IMOTO: RENAULT TRAFIC
RENAULT South Africa has brought back the Trafic Passenger bus to the car market after years of withdrawing it from the local market.
Trafic is renewing the Trafic Panel Van for the transport of goods which will arrive at the end of 2022.
Trafic is a car that is more than 45 years old and Renault says that more than 2.2 million have been sold in more than 50 countries around the world.
The latest Trafic Passenger is based on a panel van and is different.
The front is similar to the latest Renault cars with the company’s new logo.
When viewed from the side it is long as it measures 5 480mm and has wheels with 16-inch black rims. It has two doors that open to allow passengers inside.
At the rear the boot door opens upwards. If you want you can install two that open to the sides like a panel van.
When you get inside it loads nine passengers including the driver. The front seats two passengers and it felt cramped. The bump in the back where the seat dividers measure makes it uncomfortable.
In the middle, the seat was uncomfortable because of the transmission tunnel.
The driver has a seat that can be heated again.
There is no shortage of storage space in the front because there are two places to put drinks and other places to put things in the doors.
It has an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system where you connect a mobile phone via Apple CarPlay/Android Auto wirelessly, it shows the outside when you reverse because it has a camera on the back and so on.
The screen has a USB charging port, one for wireless charging and two non-Type C ports on the top.
In the back, only the charging ports have been removed for the passengers and they have been replaced with air conditioner vents.
If you enter from the right door, you can only sit in the middle seats. If you want to go to the last one, you have to enter on the left because it is the only one that can sleep.
I found the knee space in the rear seats not to be a problem, although you can move the seats forwards or backwards.
Another thing that is not a problem is the storage space because the boot is big even with all the seats. If it doesn’t satisfy you, you can expand it by making it load six passengers. If that is missing, there are only three of them and the rest of the back space is for goods.
The one we were going for was the top of the family Techno+. Below it is Evolution. It has cloth seats, manual aircon and wheels with 16 inch covers.
In the middle is the Evolution+ with 16-inch rims and leather seats.
Under the bonnet in all of them is a restored Trafic panel van engine.
It is a 2.0 liter turbo diesel with a power of 125kW and a torque of 380Nm. The gearbox is a 9 speed automatic. It includes AdBlue to reduce emissions.
I drove it a bit in Gauteng this week when it was launched.
We were six in and I felt it was going well, although the power seemed to be a little more. If you want to pass another car, you have to think carefully and step on it.
It was changing gears smoothly and I could see the need to use the pedal shifters behind the steering wheel.
Even over bumps it was very quiet and very quiet inside.
If the diesel tank is full you can travel more than 950km. When I checked it was consuming 7.5l/100km.
In terms of safety, they installed six airbags, sensors in the back, it tells when the air is low in the tires and so on.
Price:
Renault Trafic 2.0 dCi Evolution R 979 999
Renault Trafic 2.0 dCi Evolution+ R 1 016 999
Renault Trafic 2.0 dCi Techno+ R 1 049 999
They come with a five-year or 150,000km warranty and a five-year or 90,000km service plan.