BRAND NEW CHEVROLET UTILITY DRIVEN

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 5^th gear, it would knock on my left knee and make the journey that much more uncomfortable. A 6^th 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 5^th 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.