Daewoo Nexia (Kletn) 1995 test drive - NV sedan

Throw to the north

Sometimes we lacked light and warmth
The fees were short -lived: a thermos with hot tea, a pair of bottles with non -freezing, a road set of tools. And now we are already on the elaborate from the evil morning frost Leningradka. The next stage has come in the life of two editorial foreign cars Renault Clio Symbol and Dau Nexia. This time - winter, frosts, snowfalls and, of course, close attention to everything that is responsible for safety and comfortable, the existence of a person inside a small closed space called the car interior. The route is signed by Karelia. After long premium discussions, they decided not to bore cars with a super -long journey - because in fact, they are not intended for this. To know what loads will fall on the suspensions and bodies of our wards, they would still think ...
The whims in the cold
Somewhere near Novgorod, Nexia suddenly became attacked, starting to twitch in corners. Strange, gasoline is still enough, but the pump periodically grabs air. After conferring, we decided to refuel and move on. The twitching disappeared, but again reminded of itself already near Petrozavodsk. What to do: look for a warranty station, shoot a gasoline pump right on the road? We decided not to fuss - just more often to add the tank to complete, not lowering the level to a critical one. As a result, Nexia overcame the entire route without problems. Already at home, in Moscow, at the maintenance station it turned out that the mesh of the gas station was clogging with mud - hence periodic fuel starvation.
In Karelia, as if becoming infected with a fellow, Klio Symbol Zahardril. He suddenly refused to refuel to a complete tank, spitting out gasoline, when seven to ten liters would easily enter the sign. Sad thoughts about somewhere flooded instead of fuel by water were not confirmed by logic. They agreed on a frozen drainage, which seemed to be hanging on the way back.
And here we are in Karelia. The weather is a changeable change: either frost with a breeze, then endless, for several days, snowfall. We have several tasks. The main thing is to compare the cars together most fully. In addition, there is a desire to wave around Lake Onega. But none of the natives can really answer whether we will pass on these or not. Let's try!
MORE LIGHT!
I must admit, local roads are in a very decent state. The further we drive away from the Murmansk tract, the less greeders of order, ignoring all the problems of the road, except for one - speed exceeding. They are not worried about the broken trailers that have been tapped on the side of the road, trucks thrown without any light signals, the main thing is to convict everyone and all in a minimum deviation from the speed mode. But all this is behind - we can easily overcome the first part of the route with free birds. The district town of Pudozh looks like an oasis in a monotonous forest landscape. Ahead of the Vytegra, and thoughts about close return to the base are already spinning in my head, but then the road ends - it is replaced by an obstacle course.
Nature seemed to wait for her: he quickly begins to get dark and bite with tripled power. The head machine instantly dissolves in the drill - even bright lamps of the rear non -notums do not help. You are guided only by the intensity of the snow vortex and the reflection of the headlights from snowdrifts. Local aces manage to move on dimensions, or even saving in the light! The feeling is not pleasant when a shapeless something without a single identification fire suddenly floats out of the snow buffet. Meanwhile, the road turned into a laundry, all picked up by pits, as if after a bombing. The first to begin to take the pendants Renault Clio. As if recalling its urban purpose, the car clangs plaintively limiters, creaks with internal upholstery, directly demanding: as slowly as possible! Nexia was much more tolerant of the potholes, and her driver, recalling the rally past, is trying to set at least some pace of movement.
As it darkens, it’s increasingly losing Deau on headlights: even foglights do not save it. Narrow slanting headlights do not give a light bundle of the desired brightness and light of reduction. The light of the luplass clio allows you to move more confident. Even on the way to Karelia, we noted that the headlights of Renault not so quickly lit up dirt raised by the wheels of cars. In general, from this position, Renault turned out to be not only more modern, but more convenient.
The mockery of cars continues another kilometers of two hundred. In fact, the entire Vologda region in these places is devoid of normal roads. The saving, more or less even asphalt began only behind the Pig River, after a memorable ferry crossing. As if rewarding us for patience, the rest of the path is replete with continuous winding serpentines, to which you simply cannot remain indifferent, it is so interesting to go around the turn.
Stoves-stoves
Where else, if not in the north, you can properly look at heating and ventilation systems. Note that since the beginning of winter, neither Renault nor DEU caused a feeling of hot cars. As the frost intensifies, the regulators of the intra -tunneling temperature very quickly occupied the very hot position. The distribution of air flows was not ideal.
