Diesel price average price for Cape Town, November 2013

BP at Main Road, Muizenberg, Cape Town: R13,10 per litre (50 ppm)

In a typical 35-gallon barrel of light, sweet crude oil the potential is there to make about 16 gallons of petrol, 8,5 gallons of diesel, 3,4 gallons of jet fuel and 8,5 gallons of heavy fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gases and other products...all for around $80!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Transport of delight


I’ve never really enjoyed the name Tiguan that Volkswagen finally came up after picking the name from the results from an international competition. Other suggested names were Rockton, Liger, Samun, Nanuk and the one I think that should have won: Namib!

Nevertheless, the VW Tiguan remains a first-rate crossover vehicle that has proved to be rather popular over here with seven different models on offer. (In the UK there are 22 different derivatives available.)

The one that I’ve just had the opportunity to evaluate was the BlueMotion 2,0 TDi version – and very good it was too. Economical to the point of wondering if perhaps the fuel gauge had ceased functioning(!), after seemingly travelling close to 900 km before the warning light started to flicker.

Those who know the Western Cape region of South Africa will know how brilliant the roads are – perfect for evaluating cars (and bikes) due to being able to negotiate just about every terrain over a morning’s drive. The steepest of climbs (St Lowry’s) to the switchback pass of Franshhoek that really ought to feature on every car manufacturer’s route when visiting the Mother City, was swiftly and safely negotiated.

Why oh why do people still bother with non-diesel type transport in this day and age?

 As we’ve come to expect from Volkswagen the Tiguan (81kW/280 Nm) is superbly built, roomy inside and great looking from the outside. I’d even go as far as to say the BlueMotion derivative is one of the quietest diesels tested yet on this website.

Volkswagen’s Tiguan is priced at R294 800 at the time of writing this article.




No comments:

Post a Comment