Replacing a legend
is always such a tough ask. For anyone. For General Motors, moving from the Opel Corsa Utility to the Chevrolet Corsa Utility could have turned ugly, seeing as how loved this little ute
was. However, things stayed exactly the same, in fact in some cases they even
improved, illustrating just how ingrained
this worker ant has become in the minds of South Africans. Now GM SA is about
to test these loyalties once again
by launching the brand new Chevrolet
Utility.
Notice the absence of the word “Corsa” from anywhere on the car. They’ve dropped it in favour of plain Utility.
It might get some getting used to, but on the other hand some were already
calling the old car Utility or Ute anyway. Smooth
transition is therefore expected on this front.
Speaking of front,
the car looks quite fantastic when approaching.
The high Chevrolet front grille is quite pronounced. Both it and the almost trapezoidal headlights dominate the
front end and give the car a formidable
presence. The side area features a very useful stepper and three hooks on the load box. Hooks should always be
outside, not inside this box as it makes tying things up much simpler. You’ll
see the rear door has a lowered entry point which assists when glancing backwards via the mirror or rear glass.
Most of it was designed and developed by our BRICS friends over in Brazil,
underlining just how important these markets have become in the world stage. Bakkies (pickups) in general are only
popular in places like South Africa, Brazil and Malaysia so it makes sense to develop them there.
We got to take the little Samson on a short drive around the Port Elizabeth area where it is
assembled. GM’s manufacturing plant in Struandale
has been preparing for its arrival for over two years, phasing out production
of discontinued cars like the HUMMER H3.
It was a R1 billion investment that
has obviously boosted employment and
economic opportunities in the area.
On the drive the car felt quite solid, with no apparent rattles
or leaks from any area. In total there are seven models from these trims; Base,
Base AC, Club and Sport. And some of these models are fitted with really nice
amenities such as electric windows,
air conditioning and a front-loading CD
player.
The engines that Chevrolet has chosen are the 1.4-litre and 1.8-litre, both naturally aspirated. For the 1.4 you get your 68kW of power from 6000rpm, and maximum
torque of 120Nm at 3200rpm. GM says
it averages 7.2 litres per 100km.
the 1.8 bigger brother emits 77kW at
5400rpm and 161Nm of torque from 3000rpm,
with a combined fuel average of 8.1
litres per 100km. Both are driven by a 5-speed
manual gearbox with a typically long gear stick.
I was not too impressed with it though, because each time I had
to engage 5th gear, it
would knock on my left knee and make
the journey that much more uncomfortable. A 6th gear would have made
life a little more bearable in the
cabin by resting the lever slightly
on my thigh. However, I’m told a 6-speed is not an option because in Gauteng you
need to stop on the high-revving 5th so you can access as much power
as possible from the thinner air. The sacrifices.
Felt the opposite about its load box though, whose depth and width have increased by 13mm and 25mm respectively over the
previous car. The payload capability
of the 1.4-litre is 763kg, while the
1.8-litre can carry up to 733kg. Depending
on the model spec you can get a Chevy Utility with either 14-inch steel rims
and 185/65 R14 tyres, or 15-inch
alloys with 185/60 R15 tyres. Either
way there’s a full-sized spare in
case you lose one of them.
For pretty much its entire lifespan the Corsa Utility was the class-leader, beating cars like the Nissan NP 200 and Ford Bantam (no longer produced from November 2011) to the punch. With
the demise of Bantam and inability
of NP 200 to find any meaningful market traction,
the new Utility’s path to national domination is all but confirmed for the foreseeable
future. A deserved domination it
will be too.
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