Hyundai Trajet 2000 test drive - 2004 minivan

Koreans of increased capacity

Once, two friends of family and serious people decided to buy large cars. We agreed that the whole family with wives, kids, mother -in -law and dogs must be placed in the car. Limited the purchase amount of 25 thousand dollars. In addition, the first one wanted a diesel car, the second, on the contrary, preferred gasoline. Friends stopped their choice at the station wagons of increased capacity (UPV) and soon became the owners of the new Korean cars for our country of turbodiesel Kia Carnival and gasoline Hyunde Traiite.
Hyunde Traiet
This car, developed in the United States, appeared in the fall of 1999. He immediately became the strategic weapon of Hyund on the American continent. Nevertheless, the trage safely reached Europe. The design of this good -natured four -eyed UPV is typical for cars of this type. There is a large area of \u200b\u200bglazing, and the wide fifth door, and the rails on the roof. In general, everything without which you cannot imagine a multi -seater station wagon. Four side doors are hung according to the passenger scheme openly open. The front doors are made by a very original small window at the mirrors when opening remains motionless. And the opening of the open front door has an almost rectangular shape.
Under the hood of a trage, a two -liter sixteen -valve engine with a capacity of 139 hp. at 5800 rpm. Torque 186 Nm at 4500 rpm. With such characteristics and five -speed mechanics, the family crew develops speed to 180 km/h with overclocking to a hundred in 13 seconds. A seven -seater car with a transformable salon. What will we see how and what is here. The driver’s place is no different from the usual car the same landing with a horizontal steering wheel, the same perception of the road. The instrument panel, stamped of soft, silent plastic, consists of circles and semicircles of dials. The microclimate control unit with rotating handles and buttons that regulate the direction of air is especially successful. The combination of devices is easily readable, with a standard set and greenish backlight. The oval torpedo crings the console, which contains an ashtray and a 12-volt outlet (argument in favor of Americanization). Easily reach and buttons of electric strokes located on the handle of the driver's door. However, for several minutes the searches of the heating button, located on the pillow at the central tunnel, can take a searches for several minutes. The front seats have three mechanical adjustments (length, back inclination and height) and adjustment of the lumbar roller.
In the second row there are three seats, and all of them are completely independent of each other. Any of them can be folded, and if necessary, completely removed. All of them have the back adjustments in height and longitudinal adjustments. We also note convenient small tables with cup holders on the backs of the front seats.
In order to get to the third double row, it is necessary to pull the lever at the base of the seat. The back is leaning back, and passengers fall on the gallery. At their disposal are individual ashtrays, light handrails and cup holders. If the backs of the second row are folded, you get large tables with two cup holders in each. Especially attractive is the option for six passengers with a large table in the middle will be something to do on a long journey. True, passengers of the third row should not be very large. It will be crowded to high citizens, even if the second row is occupied by average people in height. The most welcome passengers on the last row are children. During the experiments, it turned out that all the seats (except the middle in the second row) are interchangeable. Behind the third series is a small trunk with a volume of 300 liters with a net and two 12-volt sockets.
In order to remove the seats, you will have to tinker with fixers for security purposes, the design was equipped with an additional mounting unit. Nevertheless, having adapted, you can remove the seat in two minutes. The dismantling of the third row allows you to turn traces into a five -seater station wagon with a large trunk. And if you get rid of the second row, the owner receives a wagon with a volume of 2700 liters with a flat floor and low loading height. The installation of seats face to face is also possible. In this case, it is more convenient to enter the improvised mobile office through the back door.
In the city, a gasoline tract is behaving like a regular passenger car with front -wheel drive. He smoothly, but quickly gains speed, and the high torque allows you to not switch to lower gear for a long time. In the behavior in the turns there is no hint of bus. The braking is quite effective, the ABS is triggered on time, but the pedal is large and you need to get used to it. In a word, the tract with the functionality of the UPV has retained all the advantages of a car. It is ideal for a family with several children, it is good as a small truck.
His make -ups Kia Carnival is nothing more than Ford Windstar, who migrated first to Korea, and then to us in Kaliningrad. We already met with him and even tested him slightly (b1/2001), now the time has come for a more biased study. The cornial is a little longer than the trage, it is no longer even UPV, but a full -fledged minivan. Nevertheless, they appear in the same weight category. The car is seven -seater, five -door.
Under the hood of a turbodiesel with a volume of 2900 cm3 and a capacity of 126 hp at 3600 rpm. It has simply a frantic torque of 338 Nm at 2000 rpm. Our cornial was with five -speed mechanics. The maximum speed is 170 km/h, acceleration to 100 km/h 17 seconds.
The first thing you pay attention to the process of landing itself. It seems that you climb into KAMAZ is so high, compared to Hyund, there is a driver's seat. However, the electric drive adjustment of the driver’s chair is immediately striking. Carnivated is also not a bus, although the driver has a larger place. The instrument panel clearly does not decorate the plastic trim under the tree, and it is wooden all up to the ashtray. The combination of devices is common, and the speedometer is also digitized in miles. Sitting behind the wheel is convenient, all controls are easily available. The right armrest can be removed if necessary. The checkpoint handle is not in the floor, but on a high console, and it is always at hand. A little worse for the cornial with visibility, especially through the rear window, the reason for this is the headrests of the third row and a small salon mirror.
The climate is regulated by four handles, one of which includes an additional heater for the rear passengers. The smallest is in charge of the temperature, and the symbols on it are poorly read. The steering wheel with a pillow and adjustment in height does not block devices even in extreme positions. Large sliding doors open the spacious main passenger salon of the cornial. The second row consists of two seats, which are also equipped with armrests (cup holders below). In the usual position, they look at the back of the back of the front row, if you need to negotiate or just arrange the company, the seats can be deployed 180 degrees using a special lever.
In the usual position, access to the third row is incomprehensible in addition to a leaving back, a pillow moves forward. In the office position, the pillow eats the space, and on the third row you can penetrate only by raising the armrest and slightly pushing the seat. The backs of the second row chairs fold, turning into tables with cup holders, which can be deployed during the trip. On the ceiling near the second row there is also a heater handle that regulates the flow of the flow. Deflectors are located in handrails on the ceiling and in medium racks.
The third row is a triple sofa with adjustable back altitude and the possibility of longitudinal movement. It is convenient to sit there to passengers of any height, especially if the sofa is pushed back to the stop. (True, in this case, you will have to sacrifice a small trunk.) The possibilities of transforming the salon in Kia are not as many as Hyund, since the seats are non -removable. For transportation of goods, you can throw back the backs of all the seats, it turns out an almost even platform, more like a bed.
Still, the summer resident roned not so much as a car for outdoor activities and business conversations in a private setting. Kia, probably, is also a champion in the number of pockets and cup holders, who account for more than a dozen hypothetical passengers.
Not bad cornet on the road. Lightly losing Hyund in power, he, nevertheless, is able to compete with him with dignity. For example, this applies to acceleration in high gear, but at low speeds. You can move all the time on the third, good torque and turbocharging allow the cornival to prevail over the rivals without much stress. The moment of turning on the turbine (somewhere for 2500 rpm) is accompanied by a slight whistle and noticeable acceleration. I liked the brakes, but ABS turns on when necessary and, alas, no. You might even forget what they are, brakes without ABS ...
At the entrance to the turn at a decent speed, a slight skid outbreak is felt. The reason, probably, is that a hard bridge is used in the design of the rear suspension. However, when passing irregularities, passengers do not experience special problems and inconvenience. Carnival acquitted high trust in him. It is a unique combination of a family-distance car, a car for outdoor activities and a mobile office.
Maxim Rakitin
Photo by Alexander Nozdrin
 

