Test drive Seat Toledo 1999 - 2004 sedan

Matrimonial interest

Each temporarily idle man dreams of a chosen one with the appearance of a supermodel, the intelligence of the philosopher, the hard work of the northern deer, the meekness of the angel, the devotion of the mongrel and the sexual enthusiasm of the porn star. Alas, life rarely makes such gifts, forcing a compromise with a dream. You have to either cut a list of the necessary advantages, or put up with modest indicators for each individual parameter for the sake of a completely harmonious amount. But when the state of finance allows you to offer a hand and heart to a compact sedan, the selection criteria are no less diverse, and the search for the ideal is just as exciting.
Despite the fact that folk love for an isolated trunk in our latitudes is caused by a severe need to constantly carry a smelly canister, a bottle of M8B1 oil and a bunch of spare chambers, today it does not allow it to cool the model range of expensive modern foreign cars, whose owners, it would seem, it would seem, it would seem, it would seem, it would seem to be , it is enough to transport credit cards, if not a purse, then the glove compartment is for sure. We are sure that the buyer of a car with a separate luggage volume actually dreams of a large sedan as a business, and agree to the golf class three-border guard only forces him to allocate for the purchase of more than 15-20 thousand stable monetary units. In our test, we tried to collect the latest offers for a person who had already put his foot on the lower step of the Potemkin staircase leading to worldly glory, the power and power of large sums. The reason for the alliance with Ford Focus, Honda Civic or Seat Toledo is unlikely to be love at first sight: after all, marriage by calculation is a much more faithful road to success. So, we will prepare for a sober assessment, but nevertheless we will leave the heart of an advisory voice. The choice will not be simple, because the applicants, each of whom came out of a noble motorsport family, are so different from each other!
Focus born in Europe for the third year has been very successfully produced and sold on both sides of the Atlantic. From the point of view of appearance, the brightest and controversial machine in our trinity. Let the new line of its design seem to be diamond to one, and the other will scare away the sharpness of the transitions from the plane to the plane, it is obvious that this car is made by opponents of dull utilitarianism. It is a pity that such bold outfits are usually destined for a short life (against the backdrop of even more acute -fashioned ones, they quickly lose freshness), but Focus is far from reaching the circulation, original and, like a keen dandy, is easily released in the flow of cars with ironically upturned corners of the headlights. No wonder the thresholds of the body and the rear stanks of the body sparkle with expensive accessories, the heraldic emblems of the GHIA body workshop for $ 16750 this Focus was supplied with ABS, two airbags, a pseudo -core trim with a gray salon, a pseudo -driven panel on the console, electric windows and mirrors, air conditioning and radio.
At first, the control buttons with this electricity seem randomly scattered along the fan fan panels of the dashboard and the dashboard. Do not succumb to optical deception: in fact, everything is very convenient and affordable. Separate nodes (for example, internal door handles) are made with jewelry grace, efforts on levers and pedals are optimal, and the steering wheel is amazing. It is not too easy to understand the barcode of dashcams and indicator lamps, but the gear shift mechanism works so tasty that the active driver would probably want to have such a device at home. If the longing rinses, it is enough to turn the lever several times and life starts to improve immediately ... In the cabin, it is quite convenient for four, and only the inhabitant of the right front chair has the right to grumble for fate: for some reason, for some reason, the folding armrest was not overlooked for some reason.
However, a person at the wheel cares little, it is much more interesting to whistle with tires along the asphalt of the racing ring. The behavior of Focus, flying into a turn with a motor twisted into a ring, worthy of becoming an example for a textbook of good front -wheel drive manners: a quick but smooth skid for discharge of gas and an equally clear return to the trajectory when opening a throttle. At the same time, pendants do not take out the soul on bumps, but allow Michelin Energy tires reliably and very quickly drive a car along the arc, even on a not very smooth coating. However, the ability of Ford specialists to configure the chassis of both racing and serial machines is well known. And we probably would have sang a Focus controllability for the next laudatory ode, if in a barrel of honey, carefully filled with body bodybuilders and pendants, the whole bucket of tar did not pour ... the engine. The twisting into the ringing was not mentioned for a red word, this is the only way to make the car at least somehow move. The low-school 90-horsepower Zetec, especially for Russia, adapted for working on low-octane gasoline, very sluggishly dispersed the car even at 5-6 thousand revolutions, and below 3000 shamefully refused to pull at all. On traffic lights and suburban highways of the dandy Focus became easy prey ... ordinary Lada! Such a glaring deficiency of torque can only be explained by a malfunction of the brain that controls the injection, especially since Focus behaved strangely and in the morning with cold start. Therefore, we are in no hurry to blame the Fordovskiy Motor Builders in negligence, but to try to understand the problem with the help of the Russian representative office of Ford, which provided the car for a test.
Fans of the charismatic 160-horsepower Honda Civic of the previous (sixth) generation with amazement and distrust look at the new Japanese sedan, tall and short-term. The motor is well familiar 1.6 VTEC. The most spacious in the classroom is a salon with a flat floor, where behind a 192 cm passenger is not reached by his knees to the front chair adjusted for himself? Well, well ... MacPherson's compact and technological racks that replaced double levers in front? Melka-metels ... a stylish but discreet exterior with the flashlights of the dimensions, cut into the watershed of the headlights and turn signals, and the absenteeisms of the rear lights, who drove onto the trunk lid? Longing ... wide chairs that weakened the grip of side support rollers? This cannot be, because it can never be! Four -speed automatic? Go to hell! This is a gentleman's set of law -abiding family man who is crazy about Japanese household appliances, but has not yet accumulated on Legend! Well, why does he need a motor, from five to eight thousand revolutions, capable of power and sound to ecstasy a fan of Formula 1?! Calm, Kamikadze! The peaceful herds of respectable inhabitants who pay real money for cars are not for anything yours. They just want to ride reliably, comfortably and economically, and the Civic VII sedan, which is made in Japan and the USA, is intended specifically for them. And you, anesthetic Cabiolet guys, sorry, how much in the light? A handful ... True, and for such there is the desired Civic hatchback Type-R, 2 liters, 200 horses. And the sedan has a motor, by the way, is not the same. This is VTEC II, and the forces in it are not 160, but only 110 ...
