All right, it is time to talk cars with our motoring man, Ernest Page. She's from Change Cars dot Co and also the presenter for all things motoring on Ignition TV. And he's also standing by to answer some of your motoring questions. So do get those calls in on two one four four six oh five sixty seven, or you can drop us a voice note. Oh seven two five
six seven one five six seven. We are back this week with another Hyundai and at this time we're looking at the Hyundai Tucson and it's good to have you back.
With us, Jay, and fantastic to be back and start.
Were talking about the Handaed Tucson and last week one of our listeners touched on the point that maybe some of these cars are getting a little too expensive, and I think the two Son might be one of those cars.
With that conversation is Daily Daily relevant.
All right, so let's start with what what is it? What are we? I mean? I know I'm I'm in that kind of I was going to say, yummy mummy category. I'm labeling myself there. I'm labeling myself there.
But I do I do tell to move in this kind of suburb southern suburbs, mum circles where this is a very very popular vehicle. So I know exactly what we're talking about, but maybe other people don't.
What is it?
So the Hunda Tucson basically was one of those cars that started the C segment SUV. There was the early model Tucson and there was the car that came just before that similar shape and size.
But the Koreans were, I.
Mean, for lack of a better phrase, they were the Chinese before the Chinese were the Chinese, and the Japanese were the Koreans before they were the Koreans.
And you know when when Japan.
First came into the market many many years ago with Deathsuns, et cetera, they were frowned upon by local manufacturer enthusiasts. The same thing happened with Honda when they came onto the market, but they pioneered that Tucson segments so much that now it's one of the busiest segments out there. You've got Toyota with their four, You've got Massive with their six five, and then of course you've got the Cherries, the Tigos, the Havals, et cetera, et cetera.
Now populating that market big time.
So if you're looking for a relatively large suv that offers decent amounts of spec and power, and you've got about five hundred thousand or just over between five hundred and i'd say eight hundred thousand to spend, then this is the vehicle that you're looking for because it's got lots of comfort features, it's got a diesel engine, which is really nice, and then of course it's got the space for the entire family, and that's I think where
the two son fits in. It's a big, comfortable, spacious car that's got a diesel engine, which again I'm still a fan of, but again when it comes to this segment, people are very very much price sensitive.
And I've got the top spec Enline model, which is all wheel drive.
It's got a two liters one hundred and thirty seven killer what four hundred and sixteen muti meter diesel engine. It's got a bow sound system, panoramic roof, adaptive cruise control, all of those features that I think a lot of Chinese manufacturers are now throwing in as just normal nice to have, but unfortud I think it has put Hyundai a little bit on the back foot. As they are now migrating towards being a more premium offering. And by premium,
we're talking pricing over here. This one that I've got, which is the N Line, goes for eight hundred and fifty nine thousand. You do, Yeah, that's a lot, and you do, but you do get these seven year two hundred thousand kilometer warranty, You get a five year hundred and fifty thousand kilometer powertrain warranty, the two year power train fifty thousand k warranty, and then a service plan
as well for seventy five thousand ks. Now in that same range, though, there is a petrol version that goes for five point fifty nine, but that wouldn't be my pick. There is a diesel option which goes for seven hundred and nine thousand, which I think is much more satisfactory pricing if you ask me, because at eight hundred and fifty nine thousand, you could go for something that's a lot more premium. You know, you now starting to playing
that million rand sort of budget. Yeah, And when my colleague and I was talking about as Brendan Staniforth from a Ruler media, he mentioned that yes, extra hundred thousand on that eight fifty nine is a lot of money, but effectively you're just looking at just over.
Ten percent of the cost of the car. So all of a sudden you've got that million rand space.
And if you're looking new and use, there are tons and tons of good cause that you can get for that price. So unfortunately, the two song finds itself in a in a very sort of sticky situation when it comes to pricing at the moment.
And then of.
Course when we talk about the rivals for the TUC songs, you could you're looking at the as I mentioned before, the cars like the Cherry Tigo Tigo eight. You could get the Tigo seven if you wanted to, You could get the Haval Aged six two liters Ultra only six hundred and fourteen thousand, and that comes fully fully fully loaded with a seven year, two hundred thousand kilometer a warranty as well. The Tigo pell also diesel the one
point six TGDI for six hundred and nine thousand. So yes, I I do think that the handout is still a good God this thing wrong with it, It just finds itself in a bit precarious space, specifically in line throm I would then rather say go for the one model just below that, the two liters diesel. Again, I'm always gonna go for the diesel in an suv, and that everyone goes for seven hundred and nine thoust.
Yeah, it's listen. I tell you what.
