We are just about finished with our 20 000 km test of the Renault Sandero Stepway and I had one last trip to do in it. I decided on Robertson’s Wine on the River Festival with my boyfriend and two of our friends.
Before we departed, my friend called and asked which car I would be driving as they had quite a bit of stuff and were worried about space. I told them we were to use the Stepway and, not knowing what it was, they brought all their stuff anyway, cooler box included.
Well, we all managed to get everything to fit, except for the cooler box. The reason may have had something to do with the size of the other girl’s bag and mine, but we weren’t going to budge. So all packed in, to the brim, we set off for Robertson.
One of the first things the passengers seated in the rear mentioned was how spacious it was. They were impressed with the ample room (and this coming from the one guy who is over 1,8 metres tall).
As we have mentioned before, at highway speed the Stepway feels underpowered and trying to overtake slower cars pretty much signs a death wish. We often found ourselves having to speak up to overcome the engine noise, as dropping to third gear was the only way of getting up most hills.
The strong wind that hit just as we exited the Huguenot Tunnel did not make things easier. We were pretty much blown all over the road and so I had to slow down to about 60 km/h. As we started to speed up again, the rain came and the Stepway’s windscreen wipers did little to help with visibility.
However, once we were out of the “storm”, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on. We used just over half a tank to get to Robertson from Cape Town and back, as well as a bit of driving around town.
All in all, we had a fantastic trip. On the trip back, the wind still proved to be quite a problem. This is most certainly a vehicle for around town and perhaps the odd out-of-town trip, but I can’t say I would be too happy driving it on a much longer trip than to Robertson.