By Daniel Cobbs
Chevrolet Captiva specifications
Engine:
1991cc, high-pressure direct injection.
Transmission:
Five-speed manual.
Drive:
Front-wheel drive with on-demand 4x4.
Maximum power/torque:
112kW at 2000rpm/320Nm at 2000rpm.
Top speed:
180km/h..
0-100km/h:
11.5sec.
General fuel consumption:
8.9 litres/100km.
Prices:
From £16 995 to more than £22 000 (about R240 000 to R312 000).
Appearance isn't the most scientific way to buy a new car. Price and purpose come into the equation but most of us are guilty of being swayed by oh-so-alluring design to help us write that cheque.
I'm no different: when it comes to my own critique of a new car. I take my first impressions and work backwards and that is not good news for Chevrolet.
At first the new Chevrolet Captiva looks as though it can equal, if not outdo, any other compact SUV. Unfortunately, first impressions prove out the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover". The Captiva begins to disappoint from a point in the text not long after the Contents page and goes on thwarting any hopes for exhilaration, even practical offerings, right up to The End.
Cast an eye beyond the Hollywood-style, chisel-jawed architecture and things start to go awry. At £16 995 (about R240 000), the basic LS package seems cheap enough. The problem with the deal is the lack of anything more than an old-fashioned front-wheel drive system. To have power at all four corners one has to choose between the LT or LTX which come with an extra set of seats in the boot and a price of more than £22 000 (about R312 000).
There are several better-equipped and more capable MPV's and SUV's on the market for that kind of cash.
In fact a complete lack of off-road credibility makes one wonder why Chevrolet fitted such niceties as "hill descent" and the Captiva's lofty stature - and implied capability - is an optical illusion: there's very little ground clearance and the 4x4 system just can't be taken seriously. Those failings aside, the cabin of the Captiva is a mixed bag of offerings: some good, some not so good.
The trim is bland and low- rent but there are good proportions of leg and headroom in all three rows of seating. Access to the third row is surprisingly easy - all the seats tip and fold flat to leave a clear and unobstructed cargo area and the tail door has an opening rear window.
Not the same genes
There's a storage compartment beneath the floor, too, but you can probably tell that none of these applaudable features inspire me with excitement. Which is a shame, because, in theory, everybody should be happy. I'm not everybody.
I'm the driver. I'm not quite sure who, or what, developed the driver's seat ergonomics but they weren't from the same gene pool as any other example of Homo sapiens I've met.
To be anything like comfortable you'll need the deportment of Quasimodo with the arm's length of an orang utan. I desperately wanted to give Chevrolet's designers the benefit of the doubt over the placing of the steering wheel the misaligned pedals and the squishy seat. The thing is, I spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to find a position that worked for me - and failed.
Perhaps I'm deforming, slowly, with the onset of middle age but I have my doubts as to whether the Captiva will ever grow on me or mould itself to my obviously sub-standard skeletal form.
What I do know is that the first (drastic) impressions of the Captiva weren't aided in any way by the secondary experience - the drive. Handling? What handling? The Captiva lolloped around corners as if the suspension had been replaced with blancmange and the prolific body roll is enough to give that blancmange a second run for its money.
Choose the diesel
In a straight line, on a smooth road, there aren't too many problems. Put this SUV on an uneven surface, however, and the shortcomings of the soft suspension are exacerbated as it bumps, bounces and springs its way along.
Choosing between the new two-litre diesel and 2.4-litre petrol engine makes no difference. The five-speed auto box, only available with the diesel, constantly slides up and down the ratios while searching for some of the alleged 112kW of power available. Given a choice, the diesel with the five-speed manual is a marginally better choice than the petrol engine.
It's never going to get you clenching your buttocks with its turn of speed - 0-100km/h in 11.5 seconds - but it will take up all its torque in a relatively smooth and unfussy manner.
However, being able to average 8.9 litres/100km is possibly the one - and only - thing that takes the Captiva from "not very interesting" to "well, maybe we can give it a quick look".
I expected much more from Chevrolet. I don't know if it has high hopes for sales in the UK but I can assure it of one thing: if it wanted the Great British car-buying public to forget that this is, to all intents and purposes, a dressed-up seven-seater Daewoo, it may be disappointed. - The Independent, London