Test drive Ford KA 1997 - 2008 hatchback

What is the rider - this is the horse

A year flew like one month, and again on the eighth of March already closely ... And our lovely and beloved, dumbfounding with allless rights and, alas, have a minimum of sled skills, are again eager for battle. And this aching pain with a nail sits in our haircut, patrol, and sometimes completely bald male heads. Or maybe it is for the better, that a girlfriend is on wheels? Sometimes I, a date, will deliver, without forcing me to take risks with rights or a hue of greenery at the post. And another time he will not drive the market as a personal driver. And in general, a fashionable modern woman is now quoted much higher than a helpless, infantile doll.
And by the March holiday, according to the old Soviet tradition, the sales of car cars will increase sharply. Since almost every manufacturer offers a mini -class car in its range, it is simply impossible to assemble them all to a single one. Yes, and not necessary. It would seem that the smaller the car, the less and the possibility for maneuver the designer. But no! It was among the crumbs that revolutionary masterpieces have recently been found, and sometimes just jokes, which until recently it was impossible to present in the outgoing serial.
 
For more complete coverage of the topic, we chose three absolutely dissimilar cars with a different set of consumer qualities and properties, united by belonging (conditional, of course) to ladies' crews. Our cars are no less different from each other than a puffy blonde-housewife from a fragile-moth or predatory brunette with a blue-black manicure and piercing in different parts of the body. But I wanted to experience a thrill with everyone. This refers, of course, cars. And the prices for babies, with close external characteristics and technical parameters, differ very significantly.
Nevertheless, our ladies' crews are unconditionally male to become iron lumberjacks. Cars for women are far from always women's cars. By their potency, in their drive, these cars are strong leaders, but in their small class. Their punying body is a trick for the uninitiated. In fact, we have very small giants (in our capabilities and talents) of a large car (no, not sex) society.
 
Tall, narrow, outwardly riche, on small wheels, Korean Hyunday Atos stared at us with innocent children's eyes of an alien. In its architecture, it has almost no analogues. This is not just a universal body. This is a wagon with a negative, at first glance, tilt of the posterior wall, with a huge glazing and a tiny hood that hides an obviously weak motor. The retro motifs of the beginning of the century are successfully played here. The width of the car, both external and internal, involves the tight placement of the company of miniature passengers, or four Koreans, or several girlfriends-studies. But here are five doors (including the end)! And huge cargo capabilities with folded rear seats. In the normal (laid out) position, it is quite possible to climb into the salon, to the ceiling the distance of an outstretched arm, but there is no place for the knees at all. In front, the feeling of a comrade’s elbow will not leave you anymore. Although in length and height everything is like in adults. But what a review! He has no equal. You are sitting, as if in a window, and look at you rather than you. All devices and levers are in their place and do not require a new driver. From the bells and whistles, and an electrician of the front glasses.
 
 
We did not expect miracles from the motor, and if you mercilessly promote it in each gear to ringing you can hold well in the stream. Validity is also quite expected, that is, increased. But the suspension, very loud swallowing potholes, is not tough. Although why, in fact, a non -construction and simple typewriter short -free sports suspension? Without it, even calmer. Let the beloved with the kids steer himself in a hurry to school or park. I also want to note a very modest price that makes Atos competitive in our market. But, if you do not get hung up on a cart with wheels and a motor, albeit quite tolerable, consider another option for your beloved. Or even for yourself a loved one.
Ford KA unisex car, ideal tomorrow. Its circular forms, which over the past three years have been discussed many times by authors of auto -publications, clearly attract attention. There is even some stylistic roll call (but without borrowing) with the original Volkswagen beetle. It is amazing how such a bold design on, in general, the primitive Ford Fiesta platform was reduced to a reasonable price and mass success. I think years will pass, and over time this bug will be appreciated and recognized by the Ford hit of the turn of the century.
The most interesting thing is that this two -door car of fairly simple forms and very modest dimensions perfectly accommodates four people. We note the baggage of acceptable sizes that are atypical for this class-tribe. And under a lovely hood, a 1.3-liter animal lurked, which allows a bullet from a place no worse than a neighboring Mers (though, closer to a hundred, as you know, falls into place). But, interestingly, the engine does not require special promotion. You can switch at low speeds, somewhere at two or two and a half thousand, and feel great traction. Before traveling to KA, I did not wait for anything pleasant, because it is usually customary to save on everything on kids. But, having driven around the capital to the approving-vast glances of the owners of inexpensive large dimensions, I understood me, a big man, not ashamed to twist the steering wheel of this crumbs, and if my girlfriend sits behind the wheel, I will be proud of her at all (a friend, first of all but the car too).
 
