CHEVROLET LACETTI sedan test drive since 2004 sedan

The newly named

A beautiful, technically advanced and at the same time inexpensive car can remain in the shadow of its more promoted rivals in the market. But add a noble name to him and the buyer will go as a jamb.


Everything is like adults
Excellent! Looking at the studded, with large checkers of the tread of Michelin, I perked up. Winter, as always, crept unnoticed, but in such shoes we can handle the snowfall that fell on the capital.
 

The machine, on which I had to storm snow drifts all day, is actually ours, albeit not old, but still familiar. Six months ago, we knew her as a de-Latechetti. The novelty was then match the slightly rich fans of Nexia, expecting that the old woman would sooner or later get tired. But episodic gray weather supply did not make. Today, having received the name Chevrolet from the marriage of his own company with Ji-Em, this Korean model enters the market officially.
 

I don’t know who, but for me, Lacetti looks prettier with the hatchback body, not a sedan. A pronounced sports style, emphasized by a relief body kit on the sides and a characteristic jaw of the front bumper, obscures the need for third volume from behind. And the narrow red tongues of lanterns, setting on the wings and reminiscent of Alfa Romeo, is unlikely that anyone will want to change the sedan to boring D-shaped. However, the Italians have always been more popular among the Italians, and therefore it turns out better. What does Italy have to do with it? So, after all, Pininfarina masters worked on Lacetti's design. Hence the Italian name of the car.
 

The same style is strictly sustained inside: inserts for metal on the steering wheel, torpedo and the central console, the perfect shape of the seat with developed lateral support, brilliant rims of devices. All this is designed to inspire the driver: you are a racer.
 

Looking at the cabin, I find several pleasant surprises. The steering wheel is adjustable in height and angle of inclination, and the driver's seat has already five adjustments, including an independent rise in the front and rear edges of the pillow. For the mass model of golf class, it is very good. And the chic music of the Blaupunct with the CD chain? And the climate control? Not to mention four airbags and a leather steering wheel. True, such wealth is provided only in the CDX configuration. SX is worse, but even in the very basic SE stereo system and air conditioning are required.
 

However, there was also a hole in the old woman, the lack of heating of seats, which now is on almost all models supplied to cold Russia. Here, alas, heating is impossible even in options.
 

Another minus. The doorway of the trunk is somewhat narrowly such a fee for a spectacularly designed stern. And the capacity of 275 liters (1045 with folded seats) is more than that of modern European classmates. But the rest of the salon is impeccable. Ahead of equal competitors in equipment, Lacetti will bypass many in the scope of the passenger premises. Almost everyone will be able to sit down in the back seat, without resting his knees, with the exception of the owners of basketball growth.
 



Let's go, beauty, ride!
I sit behind the wheel, drive the seat, feel the levers and buttons. Convenient, affordable, of course. Review of backwards is very limited by the headrests, but without them it is not easy to park in reverse this is not easy for you this is not a sedan with a well -visible lid of the trunk. Touching, with pleasure I note the soft work of the clutch of the coupling grabs with a gradual decrease in the slippage coefficient in a fairly wide range of pedal. Moreover, in the elastic characteristic of the basket petals, there is a clearly expressed hump, compressing the discs, already when you were the pedal, in fact, abandoned. Therefore, it is a pleasure to crawl in reverse maneuvers in reverse.
 

And even ankle in the snow and even more so you can throw the pedal, the car touches, as with a machine gun. I squeeze the gas to the war and use the anti -boom system to the whole coil. I think that the real buyer will test this toy in this way, that is, without leaving the cash register. After all, get this by car for $ 16,650 a surprise from the category of the most pleasant.
 

Another invisible at first glance, but a very useful dash (from the same opera is the most affordable) rear disc brakes. Lacetti even has them on the basic modification with a 1.4-liter engine for $ 13,800. None of the competitors offer wheels for that kind of money. Yes, of course, it is almost impossible to demonstrate their advantages over drumming mechanisms in a winter road and on a new machine. The one who goes to the mountains will appreciate them in the summer or sharply brakes from high speed in hot weather.
 

The characteristic of the 109-horsepower engine, although it clearly disposes to work at high speeds, where the motor with pleasure demonstrates its dare, nevertheless does not overwhelm the lower classes. Calmly and without nervous welding, he touches the car even in a slight climb, at a idle speed he calmly pulls in traffic jams. But the gear lever requires addiction. The moves are long, clarity is not so hot, but I learned to quickly get from the second to the third, only exchanging a hundred kilometers around the city.
 

The power of the steering hydraulic power steering is well selected, and on dry asphalt one could feel an acceptable reactive force. Three revolutions from the stop to the stop today are almost unnecessary sharpness or spreading. The suspension in European is dense and quite short-handed, but it does not reach the clatter of teeth on the potholes, and the acceptable level of comfort on bad roads will ensure.
 