How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
 
Outside:
There was a sustainable opinion that the Korean automobile design is something secondary, and if it does not repeat something already seen, it is certainly reminiscent of. All this is so, and at different times, Korean restyling was subjected to both Japanese, so European and even American cars. Therefore, the origin of the design is usually very difficult to determine. The style can be made by both the eminent Italian studio Italdesign Giugiaro, and an unknown local master.
Two alterations provided for the car test are also, but modern and, in this regard, are much more skilled than the work of previous years. So, for example, the solution to the origin of the Kia Carnival on external signs on the shoulder is only a specialist who, according to characteristic proportions, the angle of inclination of the windshield and the rhythm of the side racks, will be able to discern the roots of the 1994 Ford Windstar of the model year in this novelty. From this car, Carnival inherited the platform, floor, racks and roof, and the Koreans made the whole hitch themselves. Own also owned technology, which, coupled with the proprietary facing of the radiator, gives Van personality.
Hyundai does not have such a bright appearance, and if it were not for the habit of Koreans every year to change the pattern of radiator cladding, it would be easy to confuse it with other Far Eastern manufacturers of minivans. For example, with the first -generation Honda Odyssey. Of the design features, it is worth noting the dynamic body drawing not very common among utilitarian van and aggressive air intake on the Carnival hood, and unusually located external rear -view mirrors and archaic -hiding doors in Trajet.

Bottom line:
Kia Carnival is a fairly original and dynamic style, which clearly makes it more suitable for the role of a spacious family station wagon than a representative car or business office on wheels.
Grade ****
Hyundai Trajet is not bright, a little outdated, but a solid design of a classic middle peasant easily turns the station wagon in a car, whose appearance is equally suitable for everything: for family trips and for meeting at the airport of business colleagues.
Grade ***
Inside:
Both cars have a set of equipment that has become traditional for Van for a transformable salon: from the nests of the cup holders in the backs of seats and folding tables to an unhappyly dismantled seats of the third row. However, there are still differences. So, for example, Carnival inherited from his American ancestor the original shape of the instrument panel with an unusually protruded central console, which houses the gearbox lever and a very convenient box for CDs and cassettes. Trajet is clearly inferior to luxury. In the decoration of the instrument panel, there is no plastic under the tree (Carnival simply bathes in it), and the chairs do not have folding armrests. But the instrument panel is equipped with two gloves and has a two -tone finish. Among the additional equipment, which is offered by KIA customers, closed with a safe, under one of the front seats and a modular ashtray with a lid, which is implanted in any of the four cup holders for the rear passengers.

Bottom line:
Kia Carnival is a rather stylish and richly equipped interior. Solid finish and well -selected finishing materials. However, it is worth noting some oversaturation of the instrument panel with plastic under the tree and an inconvenient algorithm for the inner door handles.
Grade ****
Hyundai Trajet The interior is functional and purely executed. Original plastic panel of the instruments. However, the sensation of integrity is violated not quite successfully solved by the adjacency of the central console to the main panel, as well as the inexpressive plastic of the doors upholstery.
Grade ***
 
 

A source: Cars