Here, the ratio and the distance between the steering wheel, pedals, height and the seat profile are also extremely successful. You do not hurt the doors or neighbors with your elbows, only the pedal seemed to me a little closer to each other than it is customary. The torpedo of the most complex profile contains white round dials, crawling along with a shield of devices in the direction of the beard, and strange-oval hours under the lobby. Among the shelves and openings, I did not find a place for a standard radio, it hurts all the drawers of cunning, wrong shapes. Four deflectors are quite unusual, spinning around their axes, like a cube of a chip. You will not see the hood in any way, as with a mirror disease, and the whole overview is good in a circle.
In the movement, in addition to excellent traction, we note the amazing stability, manifesting regardless of your manipulations of the governing bodies. That is, on very summer tires, we cut through snow porridge no worse than on pure asphalt.
   
 
This is not to say that this machine has no shortcomings. So, for example, a low front overhang and strive to turn around the snowdrift, and the complete absence of the rear guarantees the entry of dirt on the trunk, although the body of the body does not reach the back glass of the lumps of wet snow. At the same time, the radius of the turn of this seemed to us a big radius of the definition of a short car. But the main conclusion is not ashamed to sit down both a modern, emancipated woman and her friend. The car creates you a unique, non -shaped image that does not go beyond the limits of our traditions and the framework of the genre, which can not be said about the third participant in the race.
So, Smart is a smart Mercedes, an illegitimate child of the Stuttgart concern and Swiss eccentric floods. Here, obviously form and idea prevail over content and practical suitability. Although why? Indeed, in the parking lots, Smart is put exclusively across the entire series. And the engine with the volume of the contents of the bottle of Smirnovskaya vodka 0.6 liters, certainly not even a student will ruin. Especially if a caring dad gives her a car. The price of one centimeter of SMART length is double-twenties higher than that of competitors. But the attachment of the equipment is also impressive, and the air conditioner and the CD player with Ceinger are worth the money. The quality of the interior decoration recalls the relationship with Mercedes, who was still ashamed to stick his star on the grille of the radiator, which ... is not here. At least ahead. As, however, there is no trunk ahead. And there are narrow wheels (the rear ones will be wider), followed by a two-seater salon and then at the stern of the rear axle the engine, and above it the shelf is one or two bags. And the interior decoration is worse than appearance. Just right for a trip of an ultramodern girl to an acid party.
 
There is no salon in the usual sense. The steering wheel, glass, pedal, a strange lever of a six -speed machine, which allows you to control the gears manually. On thin legs, a pair of round devices is a clock and a tachometer that we must not forget to look at. After all, it is not easy to disperse Smart, even with manual control, it is necessary to keep the momentum near the maximum, not forgetting to push the tanning gearbox each time ahead. In corners, with an excess of traction, this rear -wheel drive and rear -engine car with an overloaded ass is striving to go into a slight skid, despite its ultra -short base. And the passage of pits! What are the holes, even joints on the asphalt! The blow below the belt is guaranteed to you. The feeling that you are going around the city on the map. True, very expensive and high -quality. He also growls, goat and does not accelerate. Everything is visible ahead, even that underfoot, but, in order to deal with the atmosphere from the rear, it is better to use the mirrors of the headrests and the small glass of the trunk cover greatly narrow the field of view.
 
 
But all this can be taken out for the sake of the enthusiastic and indifferent views of others. It was even scary for us that the ordinary cars passing by would cut down somewhere in the wrong place, so they turned their neck, escorting us with a look, almost all drivers. If your goal is to move as much as possible from the stereotype buy a Smart, a lemon-yellow jacket, shuses on a ten-centimeter platform, a red pants and dye your hair in a radical color. And it doesn’t matter who you are a girl or a boy on a fashionable party you are provided with first place. You can not even get your teeth and do not wear boots.
 
What else? The main thing is three cars not rivals to each other. To each his own. And it seems to me that each of them has achieved high successes in its niche. And the fact that they are female is not written on them. But for some reason it is felt. The eighth of March has come?
 
Hyunday Atos
+ 
1. Simple in management
2. Cheaper
3. A wonderful review
— 
1. Too narrow
2. unstable
3. Weak dynamics
 
Ford KA
+ 
1. Sample in its class
2. Great traction
3. Laconic original exterior and interior
— 
1. Low front overhang
2. Large radius of turning
 
Smart
+ 
1. ultramoden
2. Parking Square, like two bicycles
3. The maximum number of options
— 
1. Noisy
2. Black
3. Dear
Vladimir Smirnov
Photo by Alexander Nozdrin
 

 

Source: Cars