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Isuzu and Ford have always been among South Africa’s favourite brands, especially for hardworking folk whose vehicles must serve them consistently for both private and commercial use. On our Performance Shootout, we got the opportunity to fully experience the Isuzu Mu-X and the Ford Ranger Raptor outside of their regular long-term testf-leet duties. These vehicles have proved themselves worthy of being the supportive muscle behind the team. They were filled to the hilt with camera equipment, refreshments, sunblock, tyre pressure gauges, pens, notepads, ice, first-aid kits, walkie-talkie charging stations, spare batteries and boxes full of CAR-branded apparel. Under focused helmsmanship, they kept up with the performance cars along the route, depositing the video and photography crew at their designated locations. Thanks to this pair of reliable performers, we managed to capture…

BraamPeens1 WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures Price: R953 500 Engine: 3,0-litre, V6 turbodiesel Transmission: 10-speed automatic Power: 184 kW @3 250 r/min Torque: 600 N.m @1 750–2 250 r/min 0–100 km/h: n/a Top speed: n/a Fuel consumption: 8,4 L/100 km (combined) CO2 emissions: 222 g/km Rivals: Isuzu D-Max, Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara, Peugeot Landtrek, Toyota Hilux, Volkswagen Amarok + next-level design, refinement and user utility − V6 acoustics could be a bit throatier Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, but if you are any other bakkie maker in SA right now, you should be panicking, because the Blue Oval means business … like never before. As part of its research for this new, second-generation T6 Ranger, Ford fielded over 5 000 customer interviews and under-took 625 000 km of off-roading testing.…

IT WAS her absence from Monaco’s most glittering night that sent tongues wagging yet again. The rumours must be true, people said. If things were fine between her and Albert, she’d definitely have been there. The occasion was the Rose Ball and most of the Grimaldi royal family were in attendance, celebrating the occasion at Monte-Carlo Salle des Etoiles and dressed to the nines. The ball is an important charity event too: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert’s older sister, is president of the Princess Grace Foundation, which supports emerging performers in film, theatre and dance. It’s a big deal – but Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene was nowhere to be seen. It didn’t help that the royal was seen a few days before in Milan, Italy, without her engagement ring. Then an article came out…

Two days earlier, the Golf had frustrated us at the Saldanha drags. We struggled to engage launch control and trawled through menus in search of the ESP-disabling setting. It was hidden in a near-invisible sub-menu. This irritation extended to other functions and the touchscreen unit seemed counter-intuitive. Some testers felt that the mechanically identical Tiguan R launched harder, too. A stone chip on the former’s windscreen had developed into a crack and saw the group’s enthusiasm for the Golf dwindle even further. Writing it off at such an early stage, though, didn’t seem fair. After the marathon session of the previous day, Friday’s plan was less taxing. It involved a straight drive out to Ceres for back-to-back blasts on the Gydo Pass, the one-time home to the country’s most proper hill…

You can tell an awful lot about the Rimac Nevera in the first 200 m. Not how barkingly fast it is or how far it moves the game on in the rarefied world of the hypercar – those realisations come later – instead, how polished it is purely as a product. How well built it is, how sweetly matched the weighting and gearing of its steering seems, how synchronised its throttle and brake pedals feel, how easily you can climb in and out, how clearly you can see out of it, how beautifully damped it is and how refined it is at everyday speeds. Even after 20 seconds, you can tell the Nevera rides perfectly for a car of this type. You can tell, too, how fundamentally well resolved it is…

In a career spanning more than 25 years, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has delighted audiences across the globe, performing in spectacular venues from the Pyramids to Rome’s Colosseum. This year, music fans are remembering one of his most memorable performances of all time. It’s the tenth anniversary of the show he put on for a Big Apple audience of 70,000, during which he was joined by stars including Celine Dion and Tony Bennett. And Andrea, who dedicated his performance to his beloved late father, is causing a stir once again with the release of his remastered album Concerto: One Night in Central Park , including previously unreleased tracks. His achievements are extraordinary by any standard, but all the more so given he has been blind since the age of 12. Along with his…

WHO LIVES HERE? Elzeli and Cilliers Krause with their kids Roland (7) and Luah (5) WHERE Bloemfontein SIZE 6102 As a young giri, Elzeli Krause’s mom gave her free rein to decorate her bedroom as inspired by her own ideas. “I could choose my own fabric at the shops and then she’d make me curtains and bedding. I changed the décor and wall colours every year.” In Grade 10, she rummaged for her first pieces of furniture in second-hand stores, much to the amusement of her brother. “He just couldn’t understand how I could blow my pocket money on old furniture. But those very couches now stand in our farmhouse in Philippolis in the Free State.” As a student, Elzeli learned to save carefully so that she could buy the pieces she wanted, and what she…

