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By
EWAN KENNEDY
1 September 2008
Holden Captiva is the latest entrant in the 2WD ‘4WD’ market.
Meaning it looks like a 4WD, but comes with less weight, and
therefore greater economy, than its 4WD brother. Not only does the
Holden Captiva 2WD use less fuel, it’s also nimbler and more
pleasant in its in-corner handling than the AWD model. As well as
having driveshafts, differentials and universal joints to create
extra friction and eventually wear out.
Naturally,
the Captiva 2WD doesn’t have the same off-road ability as the
Captiva AWD, but it does have good ground clearance and is
probably more than capable of handling the sort of easy dirt road
conditions that are traversed by Captiva AWD owners. Indeed,
Captiva, like just about every other SUV on the road, seldom goes
onto dirt roads, let alone real off-road conditions.
Through
an anomaly in Australian import tariffs, 2WD vehicles are charged
higher rate than 4WDs. (An anomaly deliberately created many years
ago to give commercial vehicle operators, particularly those on
the land, lower priced vehicles.) So, though 2WDs are cheaper to
build than 4WDs, they often cost more in Australia than their more
complex brothers.
Holden
won’t give us details but is presumably trimming its profits on
the Captiva 2WD, selling it for $2000 under the price of the
Captiva AWD. Thus it’s priced at a pretty competitive $33,990
for a five-speed manual, and $35,990 for an automatic
transmission, also with five forward gears. The auto is now on
sale, but the first shipments of the manual model won’t arrive
until late September.
Interestingly,
it was Holden Captiva's arch-rival Ford Territory that first
offered a choice between 2WD and AWD models. Because the Territory
was made in Australia it didn’t have a price differential
created by import tariffs. Since then several importers have
joined the sales battle in offering the two types of transmission.
At
this stage the Holden Captiva 2WD, which incidentally is driven by
its front wheels, is only sold with a turbo-diesel engine and only
in the popular SX format. Other than the transmission, the Captiva
2WD has exactly the same specifications as its AWD brother.
These
include an impressive list of safety features such as dual front
and curtain airbags, stability and traction
control, ABS brakes with brake assist and electronic brakeforce
distribution, rollover protection and descent control. Inside,
there’s air conditioning, cruise control and an mp3-compatible
CD player.
Fuel
consumption of the Holden Captiva 2WD turbo-diesel is impressively
low at 7.2 litres per hundred kilometres when fitted with a manual
gearbox. However, the auto is significantly thirstier at 8.5
litres per hundred. Surprisingly, the consumption isn’t a lot
lower than the AWD in automatic AWD format ( 8.5 vs 8.6 litres)
but there are useful savings when the manual gearbox is installed
(7.2 vs 7.6). This may be due to the fact that test methods
don’t always reflect real world driving.
Captiva's
2.0 four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine is a strong unit, producing
110 kW, and 320 Nm at 2000 rpm. It has been a winner for Holden
since introduced in March last year. It’s hard to see this new
lower cost, more economical model being anything but a big success
on the sales front.
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Marque Publishing Company
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