However, it is felt that the Honda designers who have had been in sport had to do the case not quite familiar. The new suspension is much softer than the previous one, but not too comfortable on bumps and cannot hold the car from strong vertical swing on the road waves, despite a large supply of space above the head, during a dashing ride, the top of the tester was in contact with the ceiling, and on the cable asphalt not always It was possible to accurately withstand the trajectory in a quick turn. There is nothing more about managing control, we honestly rolled out onto the Khodynka and the tidbine paths of the Moscow Region, but the test Honda in July turned out to be shod in the Dunlop Graspic S2002 winter tires (thanks that they are not shifted!), And I don’t want to offend the car with incorrect grades. Here the capacious salon was a success to the third passenger from the back no longer have to trample the legs of the neighbors, and in the ES luxury comprehension machine there are ABS, four airbags, climate control, hatch-mirror with electric drives and even heating the seats. True, transportation costs and strong Ian made a car quite expensive (they ask for $ 21800 for Civic ES) and forced the Japanese to save on trifles masterfully, but imitate soft plastic in the decoration, abandon the armrest and third head restraint, donate the lugbager linen and even adjustment of the frequency of wipers in intermittent mode ...
But the motorists could not step on the throat of their own song simply did not work out the movement, and the world once again made sure that the horsepower from Honda was uneven to the rest of the trample. The unit modest in digital indicators actually has the same fantastic traction, but now in the entire speed range! Silently singing a victorious song, in response to a light message of the gas pedal, he throws the car forward as natural as if he had to carry half a ton less than competitors. And not even the most modern machine is not able to restrain this pressure! After this, it is even embarrassing to remember the futile attempts of the steering wheel power steering to fill the steering wheel with important information or the artless panel. It seems that here the Japanese managed to outdo even the Germans with their textbook pragmatism: after all, if you already have a supermotor and the gap of a place for passengers, what else to demand from the car?
Of course, we know that the Spanish Idalgo Seat is a faithful vassal of the German Volkswagen, and the Toledo sedan flesh from the flesh of VW Bora. But in the soft, rounded contours of the Spaniard, there is no strict Borin. It was as if, having appeared on the Mediterranean coast, the penalty mop has replaced the business special forces from the Hugo Boss to Bermuda and Havah. But the gaze remained frowning, the vacation began recently ... But in the shower, that is, the Toledo salon, the indestructible ordnung reigns, on which the homeland of freedom -loving Basque could not have any influence. Despite the fact that from the objects of luxury this Volkswa ... Sorry, Seat for $ 14600 took only two pillows, an electric lover and a well-sounding radio (even Abs did not capture), its lightweight salon creates the feeling that you We got into the car with a class higher than rivals. Perhaps because separate elements of the design of the torpedo, blood-red backlighting and symbols on the buttons are more likely with Audi A3 than with Golf, and pedantry in relation to the details (sielikon of the handle on door tributaries, a gorgeous hinged body-box , adjusting the front seats in height and the meticulous care of execution and decoration) cannot but inspire respect.
Alas, together with the family treasures, Toledo inherited the organic deficiency of Golf-Bora to a lack of space for the feet and knees of the passengers from behind. If the drill is driving, you will have to sit behind him, and the legs from under his chair will have to be rescued with his hands. So this car can be considered family only on condition that the children have not grown yet. But this Volks ... Volks ... Seat does not intend to load and frighten your riders. The steering wheel and pedals are light, the adhesion and the lever of the box are great (there is time to think about whether it is worth rushing), and the smooth coating of the Toledo racing highway polishes methodically, thoroughly and even with some lazy, forcing me to remember that German lovers gives birth to Germany much more often than brothers than brothers Schumacherov. But it is worth taking him to the operational scope of winding and uneven suburban paths, as it turns out, that in these actually close to combat conditions on Toledo you can even rely! When you really need it, it will be truly nerd, burden both below and upstairs, stable in one word, reliable. Let the Seat owe your advantages that are not present on the hood, trunk and a large steering wheel of S, but a VW monogram that is absent there, but Toledo gives the impression of an extremely harmonious product. And in Spain, the German lives in peace with him, with his driver and passengers. However, we strongly recommend that you pay attention to the car with air conditioning and the ABS, because both of these devices add only $ 1250 to the price, and at a speed of 120 km/h, the noise of air torn to open windows and the hatch, and the screech of the wheels blocked in the bend are too burdensome for Hearing and peace of mind. Siesta is so siesta!
Total? After all, they warned that it was a compact sedan who was ready to act with the same success and as a business card for business partners, and as a comfortable carrier of households, and as an invincible fighter in traffic lights and high -speed virabs, it was no easier than to meet a girl (woman, Grandmother) your dreams. The ideal is scarce, and therefore you will have to decide on your own what the soul and wallet are inclined to. Is it to prefer the exquisite road manners of the extravagant Focus magic horses of the Civic engine, to sacrifice the friendly character of the SEAT for the living room in the rear compartment of Honda? Recommendations are useless, if only because not a single man had yet married that of the girlfriends that his friends advised him. And if he gets married, then they did not stay for long as friends ... After all, we are so different like cars that we choose.
 