SO, WERE you team Gwynocent or team Gwyuilty? If the former, you’d have been delighted when she walked off scot-free, placing a manicured hand on the shoulders of the man who’d dragged her to court, whispering, “I wish you well.” If you were the latter, you may have been impressed when the elderly bespectacled man who started this whole fabulously farcical thing glanced up and said, “Thank you, dear.” Gracious? Maybe. Defeated? Certainly. Crazy for bringing this whole thing up in the first place? Definitely. Because neither Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist, nor Gwyneth Paltrow has emerged from the court in a snowy town with their reputations intact. He might’ve been found 100 percent to blame for the 2016 collision on a Utah mountainside, but the Oscar-winner has hardly emerged unscathed. Gwynnie is now free…

NEW PM FOR NEW ZEALAND Jacinda Ardern quits amid bullying claims CRITICS say the shock resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has thrown a spotlight on the punishing demands faced by women in power. Ardern, who became the world’s youngest female head of state when she was elected aged 37 in 2017, resigned last month citing burnout. “I no longer have anything in the tank,” she said. Ardern (42), who gave birth to daughter Neve (4) while in office, had been under immense pressure trying to balance family life with navigating the pandemic and handling other political challenges. But political figures believe abuse and death threats contributed to her resignation. In 2021, threats against Ardern had almost tripled over three years, driven by a rise in conspiracy movements and a backlash against Covid…

TOYOTA FORTUNER 2.8 GD-6 4X4 VX ETA: NOW Since launching in 2006, the Toyota Fortuner has become a household name – and more. A staple of the South African suburban upper-middle-class existence, it has become every bit the metropolitan must-have, much as the latest iPhone or Eskom-busting battery backup has. A number of successive facelifts extended the Fortuner’s tenure till an all-new second-generation model followed in 2016, itself earning a noteworthy upgrade in 2020, when the flagship 2,8-litre GD-6 engine was boosted by a welcome 20 kW/50 N.m. In reaching another milestone in its ten-year life cycle, in 2023, the Fortuner has been treated to another – albeit relatively minor – reimagining. Pricing starts at R635 500 for the entry-level 2,4 GD-6 RB manual (the sole three-pedal derivative on offer), extending to R915 400…

‘It was definitely the most adventurous birth I’ve ever had!’ As one of the most skilful polo players in Britain, Charlie Hanbury is no stranger to hurtling on horseback across a field. But when his wife Yoanna was about to give birth, the sportsman found himself in an emergency dash to hospital – then ended up delivering their baby daughter Catinka by the side of the M4. With no doctor or midwife at hand as traffic thundered past, it would be a daunting prospect for any parent, yet the 34-year-old winner of the prestigious Gold and Queen’s Cups kept a cool head and took it all in his stride. “It was an incredible experience,” he says, inviting HELLO! to meet the new arrival for an exclusive photoshoot at the family’s beautiful Berkshire home,…

Driver: PeetMocke Petridish_Mooks 6 months 7 482 km 8,0 L/100 km + appealing styling, impressive road manners, practical for its compact size − infotainment interface isn’t class-leading Mazda was kind enough to loan us three models for six months. First, it was the Carbon edition, then the range-topping 2,2 Akera Diesel and lastly the 2,0 Dynamic. My first impression of the Mazda CX-5 when it arrived at our offices was that it’s a really good-looking car. However, I never saw myself driving one, as I usually favour the torquier drive of a turbodiesel engine. A 2,0-litre petrol engine never really did anything for me. As you can imagine, I was excited to sample the diesel model for two months, but I didn’t expect to like the naturally aspirated 2,0 Dynamic this much. I have not spent too much…

FROM the outside the house is unassuming – modest and neat with a concrete yard. Inside, the home is bright, comfortable and tastefully decorated. Vangile Dlamini has lived here since 1973 and her grandchildren have helped her renovate it through the years, putting up a new boundary wall and installing new windows to thank her for helping to raise them. For two months the house in Zola 3, Soweto, was also the home of a young woman Vangile (82) regarded as one of her own grandkids. Like she would do with one of her own flesh and blood, she welcomed Bathobile Mlangeni in when she needed help and provided her with a roof over her head. Never in her wildest dreams did she foresee what would happen: that the police would arrive on…

