one of the easiest, smoothest cars they’d driven. This, despite us having owned quite a few BMWs back in the day.
The 626 had a 2,0-litre, carburettor-fed SOHC motor mated to a 3-speed auto. Archaic by today’s standards, but the car itself was really nippy for what it was.
By the end of its tenure with us, it had accumulated well over 300 000kms, scraped its bodywork on the nasty 15-inch rubber we fitted to it countless times and showed some signs of rust.
But like so many cars that appear absolutely ordinary, this Mazda had a certain inexplicable spark about it and ever since, I have harboured a soft spot for the brand that has Zoom-zoomed its way to making far smarter, sleeker and faster cars.
None of which are fitted with the SLE’s quirky electric air vents…