Vitaly Tishchenko
Photo by Alexander Nozdrin

How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
Outside:
If Honda Civic had not participated in the test, then from the point of view of design, the comparison of the two remaining cars could well be called a duel of the reformers. Indeed, both Focus and the new Toledo, each, but in their own way and at one time they declared a fresh and original design for their companies. So, the appearance of Focus was an uncompromising continuation of the sensational New Edge style (new line), which made it debuted in 1997 (Ford KA). The new philosophy of a hot and dynamic car proclaimed by the SEAT was embodied in the style of the Toledo sedan and Leon hatchback. And the old slogan is almost Volkswagen, but for less money was quickly forgotten precisely thanks to the original design of these machines. Another thing is Civic, whose appearance, unlike the six previous generations of this known model, is not a shock today. And it seems that the style of the car for some mysterious reason was specially muffled and impersonal.
As a result, the identification of cars does not even have a problem for the human design uninitiated in the wisdom, and after the first acquaintance, cars are easily and naturally remembered. Toledo remains in memory thanks to the formidable gaze of the 4-eye of the optics, proudly exhibited by the emblem and pattern of the fucked front spoiler (the spirit of BMW is clearly felt in this). Focus, on the contrary, is remembered by a mischievous look and face, sincerely expressing readiness for mutual understanding and even love. Against the background of this character and openness, the eastern face of Civic does not express anything, but this is also remembered. According to the laws of the Sedanovsky genre, the lateral silhouettes of cars are stepped, and all, with the exception of Toledo, have a fairly clearly marked trunk chest. Toledo in the soul of an athlete, and therefore the possibility of carriage of baggage tries to hide, because excess weight is the enemy of speed and temperament. Behind the whole three is also easily recognized. Starting with Toledo, the sports orientation of the style of which continues to defend muscular plastic and integrated rear lights integrated into a single spectacular block. Focus and Civic are not athletes, and therefore in the arsenal of their design there are even chrome lining over license plates and rear lights quite decent in drawing.

Results:
Honda Civic, despite the fact that the design of the car seems unreasonable, and this can reduce the number of admirers of the former Civic, its quality will like those who treat the car exclusively as a means of movement.
Ford Focus is indisputable that the sympathy for New Edge style is a matter of taste. But you must admit that its sharp -shaking is very professionally laid and does not violate the framework of compact sedans generally accepted in the patriarchal class.
Seat Toledo in the design of this car managed to combine the classic canons of the sedan, the compactness and style of a charged car with a hot character. It was difficult to do this, but, as can be seen from the appearance of Toledo, it is quite possible.
Inside:
A harmonious combination of external design and interior decoration is not as common as it might seem at first glance. But in our test, this is exactly the case. For example, having turned out inside the Ford and glancing at the dashing squiggles of the panels of the instruments and the upholstery of the doors, the definition of a new edge comes to the mind, and the mischievous face of the car, which you sit at the wheel, and glancing along the medium -term style of the Honda interior, instantly recall it and its eyes. Medium -stock appearance. Toledo is also harmonious, and its ardor is quite adequately expressed by the rhythm created by two -tone upholstery, and the dynamic pattern of the door panels. Obviously, from sports and a three -spoke steering wheel with a circle of the SEAT emblem. Two other participants in the steering wheel test less emotional design, and four knitting needles give them the solidity of a larger car. In accordance with the laws of the declared genre, the seats were also made: with the least pronounced bucket of both the front and the rear of Civic, and the most embossed in Toledo, where the rear passengers are also separated by a folding armrest, and a headwater is provided for a random third companion.

Results:
Honda Civic The quality and quality of the design compensate for some colorfulness of the style plan, and small finds, such as the vertical arrangement of microclimate control knobs, give design originality.
Ford Focus If in a toy under the name KA a similar degree of style hooliganism looks like an organic addition to appearance, then it may not seem entirely appropriate for the respectable sedan.
Seat Toledo is a very high -quality and organic style, the sports tonality of which is delicately and rationally consumed throughout the inhabited space of the car.
 

Source: Cars