Test drive Jeep Wrangler 1996 - 2006 SUV

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A beautiful car should serve as a woman - a minimum of clothes and a maximum of charm. We shared Peugeot 206 CC, Jeep Wrangler and Volvo C70 Convertible.
The word convertible causes a blessed languor and sweet trembling in a real connoisseur of cars. After all, this is a return to the origins, to the basis, to the dawn of car. And who will argue? When the riders did not hide behind the tinted or mirror glasses of the salons, but proudly substituted courageous weathered faces to the sun - is this not motorists? A trip by car aroused a heady feeling of delight and endless joy. Let's lower other things. Alas, pristine joys are half -accessible for modern drivers - the roof is crushing.
And what, in fact, is necessary to revive the instincts of a primitive motorist? A little wind in the face to come the aromas of nature surrounding you. A little speed so that the adrenaline entering the blood excites the life juices of the body cleaner than male hormones. In order for the oncoming girls to turn after, and the companions' eyes burn with genuine enthusiasm and pride in their driver.
But this is all the lyrics. In practice, the owner of a used Mercedes W140 deprived of romance will dismissively spit through a half -bored tinted glass. From his point of view, paying money for a car without a roof is not according to concepts. Especially in a country where winter lasts more than six months and acid rains fall out once a month. That the convertible is just a toy that will break faster than you have time to play it to it. And a whole heap of arguments will lead.
For example, that it cannot be operated all year round. But they forget that in winter it is cold and a convertible can be used as a reserve refrigerator or, for example, that all convertibles have an exceptionally small trunk and it is practically not adapted for transporting plasma TVs and Eurolinka.
In addition, the process of raising the roof and turning its car directly into the top-lass option takes too much time and effort.
And finally, traveling on a convertible is simply dangerous and that if you turn over, then a fracture of the cervical vertebrae is provided and your cold corpse will look terrible.
The autopilot begins to prove that this is a nearby and hypocritical statement. That, by purchasing a car of this class, you can choose a car with a trunk of any size - depending on the style and lifestyle. At worst, think about how often do you really use all the useful volume of your trunk?
That there are convertibles, the design of which allows you to tightly fenced off from any irritating environmental factors. That in most modern convertibles the process of leaning the top is automated so much that you will not even have time to open a bottle of champagne, a flying bird pokes into your girlfriend's glass.
Finally, that convertible manufacturers are very seriously approaching the safety systems of such cars and making ears on the convertible a little worse and more dangerous than on the same Mercedes W140. Moreover, the driver of the convertible always uses seat belts.
By the way, each of the proposed convertibles can safely apply the epithet itself.
The most affordable. The paradox of our time is the most stylish convertible in recent years, which has won the 2001 Cabriolet title at the Geneva Motor Show of the year, turned out to be the most affordable car of this class in our country.
We started inspection of the car from the end, in the sense of the back. The trunk is amazingly competently on 206 CC - the weakest place of any convertible! So, on this model it turned out to be almost 200 liters more than that of the donor, the usual 206th. Only exactly in the middle it is separated by a cloth with a removable curtain. If it is pulled, then the trunk decreases to the size of the matchbox, and only a portfolio for paper will fit under the curtain. And all the outer space will take a folding roof. By the way, until the curtain is stretched, the roof will not fold. The system is made, by the way, not on Peugeot, but by craftsmen from the Heuliez studio.
So, in order for the casket to open, it is necessary to unfasten the two stoppers located in the area of \u200b\u200banti -alcohol visors. It is a little inconvenient to reach for the one that is over the passenger, but this justifies subsequent pleasure. After the roof is free, just press the button on the central console - then the automation will do everything. The whole process takes exactly 35 seconds.
Peugeot 206 CC was created as a sports car - it is enough to imagine what 130 hp is. For an incomplete ton of weight. From the place it breaks down like frantic - under a hoarse, sports singing of the motor. The pleasure is indescribable until the speed exceeds the mark of 110 km/h. After that, the wind begins to blow into the salon with such force that even the radio is not heard. It is possible to fix the situation, only turning the car into the aquarium - lifting all the side glasses.