AUSTRALIA REPLACES THE QUEEN New design for the country’s banknotes THE future of the British monarchy has come under the spotlight again following Australia’s decision to replace the portrait of Queen Elizabeth on its currency with a new design to honour the history of its indigenous culture. The five-dollar bill is the only Australian banknote to carry the image of a British monarch and the new design will pay tribute to “the culture and history” of indigenous Australians, the Reserve Bank of Australia says. First Nations people lived in Australia long before British colonisation. “This decision follows consultation with the Australian government, which supports this change,” the bank said in a statement. The move was welcomed by politicians and community leaders. “This is a massive win for the First Nations people who have been…

PENTAGON LEAKS SCANDAL Big blow to American security A21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard, accused of leaking hundreds of top-secret Pentagon documents on a gaming chat server, is on trial after he was arrested on charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. JACK TEIXEIRA was taken into custody after the FBI traced the files to a private server on the online platform Discord. Teixeira allegedly used the handle OG on the platform and told friends that he worked on a military base before distributing 100-plus papers from the US department of defense. The Pentagon confirmed the authenticity of the paperwork, which includes information about the Ukraine-Russia conflict and South Korea and China. Experts say it’s the biggest exposure of classified secrets since Edward Snowden, who published a tranche of intelligence documents…

Price: R1 346 866 0–100 km/h: 5,03 seconds Top speed: 180 km/h Power: 340 kW Torque: 709 N.m Fuel index: 5,4 L/100 km CO2 : 37 g/km Plentiful power meets serene, zero-emissions urban driving, all without being overly tied to the caprices of our EV charging infrastructure; what’s not to like?Gareth Dean “The best of both worlds.” In a society where sticky compromises are often the best we can hope for, all we can ask is that with clever manoeuvring, it brings forth a perfect solution, from business deals to relationships, and pretty much any situation where two entities are at odds. It is much the same in the world of motoring. With fuel prices headed skywards and the growing urge to adopt electrified mobility solutions, there must be a halfway point that…

6 months 9 698 km 5,7 L/100 km + comfortable, well-appointed cabin, endlessly configurable – spongy brake feel “Nice car. How did you get it down here?” Good question. The town was Leipoldtville, known for potatoes, an Art Deco petrol station and an insatiable curiosity. The tar ends just down the road from the village entrance, on the R365. Ordinarily, as I have done countless times in the past six months in the low-riding C220d, I would three-point turn my way back up the macadam and shoot a rueful glance back, but this time my curiosity got the better of me. Slowly, I edged down the rutted dirt, hoping the dorp was as close as I’d been told. Bingo, well worth the snail’s progress I needed to endure. A hidden, beautifully kept village busting with Victorian,…

Price: R808 600 Engine: 2,0-litre, four-cylinder, petrol + electric Transmission: CVT Power: 107 kW @6 000 r/min + 80 kW/202 N.m electric Torque: 188 N.m @4 400 r/min 0–100 km/h: 8,5 seconds Top speed: 177 km/h Fuel consumption: 4,5 L/100 km (combined) CO2 emissions: 103 g/km Rivals: Alfa Romeo Tonale, Audi Q3, BMW X1/X2, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Volvo XC40 overdue tech improvements, premium interior feel shallow boot, hybrid adds negligible driving appeal, rivals are sportier WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures For anyone from ruling parties to market leaders, the benefit of incumbency is a powerful enabler. It allows those in command to look forward, whereas in its wake, the pack keeps chasing. In the realm of automotive hybridisation, for Toyota, this defining market standing was institutionalised with the introduction of the Prius in 1997. In consumer…

GarethD_CARmag First production car with electronic traction control Buick Riviera 1971 Anyone who’s driven a performance car hard or been caught in slippery road conditions will be familiar with the little blinking yellow light in the shape of a skidding car in their instrument binnacle. It warns drivers that one of the most important automotive safety innovations is working to keep them on the road and out of big trouble. Electronic traction control is a relatively new addition to the growing suite of active vehicle safety features that have now become commonplace. As its name suggests, the purpose is to prevent a loss of traction – in the form of wheelspin – between the driven wheels of a car and the surface upon which it’s being driven. Before the adoption of solid-state electronics in…

RyanOConnorZA If you are a loyal reader of CAR Magazine – and I hope you are – you would have read my initial thoughts on the beautiful new off-roading beast that has finally made its way to market… the Ineos Grenadier. And if you are an avid follower of CAR Magazine’s website – let’s hope so – you would also have seen me bouncing around in the cabin of this impressive vehicle as we filmed our test drive from Inverness to Loch Long in Scotland. Or rather, ‘The heart of the heartlands’ – by Ineos’ own description. Nevertheless, whether you’ve been following closely or this is your first insight into our take on the Grenadier, here lies my most comprehensive review yet, where I’ll be breaking down the look, feel and…