What I can say for Hyundai is that they hold their price quite well. I've noticed the depreciation on a Honda on an suv as I think is pretty good. But your initial yeah, your initial outmay is is pretty high on that on that Toucson. Ray Anne has actually sent in a message. You mentioned the Haval H six there is being a direct competitor Ernest and says I'm looking at buying a Haval H six gt pH e V since it's versatile and the consumption is so good.
The Haval states one hundred and eighty kilometers at highway speed on full charge. Does this mean if you charge daily you don't need to use fuel? Are there any other competitors worth looking at? The speed doesn't interest me as much as it used to, so not too fust on the speed since it's basically going to be a family vehicle.
Funny enough, I.
Saw I saw one of these at the gym yesterday the H six GT PHGV. I mean listen, I didn't get to go inside your look under the boyt or anything, but it's certainly caught my eye.
It's quite meat, isn't it.
It is.
It's a chunky little monkey, that one. And the thing about PhD, you're plugging hybrids as they're called, they are now starting to filter into the market.
Quite a lot.
A Motor's got one, Jacob's got one, Chiliy's got one, aval BMW Volvo tyotas air Ford one stage was basically the only one in that size that you could get the plug in hybrid, But now it's starting to become more popular. And pov An I been having this conversation for months about we're not plugging hybrid's going to start coming to the country and the time is literally right now. Yeah, every second week or so there's a new plug in hybrid being launched. Just recently BYD launched their plug in
hybrid as well. So when it comes to the range on a plug in hybrids, as questioned a moment ago, you can do as as for their motive, for example, one hundred and fifty kilometers.
On pure ev range.
So what that means is that you plug in the car, you get the car fully charged up overnight. If you're going to be getting a car like this, it would be would stand you in good stead to have a charger at home that's the fastest possible charger for your plug in hybrid, and then the next day you drive basically for free. It's not completely free, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than fuel. And I've gone through that exercise with plug in hybrid cars and that's
exactly what you get. You get an electric car effectively that can some of them can do between eighteen, one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour, which means you can go to town and back in complete silence and use zero fuel. And that I think is the big big push at the big big advantage of plug in hybrids versus electric cars. You've got the best of both worlds. I think, specifically in South Africa, plug in hybrid to make a lot of sense.
Electricity. I know it's expensive, but.
Compared to fuel, it's quite cost effective. And if you cannot have to pay fuel for your daily commute every day to work, why not.
I'll tell you what I drove the UH No, it wasn't. It was a fully it was a fully electric vehicle. It was a Volvo. Oh gosh X something I can't rememize. Yes, yes, exactly.
And it was yet beautiful.
Oh just my kids are they're so small, but there's they were still talking about mummy, when can we have the Google car? They call it the Google cars because we could we could talk to Google in that car.
They thought it was fantastic.
But I.
I love the idea of being able to kind of venture into the electric space, but one has to first get over range anxiety. I was driving around in my little neck of the woods, I mean, and I couldn't relax.
I couldn't.
Every five minutes I had to kind of put there's an electric vehicle place on on Imamharun And I was there every five minutes because I couldn't get over the range anxiety, which I'm sure comes as you get more and more use to the car.
One hundred percent.
I drove an electric car just yesterday and my passenger was supposed to drop me off at the airport and then go back and I was what he calmed down, bro, But he was anxious and how much colom how many comments you've got left.
And I remember that that was my experience at the beginning as well.
Having said that if you own the car, and I really do hope that both of us get to own e X ninety me lovely that when you have the charge, and that's why I mentioned earlier, the charge at home changes the entire dynamic. It makes that range anxiety go away because all you have to do is get home, and with a normal car with petrol diesel, you don't have that problem.
You can stop anywhere.
It takes you ten minutes and then you've got enough time to get a sparkling water and a chocolate in the shop and off you go. Whereas when you're charging at a charging station, you've got to organize. I've got to drop the car, of am I going to go to the coffee shop, I'm going to go shopping. But if you can charge at home, then all of those problems go away, and then so does the range anxiety.
I think for the most part.
Somebody saying how do you feel about the jaiqu J seven compared to the Chinese cars like Haval that you've been chatting about, But Jaiku's also a Chinese brand isn't it.
Yeah.
Indeed, I haven't spent as much time with them, although I did go to an event that they had recently. And what I do like about jaku Jaiku is that they are starting to start owners clubs and they're starting to they're actually an event for owners of the brand to come through as a music festival, which is quite
strange but interesting. And what they did they was start an owner's club and I spoke to a few owners of the vehicle and they experience so far, seemingly from the people that I spoke to at this event, that has been very good.
The cars are very well spected.
