Hyundai Lantra 1998 test drive - 2000 sedan

Hyundai Lantra

The autopilot evaluates cars according to five main criteria. The amount of advantages is indicated by s, deficiencies t. The next subject gained four + and one. This is Hyundai Lantra.
Ksterer. In the western market, she is Elantra, on the Russian Lantra. It was first shown to the public in October 1990, since then it has been slightly updated by face and filling. We are considering the penultimate version; After the release of model-99, it is already considered the old (although fresh, 1999, you can’t call it especially new, the intermediate, since the differences are cosmetic; Koreans promise a completely new Lantra in 2000). According to the exterior, Lantra belongs to the category of machines from which it is enough to remove the branded nameplate so that most inexperienced people have difficulty recognition. Too standard and therefore no. Everything is like everyone else, without fantasies. But, on the other hand, it is precisely such a faceless design, developed by the Shirpotreb Moda, for a very long time perceived by the public as quite modern, and therefore satisfactory. Not delighted, but not annoying. +++-
INTERIOR. The salon is generally not bad. Quite spacious and convenient. The finish is simple, without delights: plastic, fabric, carpet, of course, there is not enough comfort, but cheap and practical and gigienic.
The car is very roomy: in the sedan, the trunk is 390 liters, in the station wagon 360 l/1260 l. Cargo lotrazh could be even more if it were not for problems with laying seats. The sedan has no folding sections in the backs of the rear seats, which makes it impossible to continue the trunk into the salon. In the station wagon, the back back does not drop to the horizontal pillows interfere. ++++-
Equipment and ergonomics. Most Lantra machines, both sedanov and station wagons, are sold in GL and GLS trim levels. The car performed by GL is empty. No comfortable bells and whistles (steering wheel amplifier, air conditioning and airbeg in our time are no longer considered such). There is not even a radio, not like radio, although there is a wiring for them. The performance of GLS is not an example richer. Here you are a cruise control, and radio with a radio, and the central lock on all doors, and electric windows for all windows (GL only for the front ones), and the cup holders, and the glove compartment under the driver’s right elbow can be continued. The difference in the price between the empty GL and the charged GLS, depending on the specifics, can be $ 4501400.
If the ergonomics is simplified to understand how it is convenient/inconvenient to reach the buttons, then with this Lantra is all right, everything is at hand. True, in an empty configuration, as we see, there is nothing to stretch about.
There are no alarms on cars. Dealers explain this by the fact that few people trust Korean alarms, people prefer to put their own. Leaving the car, it is better not to leave the keys in the cabin with the central castle can happen self -challenge. This is rare, but, alas, it happens. ++++-
ROAD. From a number of engines for Lantra, the most popular 1.8-liter 16-valve, which has been put on the car since the fall of 1992. Until recently, it was produced only at Mitsubishi factories, but now the Koreans themselves have mastered the production of a Japanese license. The engine, I must say, is pleasant in many respects; Specifically for this machine, what the doctor prescribed. In combination with a well -calculated transmission, it disperses and pulls very decently. True, you need to get used to it. He does not really like to pull it in a drunkenness, and if you don’t know about it, then the car may seem sluggish. This engine is high -cost, maximum power (128 hp) issues at 6100 rpm, and the maximum torque (165 Nm) at 5000 rpm. He loves when he is twisted well according to the passport is permissible up to 6800 rpm. (Breakfast can not be afraid of everything taken into account). However, you can’t call the motor especially evil for sports.
All that can be attributed to the running qualities, at a completely acceptable average level. It is difficult to single out anything special here.
The suspension is moderately tough: in steep turns and with sharp restructures from a row to a row, the car does not seem at all a roll; The roll is within the rational.
The brakes management, let's say, it seemed to us that the brake pedal was too soft. However, the effectiveness of inhibition from this, as we have seen, does not suffer.
What Lantra really liked is the visibility. Not only the sedan (you will not surprise anyone here), but also with the station wagon. No racks prevent the review. Mirrors have no dead zones.
That at all did not like Lantra is the procedure for turning on the reverse on a manual gearbox. It cuts (right-hazard lever) for some reason very fuzzy. You’ll get it in the 4th gear, you seem to stick the lever correctly, but suddenly it turns out that the box has not left neutral. On this occasion, we interrogated with the addiction of two dealers, not allowing them to conspire. One wrote off everything that the cars are new. Like, their control nodes are tight, but it is worth it to travel a little and everything will return to normal. The second, more talkative, admitted that this model has such a misfortune and that his personal Lantra has the same.
By the way, the one whom such problems annoy can take a car with a machine gun, it is quite decent, 4-speed with an overdrive. True, the machine will increase the lobby by $ 800900 +++-
Features of national operation. The adaptation of Lantre (at least imported by official) to Russian conditions is impressive. For cars intended for Russia, about 30 percent. Spare parts are different from those used in the South Korean domestic market, a solid indicator. The seriousness of the company's approach to the features of our operation is best evidenced by the fact that some dealers without fear give a guarantee of 2 years or 50 thousand km of run to all nodes and assemblies (rubber, of course, does not count).
The engine with an automatic octan corrector is almost omnivorous: it digests even the 88th gasoline. However, this is for an extreme case. It is better, of course, to fill in the 95th or 92nd. There is no catalytic neutralizer for For Russia machines.
What pleases: buying a white -imported lantra, you save yourself from the need to make anticorus and put the shelters, both of them have already been executed at the factory, and we did not have to hear complaints according to these nominations. The body of Korean Russians has a bilateral galvanizing is also an unconditional plus.
The suspension is strengthened. As dealers express, it is fat. Its most responsible elements are more powerful than that of the Euro-Korean machines, in particular, the silent blocks are much larger. The clearance is raised 2 cm from the standard.
Perhaps the only thing that is not thought out in the process of adaptation, shock absorbers. For our roads, they are frankly weak (apparently, the Koreans were too hung up for a general strengthening of the suspension), usually go 30 thousand km. The regular ones cost $ 70, but it makes no sense to change the weak to the weak. It is better to overpay and put optional, more reliable Monroe, for example. Giving an assessment of adaptation, we are forced to add a shock -absorb spoon of tar into a common barrel of honey. ++++-
Our sentence. Lantra fits very well into our heading for every day. This is a really everyday workhorse, without frills. In general, well-adapted to Russia, unpretentious, for its class, quite cheaply in servicing and repairing norms at a service costs only $ 24. ++++-
Text Sergey Sorokin, photo Anatoly Sergeev

 

Source: "Autopilot"