SHE scanned the crowd, desperately searching for him. More than anything, Adrienne Watkins wanted to look into Mark Pilgrim’s eyes and let him know just how much she adored him. In every room in which they were together, in any social situation, knowing he was there and seeing his cheeky smile always put her at ease. ‘THERE ARE MOMENTS WHERE YOU’RE IN A NORMAL SETTING AND YOU’RE LOOKING FOR YOUR PERSON AND YOU JUST CAN’T FIND THEM’ But this time she couldn’t find him. Then, with a lurch in her stomach it dawned on her: he wasn’t there. She was all alone in a crowd full of mourners who’d come to pay their final respects at the memorial of the man she was supposed to marry. It’s this gaping sense of absence that Adrienne…

KyleSpliceZA The original pony car. A global icon. Almost everyone who lays eyes on one immediately recognises a Mustang. Ford didn’t officially bring the Mustang to South Africa till in 2015, when the Mustang was already in its sixth generation, but it was as much of a star on these shores as it was everywhere else. The new seventh generation is a rather important model for the sportscar realm. It will probably be the last time we see an internal combustion engine in Ford’s halo model, equipped with a naturally aspirated 5,0 V8 or a turbocharged four-cylinder model. Later in this Mustang’s life cycle, there’ll be a hybrid, too. THERE’S NO MISTAKING THE DESIGN The profile offers the traditional Mustang cues of a long, flat bonnet and large wheel arches, even though the body…

GarethD_CARmag First production car to feature Apple CarPlay Ferrari FF 2014 Page through the CAR guide section at the back of the magazine and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a new model that does not incorporate some form of smartphone integration; be it simple Bluetooth connectivity, or touchscreen systems that accommodate Android Auto or Apple CarPlay functionality. And it was the latter that set the scene for the sort of phoneto-car interaction we enjoy in so many of our vehicles right now. By the time the FF made its way onto the Ferrari stand at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, the furore surrounding its combination of genre-blurring packaging, 483 kW V12 engine and placement as the first production-series AWD Ferrari at its 2011 debut had all but vanished. Now something even more remarkable…

@Braam_Peens WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures Price: R629 950 Engine: 2,0-litre, 4-cyl turbopetrol Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic Power: 155 kW @6 000–6 300 r/min Torque: 325 N.m @1 500–4 000 r/min Driven wheels: AWD 0–100 km/h: n/a Top speed: n/a Fuel consumption: 8,4 L/100 km (combined) CO2 emissions: n/a Rivals: Mazda CX-30, Volkswagen T-Roc, Volvo XC40 + stand-out styling, full-house spec list − no discernable performance upgrade; buggy safety, engine and gearbox modes In the automotive world, the GT moniker has come to mean many different things. At the top of the pile, for some manufacturers like Porsche, it represents the zenith of speed, whereas at the bottom, it’s a marketing ploy, code for zero additional performance over a model’s siblings, such as in the Volkswagen Polo Vivo GT. What to make, then, of the new…

@alexshahini *Claimed figures Price: R486 000 Engine: 1,0-litre, 3-cyl, turbopetrol Transmission: 7-speed, dual-clutch automatic Power: 85 kW @5 000 r/min Torque: 200 N.m @2 000 r/min 0–100 km/h: 10,0 seconds* Top speed: 200 km/h* Fuel consumption: 5,4 L/100 km* CO2 emissions: 123 g/km* Rivals: Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Toyota Corolla Cross, Haval Jolion premium design, bigger boot space, higher ground clearance and heated seating may sit a little too close to the cheaper and capable T-Cross for comfort The much-vaunted Volkswagen Polo now has another crossover spinoff in town. With its sleek coupé-like profile, the Taigo looks to fill a niche market for aspirational buyers taken with the capable (and mechanically related) T-Cross but after a bit more visual pizzazz. We spent the day touring Gauteng roads to find out if its extravagant launch party…

IT FELT like he just couldn’t drive fast enough. The three-and-a-half-hour journey from Polokwane to Johannesburg seemed to grow by the minute and he spent every second of it praying his little girl was safe and sound. Elie Challita had left four-year-old Nada-Jane at home in Joburg, with his girlfriend, Amber Hughes, while he went house hunting in Polokwane. While he was on the road earlier that day, Amber (23) had called him in a rage after discovering he’d been chatting with other women on WhatsApp. She accused him of being unfaithful and threatened to destroy everything he held dear. “You broke my heart, I’m going to burn yours,” she told him before hanging up. “When she said that, my knees went weak,” he tells YOU. Elie (35) kept trying to call Amber, but he…

