Passing the baton — The BMW M Fest and Hyundai Staria panel van

The futuristic-looking Hyundai Staria panel van. (Photo: Hyundai SA)

By Melinda Ferguson

31 Oct 2024

While the journalist lugged a huge load in her Hyundai Staria panel van, her son did hot laps in the all-new BMW M5.

I might never win the “Best Mother” award, but I did teach my firstborn son to drive when he was 11.

I found motherhood excruciatingly challenging, made even harder because, when I brought my two boys into this world, I was struggling with a brutal addiction to heroin. While I cleaned up my act soon after the boys arrived, for a long time Shame and Recrimination were my middle names.

In truth, I lacked conventional motherly skills, but I was an ace behind the wheel. So, when 11-year-old James begged me to teach him to drive, I took him to Ethel Grey Park in Melrose one early Sunday morning and allowed him to take the wheel. He was a natural, and by the time he had got his learners licence at 17, he was driving me and his brother to school.

Last Thursday, I was supposed to fly up to Joburg to attend the media day for BMW’s popular M Fest. It’s one of my favourite “racing” events, but because I had to move a whole lot of stuff to my cabin in the mountains (in a Hyundai Staria panel van that I had to shift heaven and earth to secure), I called my son. Being the petrolhead that he is, he was hardly going to decline the chance to do hot laps in the new M5 and M3 Touring – two of the new products that BMW had flagged to unveil at the M Fest.

Motoring Hyundai Staria The user-friendly load bay of the Hyundai Staria panel van. (Photo: Hyundai SA)

So, while mommy dearest was loading three concrete chairs, (weighing 90kg each), 12 bags of compost (20kg each), two chairs (20kg apiece), an umbrella (20kg), the concrete stand (50kg) and 12 protea plants (which hardly weighed a thing, but took up substantial space) in the van, James headed off to Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit.

The South African BMW M Fest is the biggest of its kind in the world, and by the time the gates opened last weekend, all 33,000 tickets had been snapped up by ardent Beemer fans. The weekend’s highlights included BMW and BMW Motorrad showrooms for those wanting to make on-the-spot car and motorcycle purchases. There were M-Hot laps, and M-Drift Rides on offer as well as a host of BMW test drive experiences.

Along with the M3 and M5, the BMW M4 CS, BMW M2, the locally built BMW X3 and the BMW 1 Series were on show.

While I huffed and puffed in my panel van, my son sent me regular updates.

The BMW M Fest took place at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. (Photo: James Yazbek)

BMW M5

James was especially taken with the M5. What makes this seventh-generation V8 petrol-turbo race demon special is that it’s a plug-in hybrid, the flagship of the 5 Series I got to drive on launch earlier this year.

The M5 produces racecar-like outputs with its 535kW of power and 1,000Nm of demonic torque, helped by an electric motor to sprint 0–100km/h in just 3.5 seconds when using launch control. There’s also an 18.6kWh battery, which allows the M5 to operate solely on electric power for up to 69km, at speeds of up to 140km/h. (The battery takes about three-and-a-half hours to charge on a 7.4kW charger.)

There are also three drive modes on offer: road, sport and track. My son raved about the rear-biased M xDrive all-wheel-drive system, which according to him, gave this racer plenty of grip around Kyalami’s bendy corners. When it comes to the M5’s rivals, you’d probably be looking at the Audi RS6 Performance and the Mercedes AMG E63 S.

BMW M Fest The M5’s racer seats. (Photo: BMW SA)

The Staria panel van

As I made my way to the mountains in my utilitarian Staria panel van, travelling at a speed of 90km/hr, I did experience momentary FOMO at the thought of that M5 with its top speed of 305km.

Moving on.

The Staria MPV, the passenger version of my panel van, arrived in South Africa in November 2021, just as we were coming out of almost two years of lockdown. With its futuristic visage, as media, we were all pretty smitten. So too when it comes to the public as the MPV has proven to be a dominator in this segment, where its rivals include the VW Kombi, the Merc Vito and Ford’s Tourneo.

In July 2022, the Staria panel van was introduced to the range, as a replacement for the far more sedate-looking (and slightly smaller) H1. By that stage, the H1 accounted for about 22% market share in its segment, populated by the Toyota Quantum Crewcab, Volkswagen Transporter crew bus and Ford’s Transit.

Because of their generous dimensions, these “three-front-seater” vans are extremely popular in SA, especially when it comes to conversion into ambulances or hearses. And they are obviously hot property in small and medium-sized businesses that are load orientated.

Hyndai panel van The futuristic-looking Hyundai Staria panel van. (Photo: Hyundai SA)

Along my 120km trip into the mountains, I found the Staria van, with its smooth 8-speed automatic gearbox, really easy to drive. There was even enough power on hand from its 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine, (130kW/430Nm) to do a few nifty overtakes. Most impressive was its fuel economy of 8.7L/100km.

Comfort features include electronic stability control (ESC) as a safety feature; auto-adjusting headlights; 17-inch alloy wheels; heated and electrically adjusted outside rearview mirrors; and audio and Bluetooth remote control buttons on the steering wheel; as well as cruise control. The backrest of the middle seat in the cabin can fold forward to create a storage tray for cups and odds and ends. What it doesn’t have is a reverse camera, and in my books, that’s a big omission.

Van fans are always interested in the numbers. The Staria’s sliding doors have an opening width of 870mm and a load volume of 4,935 litres. It’s 2.5m long, just over 1.6m wide, and it has a height of 1.430m. The maximum towing capacity is 2,500kg (braked) and 750kg (unbraked).

But, I asked myself, how many kilograms could it actually take? As I was heading on to the twisties of Du Toitskloof pass, I suddenly got paranoid. What if I had overloaded it? What if the bottom suddenly fell out while I was driving that narrow pass? I broke out into a sweat and pulled over. I quickly went to Google and read up about the MacPherson struts in the front and a “rigid rear axle with heavy duty leaf springs to carry big loads”. But what exactly did they mean by “big loads”? And then, the magic number appeared: “The cargo load capacity of the Staria panel van is 900kg – an increase of 100kg versus the previous H1.”

I did a quick calculation. Including myself and the dog, my concrete chairs, other chairs, umbrella, heavy concrete stand and all that compost, I was carrying about 700kg.

Phew. No fall-out. So, on I chugged, while my son swooped and growled in the mighty M5 that costs more than four times the price of my van.

Pricing

BMW M5: R2.69-million (excluding CO₂ tax)

Hyundai Staria panel van: R669,900 DM

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