Having undergone an ECU upgrade and its 10 000 km service the GWM H5 diesel pointed its nose towards the odd slice of Victoriana in the Karoo that is Matjiesfontein for a spot of ghost hunting.
As was mentioned in the previous update, the H5 underwent an ECU update in an attempt to alleviate the low-speed lethargy that made taking gaps at junctions a bit of a gamble. The process basically entailed a software update via a laptop hooked up to some under-dash electrics and took around 10 minutes to complete. Although there has been a palpable improvement in low-end responsiveness rendering the H5 slightly quicker out of the blocks, but there is a bit more engine noise and you still need to exercise some sound judgment when joining or crossing fast-moving traffic.
Before the H5 undertook its 474 km round trip, it was booked in for its first service at Great Wall Motors, Cape Town. The service included the requisite engine checks, consumables, suspension checks and labour and cost R1 259,99. The car was ready by the promised 16:30 deadline and cleaned both inside and out.
The trip to Matjiesfontein gave the H5 another opportunity to stretch its legs and again proved that motorway speeds do little to dent its appeal. The engine note, which had become a little more vocal since the ECU upgrade, smoothed out considerably as the speed increased and the supportive front seats ensured that long stints behind the wheel were not rump-numbing affairs. During the trip to Matjiesfontein and back, the H5 averaged just under 11 L/100 km, which was not far off its average when travelling to Knysna.
Our stay saw my Getaway magazine cohort and I posted at the suitably gothic-looking Lord Milner Hotel. I managed to avoid bumping into any of the hotel’s spectral residents and the closest thing I could attribute to anything supernatural was what looked like an orb that appeared floating in the right-hand side of a picture I took in the hotel lobby one evening…or was it a speck of dust on the camera lens? My travel companion, on the other hand, had something of a disconcerting experience in the ladies lavatory upstairs from the adjoining Laird’s Arms pub – it’s not as scatological as the wording suggests and you can read about it in her blog about the trip.
With our wits largely intact, the return journey was marked by inclement weather that brought forward a couple of minor quirks. The rain-sensing wiper system works well but there doesn’t appear to be an intermittent manual setting below it, meaning that you have to flick the wiper stalk between the behest of the auto system and a fairly brisk setting when the rain comes and goes. The fall of darkness on roads with little in the way of illumination also brought up the inefficiency of the H5’s headlamps. While full-beam does a sufficient job of lighting up the road ahead, the lesser settings cast a rather weak beam.
On the other hand, my passenger was impressed by the touchscreen audio system and happily played DJ for the remainder of the trip. So, another long trip dispensed without any drama the H5 now faces another challenge – the holidays and the inevitable wear that round-town driving and transporting festive season detritus brings. How will the H5 fare?
Quick facts – GWM H5 2,0 VGT 4×2 Automatic
Mileage on arrival (km): 750
Mileage now (km): 13 975
Fuel consumption (litres/100 km): 10,8
We like: long distance comfort, practicality, good audio system
We don’t like: lack of manual intermittent wiper setting, headlamps a bit too dim.