SPARE a thought for Prince Charles. The king-in-waiting has a lot on his plate: he lost his father not long ago, he’s taken over several duties from his increasingly frail mother and as for the ongoing damage to the family caused by his younger brother – well, the less said about Andrew the better. So you can forgive poor Charles for reaching out for the things he finds comforting: spending time with his beloved wife, Camilla, pottering about his garden and seeking out his grandchildren. But there’s something else that’s proving to be a thorn in the future king’s side: his younger son. Ever since the Duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan, turned their backs on royal life, father and son have barely been on speaking terms – a situation not helped…

Price: R590 000 Engine: front-mounted, 2,0-litre, inline-four turbodiesel Transmission: 6-speed automatic Power: 129 kW @3 500 r/min Torque: 400 N.m @1 750–2 750 r/min 0–100 km/h: N/A Top speed: N/A Fuel consumption: 7,4 L/100km (combined) CO2 emissions: 174 g/km Rivals: Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Toyota Fortuner + off-road capability, value for money - third-row seating reserved for children WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures When the Mahindra brand arrived in South Africa, its offerings were seen as less savoury options than those of the firm’s competitors. Now, these products are held in higher regard thanks to the impressive XUV700 and the recently unveiled Mahindra Scorpio N. The latter ushers in a new era for the Indian firm, with its workhouse roots now far less apparent than before. The first demonstration of the Scorpio’s abilities took…

@ianmclaren76 WHERE WE DROVE IT The fact that the average age of a BMW 7 Series owner in China is 38 is significant. It highlights the rate at which this flourishing market has been creating wealth within its population. More than 45% of annual 7 Series sales is focused within that country’s borders, which goes a long way towards the German brand’s positioning of its flagship proposition. The X7 SUV has very quickly established itself as the favoured premium BMW product within the still-important US market. However, the need to appease a younger, more flamboyant emerging 7 Series sedan audience than historically acknowledged has prompted a number of tough board-level decisions in Munich. According to Sebastian Simm, lead designer on the new (G20) seventh-generation project, this included sign-off on the overall dimensions of…

Hollywood’s A-list pulled out all the stops with a decadent display embracing the Gilded Glamour theme As red carpets go, it doesn’t get more starry or fashion-forward than the Met Gala. And last week, the A-list put on the most outlandish show of the year as they gathered in New York, where former Gossip Girl star Blake Lively – who co-hosted the evening alongside her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds – was the belle of the ball. She was a fairytale princess in her Atelier Versace “patina-ed” rose gold gown – unpacked on the staircase to reveal an extravagant turquoise train cascading down the steps behind her – with statement earrings and a tiara. The theme of the event – officially the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala – was Gilded Glamour and…

TO ALL intents and purposes, it’s a piece of moulded plastic with a lid, yet it has the ability to ruin family harmony like little else. Forget to bring mom’s container back after taking some leftovers to a friend, and you’ll be persona non grata. Lose a lid, and you won’t be spoken to for days. Toss one of her precious bakkies into the wrong cupboard, and you’ll hear about it for months. There’s just something about Tupperware that brings out the fierceness in mothers. But beware, o ye of little Tupper respect: your mom is about to get a lot more tigerish around her treasured tubs now. After 77 years, the company famous for its kitchenware is struggling to stay afloat in the face of fierce competition, glitzy gadgets and anti-plastic consumers. “There’s substantial…

RyanOConnorZA As 17-year-olds who had just got their learner’s licences, we drove our parents’ cars with unwarranted confidence and in a manner that would make petrolheads cringe; we rode the clutches, ground the gears and routinely revved the engines. At some stage, though, we all had to knuckle down, resist the urge to cruise with one hand on the steering wheel and adhere to proper K53 rules to pass our driver’s tests. I and many others I know consigned about half of the information in that book to our mental trashcans as soon as we got our licence. Driving K53, you spend about a quarter of your time looking forwards. Sometimes it’s probably safer to have one hand on the wheel in case you need to quickly change gears and, to be…

SHE was scrolling through the news on her phone when a picture of a familiar face popped up. An uneasy feeling washed over her as she clicked the link – and when it opened, her stomach dropped. The man who’s now one of South Africa’s most wanted criminals had escaped from prison and all her memories came flooding back. She thought Thabo Bester (39), the so-called Facebook Rapist, had died in a fire in his cell – but he was alive and well and on the run. Bester’s modus operandi had been to lure attractive young women on Facebook with promises of modelling contracts – but instead he robbed and raped them. One he even killed. He used aliases, including that of Thomas Bester, which was the name Iris Monthso* (now 32) knew…