Clio Symbol demanded a transition to higher fan speeds: it was categorically lacked in its first performance. I had to sacrifice my own comfort. To successfully fight fogging, the bulk of the air flow is best directed to glass. It becomes hot to the head, but the legs begin to freeze. So you balance, regularly changing the direction of the flows. If the air is supplied only to the feet (this option is possible in dry frosty weather), the head is still hot, while the lower parts of the body persistently require heat. The rear passengers are undeservedly offended in Renault and the rear passengers. How many warm air reaches their feet, it is evident according to the results of our measurements, but the snow that accidentally hit the rugs does not melt there for several hours.
It lives a little better in Nexia. The separation of air flows is more successful here. At least in front, it is possible to achieve the desired difference in temperature: it is cool to the head and the legs are not cold. However, this car is prone to fogging glasses. The rear passengers are also not sweet, despite the air ducts going back. As in Clio, they suffer from the cold in the legs and heat in their heads.
In a joint journey, another interesting detail was revealed. Dau Nexia is much more sensitive to freezing locks after washing the car. Condensate easily penetrates the most hidden parts of the doors, causing a lot of problems in the most inappropriate fields for this. But Renault Clio with his foreigner, installed along with the signaling by the central locking of the locks did not cause any complaints, was more hermetic.
On the bare ice
In a few days, we are so accustomed to blizzards and white silence that we calmly perceived the forecasts of weather forecasters about the unfavorable road situation in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The Leningrad highway scored by the trucks met with a mirror brilliance polished by the wheels of the ice, in the settlements it was replaced by no less slippery hung snow with holes a few centimeters deep. They sang again, cracked the upholstery panels, as if summer, began to slip a tailed rubber. In these conditions, the difference in the ideologies of two tires is quite noticeable. Bridgostone WT-14, installed on Nexia, seemed quite soft, perfectly swallowing all minor irregularities. This tire confidently rowing in loose snow, reliably accelerates and slows down. However, there are drawbacks in the softness of the responses. Nexia swims more on the road, in its reactions delayed, unpleasant crayiness in the most seemingly ordinary situations. In addition, on slippery coatings, the tire does not always behave unequivocally. Sometimes the car begins to slide the front axle out of turn, and sometimes in a similar situation suddenly falls into a skid. You can adapt to the character of these tires, but you have to be on the alert.
Tires of Pirelli Winter+ are flickered from a completely different dough. On them, the Clio Symbol demonstrates fast, almost summer responses to the actions of the steering wheel, but reacts noticeably tougher to small irregularities. The behavior of winter pyrell is also quite peculiar on bare ice. They are sharper than Bridgetone, breaking into sliding, but not bad, and most importantly, they definitely react to the corrective actions of the driver. It turns out that these tires seem to slip more, but they are noticeably easier to control, without interfering with delay. In general, both tires cope with their main task, but each in its own way.
Difficulties are overcome
Despite the rather barbarly return road, a couple of Clio-Nexia got home without any problems. In general, there are no losses. The body stood, withstood the pendants - ahead of them is a thorough diagnosis at the next. Both foreign cars are still not annoying with breakdowns or unexpected defects: they regularly start in any weather and are stably moved in space. Nexia even reduced her oil appetite, ceasing to demand constant control. It seems that Castrola 5W30 turned out to be preferable for her to 5W50 mobile oil, so common among our servicemen.
Over the past months, the rear shock absorbers have been replaced under the guarantee. On Clio, however, a little earlier: after 20,000 km, the symbol began to rock the rear passengers and began to be nervous in corners. Measurements at the stand confirmed the loss of energy intensity of shock absorbers. But what was our surprise when a similar test of new, just installed, showed a very small increase in efficiency - 8-10%. There were even doubts about the expediency of replacement. However, the behavior of the car has changed noticeably. Clio has become more dense, less prone to vertical buildup.
In Nexia, the rear shock absorbers lasted up to 40,000 km, but were also replaced by new ones when the car began to scour on irregularities.
Otherwise, everything goes according to the plan provided by the service book. Ahead of new routes and new impressions.

Kondopoga is the heart of Karelia.
 

Text / Sergey Voskresensky, Anatoly Karpenkov
Photo / George Sadkov

Source: The magazine "Driving"