Officially in 206 CC four seats. But this is de jure. There are only two de facto, since only a newborn child can accommodate on the back, profiled sofa-and then along, and not across. And this is despite the fact that the front seats lean forward so that a two -meter thug can crawl through the gap formed. On the one hand, this is a certain coquet of the manufacturer. On the other hand, a completely practical thing, since the baggage for a small romantic trip together is perfectly fled in the back seat. And thanks to a metal roof and an excellent climatic installation, you can travel in winter. As well as successfully operating this car all year round under the lead sky of our Motherland.
THE BIGGEST. To the convertible, built on the basis of the Volvo C70 compartment, is quite applicable to the epithet the most. Firstly, it is really the largest convertible from serial European cars. In the back seat, two adult passengers can freely accommodate.
Secondly, this is the only convertible with a soft roof where the undressing process is fully automated-there are no internal stops or latches that must manually unfasten. It is enough to simply transfer the checkpoint of the checkpoint into a neutral position, put the car on a handbrake and carefully say: dear, after thirty seconds you will see the stars. At least two stars - in her eyes - you are guaranteed ...
Volvo C70 Convertible is produced only with a cloth top. In some tuning companies, you can order an additional metal roof, but we do not see any sense in this. The soft top on this compartment is two -layer. This is a guarantee of excellent sound and thermal insulation. And if extraneous noises can be perfectly compensated by the loud sound of your radio, then for the additional heat in our climate I want to tell VOLVO engineers very much.
Quite originally designed on C70 Convertible folding front seats. In order to let the passengers go back, you just need to press a small lever on the back. Further, the electric motor comes into business, and all the seats are slowly, from the abyss dignity, move forward, opening the passage to the gallery. An operation available even to a three -year -old child.
The volume of the trunk, of course, is small. This is if you compare it with the C70 compartment. But a medium -sized road suitcase and a couple more sports bags fit in it. For many convertibles, this is almost a capacity record.
The Volvo C70 designers have thought over the aerodynamics of the car. At the Convertible, the driver feels comfortable at a speed of about 200 km/h. In principle, in the absence of rear passengers, the installation of a special shelf with a small mesh edge is provided, which extinguishes aerodynamic flows that flow into the salon at speed. But even with completely lowered front glasses and in the absence of this shelf, nothing will disturb the ashes of your cigar and your lady's hairstyle.
But we strongly advise giving her a silk-knuckle from Hermes-it is perfectly suitable for the style of this expensive car, firstly, and demonstrates your concern for it, and secondly.
The most powerful. With other participants in our test, Jeep Wrangler is only related that it is easy and pleasant to exploit in the harsh conditions of Russian reality. The hard plastic top protects the owner from any unfriendly weather phenomena and, as practice has shown, easily tolerates severe frosts and acid rains. Rather, a metal body will rot and fall apart than a plastic top. But..
In order to turn Wrangler into an elegant convertible, you need to spend such a number of calories and muscle efforts that you want to do this only twice - in early summer and at the end of winter. To begin with, it is necessary to unscrew the imminent number of bolts from the inside - how many accurately, in this case it does not matter. The hand gets tired already on the fifth, and there are like hooks on a ladies' corset. Then, with the efforts of several healthy men, the roof is removed, and the question immediately arises: where to put it? At home on the balcony, such a barn will not fit. So, only in the garage, if any in the list of your real estate.
In principle, you can remove the framework of the side glasses from the driver's doors - for the purity of the experiment. But we did not do this, tired of the fuss with the roof. It is enough to just lower the glass - and the feeling of free space is complete. True, in this case it will not be possible to jump to the driver's place through the A-La closed door James Bond. But Jeep offers other opportunities for self -expression.
The main advantage of Wrangler as a convertible is the presence of a very powerful safety frame, which guarantees one hundred percent protection of the driver and passengers. Because the very philosophy of this machine-the jeep, after all-implies skating not so much along high-speed routes as in places, not so remote. On wide sandy beaches (this is in California) or in shady forest paths (this is in the near Moscow Region). And it is unlikely that anyone will decide to go to Jeep on a long journey-the microscopic volume of the trunk and the inability to take a hard top prevents this. And they steal, as you know, in Europe. Therefore, Wrangler can be considered exclusively as Fun, entertainment for one day.

Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Alexey Ilyin
   
 

A source: "Autopilot"