As the vultures now feast on the proverbial corpse of the Ferrari F1 team’s recently departed team principal, looking back to 2022 and the foundations that set up Mattia Binotto’s fall, it truly was a case of “più le cose cambiano, più restano le stesse” (the more things change, the more they stay the same). This now-tired trope was first published in a French journal, Les Guêpes, the title of which translates to “The Wasps”. How could matters get so out of hand to warrant a forced resignation from a man who had led Ferrari to second in the 2022 driver’s and constructor’s championships? Come the season’s opener at Bahrain, Binotto could hardly believe his luck. His cars had emerged second-fastest behind the all-conquering Red Bulls after preseason testing; what’s more, in…

The arrival of their daughter Aya has focused the minds of Roger Tempest and his partner Paris Ackrill on the world she will inherit. And at their home, Broughton Hall in North Yorkshire, they are perfectly placed to do something about it. The ambitious couple aim to create England’s largest woodland, with a plan to plant at least 750,000 trees within the next five years. Their hope is that, in time, 30% of their land will be forested. Their magnificent 16th-century, 97-room mansion couldn’t be closer to nature. It is set in one of the country’s oldest private estates, comprising 3,000 acres of spectacular woodland, farmland, heather moorland and meadow pastures with streams, hidden waterfalls and stunning views across the Yorkshire Dales. ‘Our family motto is: “Loyouf as thou fynds” — “Love as you…

SA may lag behind the leading world markets in the move to vehicle electrification, but the number of electrified vehicles on our market is steadily increasing as manufacturers add hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles to their line-ups. Significantly, none of these has been an electrified bakkie, even though bakkies make up three of our five best-selling models. We investigate the challenge to EVs presented by carrying or towing heavy loads and why this might delay the widespread adoption of electric bakkies Previously regarded as commercial or agriculturaluse workhorses, the current one-tonne bakkie line-ups now include high-specification doublecab derivatives, considered by many South Africans to be their perfect all-round family vehicle. Comfort and safety features are now a match for similarly priced sedans and SUVs, which makes them suitable for…

Some readers of CAR will have spent their childhood summer holidays rattling about in the back of a Kombi as it laboured through the heat of the Karoo, on their way to the beach or, for coastal folk, upcountry to the Kruger National Park and other destinations. This idea is a bit outdated, though. In recent years, modern families have been far more likely to fly to their far-flung Southern African haven but this has all changed over the past year. The final figures aren’t in yet but at the time of writing, the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) reckons passenger numbers fell by two-thirds in 2020 and predicts volumes to recover to pre-pandemic levels only in 2024. We all understand COVID-19 and the resulting economic devastation is the culprit. However, for…

If ever misery loved company, in 2022, suffering scored a fist-bumping, high-fiving entourage of a wailing and gnashing of teeth. At the end of February, Russia invaded Ukraine and set off a worldwide food- and energy crisis. Unsurprisingly, the rand tanked and fuel prices skyrocketed, which in turn further sent inflation through the roof. Ignoring Eskom’s never-ending crisis for the moment, the endless infighting among the ruling elite rendered the government unable to implement meaningful and growth-enhancing policies. This inaction filtered down to street level, where joblessness and a teetering social fabric have now reached suicidal levels of hopelessness. Against such sobering realities as these, CAR’s Performance Shootout 2023 was conceived with the consciousness of the hardship endured by South Africans over the past year. Considering the state of the economy, hiking interest…

Apple’s iPhone development cycle has a problem… and that problem is the cycle itself. The iPhone 11 offered a superb new night mode; the 12 brought a big design change; the 13 remixed the formula and added some decent enhancements, notably in battery life and screen brightness. But it looked the same, aside from a downsizing of the notorious ‘notch’ housing the selfie-cam and the hardware for Face ID. And the iPhone 14 series? It's a reworking of the same design again, and doesn’t really push things on. There is, though, a change to the notch. In fact, the iPhone 14 Pro does away with it entirely, with the in-display camera cutouts forming a pill shape called the Dynamic Island. What’s more, there are various ways to interact with it in…