The people that are running at the management team are trying to cover all their bases to make sure they're parts of ale, to make sure that the communication with the public is transparent and consistent, and you know, I think that that goes a long way. When you're trying to establish a new brand in a country, it's not just about the cars, about the off cells and how
you look after your clients. So Jacob, I think there's doing good things when it comes to off the cells and when it comes to building a community around their brand. So let's see how they do and the J seven. It's a beautiful, beautiful car. They launched it in twenty twenty four, and again the design is just I really
do quite like the designer's call. I don't personally have that much experience with it, but it does come with a one point six liter turboforce, a little petrol engine, seven speed your clutch, and definitely at least I think worth a test drive.
Yeah, I was going to say, I'm fascinated to get behind the wheel of one of these. I love how it looks, but it's not just about that, is it.
What is it like to drive?
Has it got a bit of meat behind it?
Ernest so, as I said, I've had that much experience with it. But when it comes to the engine, specifically of the Chinese brand, and a lot of them are running basically the same engines. Now have a pool of engines that they choose from one point five turber, one point six turbo two D to turbo, so a lot of them aren't necessarily making their own engines, and that's one of the reasons you're getting the fuel consumption that
is generally above average. Having said that, they are starting to make V eights, the Chinese are now where the Europeans are saying, you know what, we don't want to focus on diesel anymore, the Chinese are saying, well, we kind of do want to focus on diesel because one of our key markets is going to be Africa, and I think Africa is going to stay a diesel market for a long long time. So I think in the future we are going to be getting a lot more cost effective Chinese cars.
And that's the biggest scribe. And again every generation of these cars is just getting better and better.
It's an exciting time for the consumer when it comes to costing of vehicles because we've been moaning a South Africans for a long long time that.
Vehicle pricing is too expensive. Pricing is coming down.
The J seven starts at about five point forty nine, which is quite competitive. Having said, having said so that it does affect our local market, it does affect our local manufacturer, and it does affect local job markets as well.
So it's a it's a chicky one. It's a chicky one.
If you're just joining us this afternoon, good to have you with us. Welcome.
We are chatting with Ernest Page and it is our cast segment on launch Sarah has asked a question, says hianis what do you think of a twenty twenty four Billino. Suzuki Bilino with twenty five thousand k's on the clock.
Suzuki Billino is one of my favorite when it comes to small cars. I've spoken about this before, is that the twenty twenty four model should be the facelifted one, so that'll be.
The later model. Definitely can't go wrong with that.
Suzuki have carved a niche for themselves where they're making cars that are cost effective, but you get what you see on the tin. It's exactly what you get. There no surprises with the Bileno. Yes, it's been around for a little bit of a while, but it does still look finished, simply because the Yota has also released a Starlet, which is basically the car. So I don't think you can go wrong with the Bileno. If you're looking for a good old fashioned hatchback in the old sort of way,
yes you've got the Billina. But you remember there is a cross as well, So if you're looking for something that's a bit higher up, that might have a little bit more chunky sort of suv feel to it, then you've got the Suzuki Throncs. But if you want a good old fashioned hatchbag with decent power, good feud economy one point five lit the engine and just it's meat and potatoes kind of car, I really do like the Bileina.
Someone else saying, or John says that how long do these electric vehicle batteries last? And do they need to be replaced at some point? And what would that cost? That is a great question, John, thanks for that.
So that is.
Exactly the problem that electric cars have at the moment is that there's a usually there's a warranty of about seven years on the battery. Now that is coincidentally how long those batteries start to before they deteriorate. And when it comes to the battery of these cause that it is going to be expensive. It is going to be very expensive if it's an out of warranty repair. So that again is the trade off when it comes to
plug in hybrids. Now, Toyota, the best probably the best case to look at would be too to pres because that's a fully electric sort of car and at least the hybrid car.
And you can look at something like that and see for yourself, what will it costs to replace.
But I do know that when it comes time to replace batteries on something like a hybrid cars, something like an electric car, it is one hundred percent going to cost a lot of money. I have spoken to some mechanics, and certain mechanics are now starting to focus on that market. And what that would hopefully mean is that in five ten years time, when a lot of this cause oh out of warranty, there will be off the market parts available.
At this stage, the battery technology is still quite expensive, so you are looking to pay quite a substantial amount. I can't say exactly what that amount is, but it's not going to be a cheap repay if the car is out of water d So be very aware that when you buy anything with the plug in hybrid system or battery system, what the warranty is, how that wardity works. Speak to the manufacturer, find out what you can look at paying to replace those parts.
I'm really excited, but yeah, great question. I'm really excited by the by the increase in electric vehicles and what that means. And yeah, hopefully there will come a point soon. As you say, Ernest, well you and are we cruising around in our highly expensive electric vehicles and doing.
Our bit, for doing our bit for the environment.
Thanks very much, indeed, eis We're going to have to leave it there, but appreciate your time. Ernest is back with this next week, of course, and you can get your questions into him.
You can keep sending them there if you like. We can always forward them on to next week.