And the pele chevrolet ...
In the old days, when passers -by escorted diplomatic Volvo and Mercedes with his eyes, the American cars were not seen for our eyes were considered the height of perfection. The Word Chevrolet was pronounced with a gentle pulling, dreamily rolling his eyes and representing the embankment with palm trees and villas of millionaires. The fact that Chevrolet is quoted in the global auto -miner as a relatively inexpensive car was destined to find out only many years later. Just looking at the price list.
 

For example, a 94-horsepower hatchback of Lacetti-1,4SE costs $ 13,800. For that kind of money in a golf class you will be offered only a focus. But compared to it, the basic lachcetti is richer on air conditioning, rear disc brakes, front electric windows, central remote control, CD-stereo system and passenger airbag.
 

The SX equipment is most expensive for $ 200, but it adds two more electric windows, electric drive and heating of mirrors, control of the radio on the steering wheel and a more exquisite interior decoration. Having paid $ 900 to the base, you get a car with a 1.6-liter engine, with which it is possible and the CDX equipment is $ 1000 more expensive than the base. A comparison of such a machine with competitors will also not be in favor of the latter, because their versions with climate control, cast discs and a CD changer will cost not $ 16,650, but 510 thousand more. Lacetti-1,6 with an automatic box for $ 16,300 is another available access record.
 

Having folded all these advantages, it is easy to draw a conclusion: such hits of our market as Focus, Corolla and Lancer, a dangerous competitor appeared. And some of the buyers, of course, will make a choice in favor of excellent equipment for a moderate price. In fact, with the publication of Lacetti, we have developed a unique situation of a European level car cheaper to bring from distant Korea than to assemble near St. Petersburg.
 

So, in addition to the whole army of existing fans of Korean cars, Lacetti’s buyers, apparently, will become thousands of previously doubtful. There is no longer a stumbling block in the form of a difficult Asian name. And there is a gorgeous sound duet of words from French and Italian, catching appearance and satisfying sufficiently high requests.


 
   
Driving radio control is a sign of more expensive versions of SX and CDX

The readability of sports scales is far from ideal, but the style is well designed

To the left of the steering wheel is a small duffel box
  
A 1.6-liter 109-horsepower engine in many details is unified with German Opel units

To increase the volume of the trunk, fold only part of the back of the seat and take the two or three passengers on board

What other budget golf-class cars will you see such a luxurious armrest with cup holders?
    


Sono Italian

I was Italian unequivocally hints by Lacetti with my name. But in fact, how to determine the nationality of the machine here? If by mom, then most of all, of course, from the Koreans. But they, in turn, studied with the Japanese. And the owners of the stable and brand are now Americans, claiming the role of dad. The German, apparently, also climbed, since the basic dimensions of the body and aggregates of Lacetti suspiciously resemble the Opel, or rather, asters of the previous generation. Which, however, is explainably long-standing, even before the merger of companies, the relations of DEU with the ji-um. And if you recall that Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was a Swiss and a cross from the flag of his homeland flaunts on the emblem of the company ... In general, an examination of paternity is doomed to failure.
 

There are also a lot of options with names. In Europe, our citizen of the world has been known since 2002 as De-Polya. Appearing recently in America, she presented a passport in the name of Suzuki-Forrants, and in Canada and Asian countries introduced herself as a chevrolet-optra. But we call her Lacetti in Italian. The Latin version of Latsetti, of course, is beautiful (young, energetic lacertus), but linguistically incorrect, since high -pairing, academic Latin is incompatible with common, purely Italian endings on TI.
 
PER

Attractive appearance, powerful engine, rich equipment, disc brakes of the rear wheels
AGAINST

The inaccessibility of heating of the seats even in the option, not too roomy trunk
 
Chevrolet Lacetti 1.6

common data
 
Body (number of places/doors)
hatchback (5/5)
 
Equipped mass, kg
1175
 
Length x width x height, mm
4295x1725x1445
 
Base, mm
2600
 
Acceleration time 0100 km/h, with
10.7
 
Speed, km/h
187
 
Fuel consumption, l/100 km highway/city
6/9.1
 

Engine
 
Design
gasoline, in-line, 4-cylinder
 
Working volume, SMZ
1598
 
Power, L.S. at rpm
109/5800
 
Torque, kgsm at rpm
15/4000
 

Chassis
 
Drive unit
On the front wheels
 
Transmission
Mechanical 5-speed
 
Suspension
Independent, with stabilizers of anti -resistance stability
 
front
on triangular transverse levers
 
behind
Mollycent
 
 
Anton Utkin, photo of Maxim Goncharov
 
 

Source: Magazine buy a car [23/2004]