Fuel consumption down, but the temperature soars for passengers
LONG-TERM FLEET
The great thing about staying in Johannesburg over the holidays is the lack of traffic. The main benefit is a more relaxed drive but there is another major benefit too, in the form of fuel consumption.
Heavy stop-start traffic day after day in rush hour can push your consumption figure up so you wonder if you will ever get close to that seemingly unattainable figure claimed by the manufacturer. Then all the traffic disappears and you spend less time on the brake and you might even get the chance to engage cruise control, at 60km/h, in town. Who knew you could do that? Perhaps my wife — she likes to drive on the cruise control all over the place.
LITTLE TRAFFIC
Over the holidays, with hardly anyone else on the roads, the consumption figure started to drop. I did not reset it though, so it was still going to take into account the months in traffic before that, but the figure came down from 7.1l to 6.9l/100km.
Now imagine if traffic flowed better, if people observed the keep left, pass right rule on the highway and didn’t sit in the outer lanes forcing traffic behind them to slow and back up. Imagine if you didn’t have to brake suddenly for a minibus taxi or someone parked in the road. It is idealistic, at least for Joburg anyway, but free-flowing traffic would reduce your fuel consumption, as it did with the Kadjar over the holidays.
Sadly we are all back to sitting in that stop-start traffic again, which I hate to say is only going to get worse.
I spent a fair amount of time driving around in the Kadjar. With the in-laws in town for Christmas, it also became the family runaround, which was great because in its bright red guise it quickly became known as the Renault Sleigh and at one point was even adorned with a slight smattering of fake snow.
However, being the family runaround also revealed an issue. SA experienced heatwave conditions before Christmas and so the climate control on the Renault was pushed to its lowest temperature. The Auto setting struggled to cope and so we had to resort on a number of occasions to switching to manual and pushing the fan button up to maximum. It made things reasonably comfortable for those of us up front, but for those in the back, it did little to help. 6.9l/100km Rear seat air circulation
There are no air vents in the back seats which I find rather odd. Rear passengers complained that it was just too hot, possibly not helped by the panoramic glass roof in spite of the sun screen across it. Our nine-month-old baby was sweating each time we took her out of her car seat.
We can only imagine it is a design issue. The Kadjar is a massive seller in Europe, where it would rarely have to cope with the kind of regular temperatures we had in that week when they remained in the upper 30s. Not surprisingly, when the temperatures dropped in the week after Christmas to the point where my family in the UK were laughing at us, the Kadjar was way more comfortable.
Sauna aside, the Kadjar proved a great vehicle in which to run everyone around. It packed all the presents in the boot along with the in-laws’ paraphernalia and all that stuff you feel compelled to carry when you have a baby and a toddler. Everyone seemed to be impressed with the space available and also with its design.
That design is something we have spoken about before. There is nothing like two cars on the same platform to create debate and, quite frankly, choosing between the Kadjar and its sibling, the Nissan Qashqai, on looks is a matter of personal preference. I happen to think the Kadjar is better looking. It also helps that it is better equipped (I am not sure how well the climate control works in the back of the Qashqai, though).
So now we are back in the daily grind and we will keep an eye on that consumption figure.
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