Hyundai i40 sedan test drive since 2011 sedan

Case of conformity

For some reason, it seems to me that the author of any material about the Baltic test drive of the i40 sedan is necessarily wondering why Hyundai brought the car to the Russian market exactly the same segment where Sonata has settled for many years. But the situation is really unusual for our days!

The meaning of such a market move was the secret that was to be revealed on a trip to Kholmov’s places: natural scenery served as routes in which series of the famous Soviet series were shot. Contrary to the logic of any detective, it all began with sincere recognition: Sonata and i40 are not competitors, they are designed to complement each other! Like Sherlock and Microft Holmes in six dozen stories of Conan Doyle, only four times, dissimilar in nature and age, are engaged in different things, so these two cars with different characters are called to meet more often, that is, to be intended for completely different layers of customers.

Sonata has a good consolidated in the status of a departmental car, working regularly in a taxi. The beginner is designed to conquer the heart of the buyer of the individual and in the sense that he will not limit corporate standards, and in the sense of character. The target audience of I40 is seen by people of 3040 years old, creative professions that are not married or with a family, but so far without children. And the main trump card of the new machine is called design, the wealth of options and pleasure. When, on the corresponding diagram along the axis of expensive materials and the pleasure of driving, the i40 was cheerfully pushed above both the Driversal Honda Accord and the premium Volvo S60, I somehow remembered the proverb about the impudence of the second happiness! However, Hyundai has now got rid of, it seems, already from any complexes, so the statement is quite in the spirit! There were trifles of the declared match. This is the investigation about the conformity and was allotted to us for two days and several hundred kilometers on Baltic roads and cities.

The European unit under the leadership of Thomas Burkle was engaged in external design I40, but it is still difficult to call this appearance 100%. It is more likely 100%in the modern proprietary style of Hyundai, combining quite European salons and flowing external lines in the east. They do not argue about tastes, but the fact that the i40 turned out to be spectacular and recognizable is a fact. The face of the brand has formed, and whether it is like it or not to decide. That's what certainly looks not just spectacular, but even a little bewitching is a complex line of LED daylight! Now this element is being introduced almost everywhere, but in Hyundai they were able to find a truly interesting and non-secondary solution.

In Europe, the i40 has been sold for more than a year, but not one of the engines proposed there will appear. Neither the 1.6 GDI of the previous generation of the Gamma, nor the new 177-horsepower two-liter series NU, nor a 1.7-liter turbodiesel. For the Russians, forgive the engine of their own pride: Nu, but lost direct injection and deformed up to 150 forces. The average in power for the segment D is not so demanding on the fuel and not jumping (for which, by the way, special thanks) the border of a higher tax rate. Why should the buyer pay significantly large taxes for the 101, 151 or 201 forces beloved by some brands?

This single motor is aggregated with the only possible gearbox with a six -speed automatic. So, in fact, the choice is proposed only in relation to the configuration.

Here, it seems, they collected everything they could come up with a car of this class! Even the basic version of comfort will not be called a simple language. Parquation and heating of seats, front curtains and a knee pillow at the driver, fog lights and heating the rest of the wipers, LED running lights and rear lights, a multimedia steering wheel and rain sensor, a 2-zone climate control and this is not a complete list! In the next stage, Style appears a beautiful color panel of Supervision, xenon light, drive driver’s seats and heating the rear seats, a leather interior, heating the steering wheel and navigation, again, is hardly half the bells and whistles. The next step to the top Premium contains not such a long list, but what! Panoramic glass roof with a hatch and a self -parking system, adaptive head light and sports seats not only with heated, but also with three -level ventilation, the rear video camera and an Infinity audio system with a subwoofer
By the way, the ventilation of the seats works very efficiently, but the panoramic roof not only eats a lot of spaces vertically in itself, but also forced the developers to make the line of the upper frame of the windshield of low even in cars without this option. Drivers talked from 185 cm will not be able not to notice this. However, the spaciousness of the i40, despite the fact that it is 8 centimeters shorter than the sonata, is still more than enough both on the front seats and on the rear.

For the sonata, a considerable part of these bells and whistles is simply inaccessible, its credo is formulated in American: more car for less money (especially since there are only two-thirds from ours there and money there). And the i40 is a machine for someone who can no longer imagine himself not surrounded by all these pleasant trifles of one degree or another. And ready to pay for these pleasant little things.

I40 and on the go. To please European traditions, his suspension tried to make it harder and this added comfort. True, the comfort of the European, designed for flat roads. To a certain limit, the suspension simply dissolves irregularities, but more serious pits or thresholds begin to respond with serious blows. The suspension is a little lacking of energy intensity, but this is most likely not a mistake, but the European positioning of the car. Because it is precisely for such a settings that the controllability and controllability are quite acute, with good stability on the turnover of the turn. Only a reservation to a certain limit can be set literally after each phrase. I40 gives its pleasure in motion, first of all, after all, in terms of comfort, and in fact, sled qualities are more likely to complement it. In Drivers Car with its 150-horsepower I40 engine, it will not turn anyway. On the highway during overtaking it is felt especially noticeable. Sometimes I really want to give a magical kick of the transmission: first transferring it to the sports regime, and then completely taking control through the steering wheel switches.
For Hyundai i40, the term car for the driver gains his own, although more and more popular in our time coloring. It is convenient to go far and on a flat road on it, it is good to walk or move yourself in space, paying more attention to the climate, sound, ease of landing, and expanse more attention. In this regard, this brother Sonata is good! But with the ambitions of rivalry with premium Europeans, it is still worth it still more careful. Yes, there is a rich set of all kinds of small and great joys, but in that tangible only subjectively, which is called thoroughness, all this has not yet developed. Although the latest Hyundai history shows that the brand cannot be occupied with healthy business impudence and development is seven -mile steps. Time of time?

But only the most modest price exists now. For the Comfort version, 1,089,000 rubles are only 10,000 cheaper than for the initial set of the 150-horsepower Volvo S60 (since it was mentioned about it on that diagram)! Personally, I have pleasure in driving in the European i40 at the same level as on the new generation of the Swede, to be honest, yet it does not work out. Well, and i40 Premium reaches in price to 1,398,000. Feel free? But additional bells and whistles for this money are also proposed, according to conscience, an incredible amount.

Will such an offer will be in demand in the market? Why not? In the end, unlike the Soviet Sherlock Holmes, the current, bibisic, is more familiar to hold a smartphone in his hand, and the windows of cardboard keys to the cipher gave way to almost three -dimensional graphics on the screen. And in a well-groomed tourist restaurant on the current Riga street you do not immediately recognize that Baker Street, 221b, where Livanov and Solomin lived. Times are changing, demand and demand are changing.

But personally, I will sit in a cozy chair by the fireplace for now, I will drag on a good tobacco and pouring a little good old island whiskey. The investigation is completed, and the buyer will already be sentenced



 

A source: Cars