‘THE EVICTION SPELLS THE END OF THEIR TIME IN THE UK’ WHEN the queen was alive, her word was followed, her instructions obeyed, her indulgences overlooked. But Her Majesty is gone and the new monarch is a whole different kettle of fish. Winds of change are blowing through the house of Windsor – and gusts are being felt thousands of kilometres away in sunny California. King Charles has evicted Harry and Meghan from Frogmore Cottage, the home they were gifted by Queen Elizabeth as a wedding present in 2018. Banishing his son from the house is one of the sweeping decisions the 74-year-old king has made to “put to bed” the problems plaguing The Firm before his 6 May coronation, palace sources say. Charles is believed to have given the Sussexes their Frogmore marching orders within…

‘I arrived in America as an immigrant without a cent to her name who couldn't even spek the language’ Anastasia Soare recalls leaving her native Romania for the United States back in 1989, when her country was still behind the Iron Curtain. “I wasn’t allowed to take anything with me,” she says. “I asked if they would allow me to save just a dollar, to make a phone call if I needed help, but the authorities were relentless and I knew that if I persisted too much, I could end up in prison. “That’s how I arrived in America – an immigrant without a cent to her name who couldn’t even speak the language.” That was the start of an extraordinary journey that saw Anastasia become known as the Eyebrow Queen and find fame…

A DOUBLE murder, millions of missing dollars, a 20-year drug addiction – and at the centre of it all the heir to a law firm that’s run the legal scene in a small town for decades. This family saga has more twists and turns than a potholed road, enough intrigue to grip people around the world and enough drama to have been turned into a Netflix documentary. The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal unpacks the ruthlessness and lies of a man powerful and persuasive enough to rule the roost and fool the authorities in this pocket of America’s Deep South. Yet the finest lawyers couldn’t convince the jury he wasn’t the man behind the gruesome killing of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. And Alex Murdaugh will now spend the rest…

OBNOXIOUS in-laws, irksome children, money squabbles and ill health – there’s no shortage of things that can place strain and stress on a marriage these days. But as the well-known wedding vows go, married couples should stay together “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health”. Wolfgang Porsche (79), the billionaire behind the renowned Porsche brand, isn’t a big believer in that though. His wife, Claudia (74), has a dementia-like illness and Wolfgang’s wheels are spinning right out of the marital home. He’s started divorce proceedings, citing his wife’s declining health as the grounds for their separation. Sources say the tycoon, whose family’s assets are worth an estimated €20 billion (R393bn), found it “impossible” to live with her as her illness has affected her personality. The couple were…

GarethD_CARmag 5 026 km 7,62 L/100 km + spacious boot, compliant ride, useful sport mode in drivetrain management system − some unexpected trim noise on coarse surfaces There are few better ways to get acquainted with your car than heading out of the suburban sprawl and taking to the open road, something I undertook during the festive season with a trip to the picturesque West Coast town of Paternoster. While the arrow-straight R27 was never going to challenge the Sportage dynamically, the varying road surfaces, high temperatures (the mercury brushed the 35-degree mark) and 320 km of motorway-speed travel would be a good testbed to unearth any dormant quirks in round-town driving. Although our excursion party was limited to two, you can always count on at least one person being ready for anything. We packed the…

A BASEBALL cap, a scraggly beard, a pair of sunglasses. Private security on high alert. A bullet-proof car. An escape into the night. It sounds like the makings of a spy movie, yet all this and more went down the day André de Ruyter fled the country with little more than the clothes on his back and a suitcase in his hand. There was so much secrecy and so much tension it almost didn’t feel like real life, a close confidant of the former Eskom CEO says. The source, who’s speaking to YOU on condition of anonymity, says André had no choice but to flee. He’d upset many people in high places following his e.tv interview in February when he’d made astonishing allegations of deep-seated corruption. There’d already been an attempt on his life…

Her weekend began with her husband Prince William at her side for the ladies’ singles final Surrounded by A-listers at Wimbledon and Wembley, the Duchess of Cambridge enjoyed a weekend of top-flight sport before settling down to the long summer holidays with her beloved family of five. Kate graced the Royal Box at both venues on her last public engagements before taking a break with her three children at the start of their more than eight weeks off school. With Prince George, who turns eight on July 22, and six year-old Princess Charlotte having finished at Thomas’s Battersea, and Prince Louis, three, having ended term at The Willcocks Nursery, she was no doubt looking forward to pausing her official duties to focus on the role she relishes more than any other – motherhood. Keen…

