Automotive Business Review — February 2018

46 WORDS IN ACTION http://www.abrbuzz.co.za

aBr Goes Rogue with the

Volkswagen Kombi 2.0 TDI

December is the month to break the mould, to swop your business suit for shorts and takkies, to bury the smartphone, and to go

where no man has gone. Well, to go where you don’t normally go. It is the month to go rogue

I

n my Christmas stocking was Jacques Pauw’s book, The President’s Keepers, and it was from this powerful and revealing book that

I borrowed the phrase “to go rogue”, as it neatly encapsulates the behaviour of secret service spooks and presidents alike, and in

my case, how to do a vehicle review in a roguish way, or as the Urban dictionary puts it, to cease to follow orders; to act on one’s

own, usually against expectation or instruction; or to pursue one’s own interests.

A foray into Mpumalanga and to the Kruger National Park required a spacious and comfortable vehicle, and the VW Kombi 2.0 TDI fi tted

the bill, generously provided by Volkswagen South Africa. So how do you go rogue on a vehicle review? You go against expectation, and

you eschew words for pictures. So, let’s go rogue:

VEHICLE REVIEW

by Howard Keeg

The Kombi made

short shrift of the

winding roads

around Sabie,

Graskop and

Pilgrim’s Rest,

whilst providing

space, power and

car-like comfort

and driveability

South Africans

love to go

rogue, in many

ways, such as

converting a

high accident

sign into a

Japanese

welcome

Robbers Pass, on the R533 between

Pilgrim’s Rest and Ohrigstad, is named

after a nefarious fellow who helped himself

to other people’s property during the gold

rush. Now, I am normally against the

changing of names, as it is self-serving and

changes the course of historical narrative,

but in the case of Robbers Pass, I am

prepared to make an exception. If they

want to change the name to Zumas Pass,

they will get no objection from me

The gravel

road to Mount

Sheba asks a

few questions,

which the

Kombi answers

without effort,

and the roots

of the answers

lies in German

engineering

The altitude

on the road to

Mount Sheba

creates an eerie

mist, and would

be an ideal

location for a

horror movie

The altitude

on the road to

Mount Sheba

creates an eerie

mist, and would

be an ideal

location for a

horror movie