The new Kia Cerato Koup has been in high demand in South Africa.  I have had numerous discussions with various people that indicated they were waiting for availability of these cars.  The styling are very modern.  It comes in a 2.0L model in either auto or manual transmission.  The two-litre kicks out a good 114kW and 194Nm of torque.  It is fully equipped with all accessories that you can think of.  In my opinion the Korean manufacturers are setting a benchmark for the rest of the world in terms of build quality & features versus the price.

With the focus being on developing the "perfect" electric vehicle to curb CO2 emissions it seems that the whole manufacturing process of getting an electric vehicle and maintaining it through the life-cycle we are not properly looking at all the rest of the pollution that are created.  Currently the mining and smelting for lead based batteries are arguably more dangerous to our existence than the CO2 emissions over the full cycle.  It can be argued that lead particles are contained in the area in which it is smelted / recycled.  There is however enough studies to show that these particles can travel over vast distances.  CO2 emissions on the other hand isn't contained in a specific area.  The damage of the lead particles are just greater.  Until there are more environmentally friendly bases for batteries, I don't think we will reap the proposed benefits of electric vehicles.  In the mean time everyone and his mate wants to impose taxes and levies on the emissions.  The technology to ascertain each individuals' emissions would be interesting in its own.

Toyota had to recall close to 270 000 cars due to faulty software that controls the brakes on the Prius.  It is still unknown which of the other Toyota models are being recalled in South Africa due to faulty accelerator pedals.  Globally it is said to be in the millions of recalls for Toyota for the accelerator pedal problem.

This must be hard for the die-hard Toyota fans.  Now even reliability isn't even the one thing they can rely on.

The TopGear Live show has once again been held in Johannesburg.  All the regulars were there and a few more.

Cars included were:

Ford Focus RS
Nissan 350Z
Nissan GT-R
Ferrari California
Aston Martin DBS
Mercedes-Benz SLR
Subaru Impreza STi
Audi R8
Lamborghini Gallardo
Lamborghini Murcielago

Then there were a few special ones:

Pagani Zonda - Although we only got a glimpse of this car, it is not everyday a person gets to see it in real life.

The big one - Koenigsegg Trevita - This car originally sold for $5m, one of only 3 worldwide.  It pumps out 1 018 hp and does the 0 - 100km/h in just 2.9s and a top speed of round about 400 km/h

The show itself were not as good as the one in 2009 as they didn't use the supercars in their stunts, etc.  In 2009 your spine experienced the sound of a lot of V8's revving in an enclosed environment.  Outside the show they had the performance area where you could go for a ride in a drift spec Chev with professional drivers.

Hopefully next year they will revert to using the supercars!