IT’S being called the biggest crisis to face the royal family since King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry his divorced lover – and in a way, what’s happening now is even worse. Yes, the entire face of the monarchy had to change when Edward followed his heart and yes, the British people had to come to terms with his shy, stammering brother as his replacement at a time of great global turmoil. But the royal family banded together, kept their lips zipped and marched to their long-held motto: never complain, never explain. There have been many dramas since then, of course – death, divorce, friction – but somehow the royals have rallied and carried on. But there’s one big difference now: Harry is no believer in the never complain, never explain…

@BraamPeens1 OPEL MOKKA 1.2T GS LINE ETA: NOW WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures Price: R469 900 Engine: 1,2-litre, 3-cyl, turbopetrol Transmission: 8-speed automatic Power: 96 kW @5 500 r/min Torque: 230 N.m @1 750 r/min 0-100 km/h: 9,2 seconds* Top speed: 200 km/h* Fuel consumption: 6,1 L/100 km* CO² emissions: 139 g/km* Rivals: Audi Q2, Volkswagen T-Roc, Volkswagen T-Cross, Renault Koleos, Hyundai Kona, Mazda CX-30, Peugeot 2008 + striking, modern exterior design, tourquey engine - overly light steering detracts from dynamics Undoubtedly, the biggest disservice we can do to the new Opel Mokka is to compare it to the old one, which felt tired even when new. That car survived the then-PSA Group’s (today, the 16 brand-strong Stellantis, established in January 2021) buyout of Opel in 2019 before being kept on life support for another year. Still, if…

MUGABE’S MILLIONS REVEALED Inside Bona Mugabe’s messy split BONA MUGABE, daughter of Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, has a massive property portfolio that she may have to split with her ex-husband as part of their divorce settlement. Bona (33) filed for divorce from former pilot Simba Mutsahuni Chikore in March. Simba wants half of their assets, which he says include a mansion in Dubai and 24 other residential properties, worth a total of around $80 million (R1,4 billion). According to court papers, Bona also owns 21 farms – some of which were allegedly acquired by the Mugabe family during the contentious takeover of white-owned farms in the early 2000s – luxury vehicles, farming equipment and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Simba, who’s also demanding joint custody of the couple’s three children, says the assets…

KyleSpliceZA WHERE WE DROVE IT *Claimed figures Price: R669 000 Engine: 1,5-litre, 4-cyl, turbopetrol Transmission: CVT Power: 131 kW @6 000 r/min Torque: 240 N.m @1 700 r/min Top speed: n/a Fuel consumption: 6,2, L/100 km* CO² : 148 g/km* Rivals: Audi A3, BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé. + one of the best CVT powertrains currently available − another engine option wouldn’t hurt; how about a manual model? Talk about punching way above its weight. Honda’s gone and done something with the Civic that laughs in the face of tradition. And by this, we mean its traditional rivals. Across 10 generations, the Civic’s market segment always featured a fellow Japanese model or two and, in recent years, Koreans as well. Honda – which has never truly been a contender in terms of sheer sales volume on the…

TRUMP RAPE TRIAL Accuser gives explosive testimony DONALD Trump’s legal woes continue as his rape trial recently got under way in New York. E Jean Carroll claims that the former president raped her nearly 30 years ago at a department store in Manhattan. Carroll, a journalist, author and former advice columnist, is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations. During her testimony, she told the court she struck up a conversation with Trump in the clothing store and later described wrestling with him in the dressing room. “I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. We’d just been laughing 12, 15 seconds before and here I am being pushed up against the wall. It just didn’t make any sense,”…

KyleSplice 6 months 11 739 km 10,14 L/100 km brawny exterior and unmistakable presence; flawless package doesn’t fit in modern parking bays; thirstier than it should be Ask any elite athlete about the importance of finishing strong, and you’ll be told about the importance of standing up straight, pushing down the final leg, keeping your head up, and so on. So it was with our long-term Ranger Raptor, which saw off a rather strong contender just before we returned to sender. The Ranger Raptor burst its way on to the South African double cab bakkie market when nobody expected anything of the sort. Almost nine years after the Americans launched the Raptor brand model as the most extreme model variant of the F-150, the Ranger – also cut from the Raptor cloth – found its way here. The…

‘Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members’ The Queen acted decisively to soothe tensions in her family last week following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. More than 50 million viewers around the world watched as Prince Harry and Meghan laid bare the turmoil behind their decision last year to step back as senior working royals. But while the shockwaves from their very public revelations reverberated across the globe, the Queen took charge of the situation, bringing her family’s troubles firmly back behind closed doors after issuing a succinct, but sympathetic, statement in response. Although the conversation contained joyful insights into Harry and Meghan’s new life in California, including the news that they are expecting a daughter and adorable footage of son Archie, now 22 months…