So I SMSed a friend of mine and told him I was on one of the three longest airport runways in the southern hemisphere. He asked if I was driving a supercar, to which I said “No. A Chevrolet”. Then he thought was pushing a Corvette down the straight at 250km/h. “No. It’s a Captiva.” General Motors South Africa introduced media to the facelift Captiva on a hot Upington Airport runway tarmac. Why? Because they could.
Bold and strong, the Captiva’s new look spreads from front to rear, penetrates the interior and ends up stuffing the engine with a little more power than before. The front grille is larger and more prominent, features a split honeycomb design, clear headlights and fogs, black plastic lower bumper and a wavy bonnet. All in all it presents a tougher, more robust Captiva. In fact in the segment it now appears the beefiest of them all.
New materials and seat fabrics are featuring all over the new interior which takes things a little upmarket. Controls have been revised and now look a little cleaner than before. The instrument cluster is more modern as well. I liked some of the carbon fibre touches on the dash and gear lever area.
From the bottom model we now get a nice 6-CD player with 8 speakers, MP3 compatibility, Bluetooth connectivity and an auxiliary input jack. Unfortunately once again there is no USB port so all the music you have on your memory stick cannot be played here. Other standard features include air conditioning, traction control, ESP, a multifunction steering wheel and tinted windows.
The reason for our runway attack is apparently because Chevy engineers have improved the Captiva’s chassis, ride and handling dynamics. Many technical features like Hill Start Assist and Electronic Parking Brake Dynamic Assist (EPBDA) improve the driving comfort levels. EPBDA “allows the electronic brake control module to apply selective four-corner braking in conditions where it is required to slow the vehicle down in unstable conditions”, according to Chevy. We attacked a high-speed orange-cone slalom with no incidents reported.
Stunning Augrabies Falls is about 120km outside of Upington. Luckily heavy rains had recently passed through and so it was all angry. On our test drive it became part of the scene as we had lovely sundowners not far from the relentless gushing waterfall. The only form of off-road we experienced was in the form of a mild nature reserve drive. Don’t take the Captiva off the beaten skirt; it won’t make it.
However, it will make it to school football and ballet practice, thanks to the 7-seat configuration which can raise interior luggage space from 477 litres right up to 1565 litres with all but the driver’s seat folded.
Engines have received boosts too. The 2.4-litre Ecotec motor now produces 123kW and 230Nm of torque, while the 3.0-litre V6 petrol is good for a segment-leading 190kW and 288Nm. Chevrolet says the 2.4-litre will return 8.8 litres per 100km in front-wheel-drive trim and 9.2 litres per 100km for the AWD. The 3.0-litre returns 10.6 litres per 100km in comparison.
While the Captiva is on the top 5 best-sellers for Chevrolet, it still faces stiff rivalry from the likes of Ford Everest, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe and Volkswagen Tiguan. The market has responded very positively to it and with this new look things should just be getting better.
Chevrolet Captiva Pricing
2.4LT FWD manual (R299 900)
2.4LT FWD auto (R314 700)
2.4LT AWD manual (R341 200)
3.0LTZ AWD auto (R434 900)
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