What to Look Forward to in 2011

Gauteng must have a money fountain somewhere, simply because there cannot be any other justifiable explanation for how everyone with a GP license plate manages to afford a brand new car.

If you ever do take a road trip to go see the overflowing Vaal, please keep an eye out for the miracle that is happening on the N12 concrete highway. There are simply no old cars around – no wonder the Vaalies have to reinvent their license plate system. It appears that everyone from the CEO of Nedbank to the man that runs “Rainbow Garden Service” is driving whichever car caught their fancy during the previous night’s ad breaks. As a result, cars are bought on a whim which then have to be traded in for something that actually has boot space or isn’t a Nissan Micra on a grand scale.

Thankfully though, there is a simple solution to the piles of burnt out credit cards occupying precious landfill space. Various car magazines and websites all voiced their opinions on the best cars of 2010, and surprisingly, most can be obtained at sub Lamborghini prices.    

The world’s best selling automotive magazine, Top Gear, named the Citroen DS3 as the best car of 2010. The basic model retails in South Africa at about R199 000, substantially cheaper than a BMW X1 and offers just as much rear leg room.

On our side of the globe, Top Car magazine named the Golf Mk6 as their car of the year, not the newest Mercedes M-Class which every second soccer mom in Sandton uses to frequent their local Woolies Foods. Word needs to get out that we can trust the experts in telling us which car is good and which car is a waste of money, instead of this constant trend bending that is happening.

On that note, if you are planning on buying a car in 2011, what is there to look forward to?

Purely for us to marvel at aesthetically and have wonderful dreams of at night, the Aston Martin One-77 makes its debut. This Aston is nothing but a fantasy to us mere mortals however as only 77 lucky people will get to own one of these 7.3-litre V12, 740bhp works of art.

Coming back down to earth, we also have the Citroen DS4, the sequel to the above mentioned Top Gear car of the year. On the subject of hot hatches, we finally get to see the release of the new Ford Focus – with a brand new 2.0-litre turbo engine, which will manage an impressive 6.9l/100km.

With our heads in the clouds again, we will also see the McLaren MP4-12C, sporting a 592bhp 3.8-litre V8 twin-turbo engine. Out of interest has anyone ever actually seen a McLaren in South Africa? Not talking about ones at Auto Africa, but actually on the road.

There are hundreds of cars we could add to this list, including the likes of the Mini Coupe/Roadster and the Range Rover Evoque (the smallest of the family); however one of the most exciting 2011 developments is the added interest in creating our very own Cape Town Formula One street race. F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said that our chances are OK, and plans are currently being overlooked by the various governmental tourism and economic authorities. 

Armed with this information, hopefully those living in the Jacaranda City and Egoli will invest in a car that they won’t mind keeping for at least a year, thus saving themselves the effort of having to constantly learn new license plates and perhaps even being able to save up enough money to give the rest of us a McLaren to look at on our way to work.

Desiree Schirlinger
Photo Credit: Motorpics/Quickpic