Kia Mohave test drive since 2009 SUV

Kia Mohave: Obama Gift

We get acquainted with the Korean rogue in the steppes of Kazakhstan
My electric blister, lying in the road bag on the third row of Kia Mohave seats, crunched at home with steel blades, grinded and stopped working forever. She was killed by dust and sand, without which Kazakhstan can only imagine in the winter. And how did the air and salon filters survive the smoker really this glossy SUV was really prepared for harsh conditions? Yes, and under the wheels, instead of properly-consumption wooden swing and geometrically verified man-made barriers, a rocky rock
Is it too serious for the first experience in building frame SUVs?
The smiling Kazakh in the yellow baseball cap with the inscription Nazarbayev, our leader waved his hand towards the two -lane connecting the city of the rodgazgan with Baikonur: you will pass! Now the road was repaired, the asphalt was laid. Before, there was just a gravel and pits in the elbow depth. And now tolerant!
It would be better to leave the gravel. The monumental Kia Mohave bounced on each vertical bend of the highway, looking up with all four wheels, and landed hard in order to jump again after a second.
Mohav, (this is how Russian transcription sounds), is assembled either by an independent five -knit the rear axle or pneumatics, with a range of 8 cm height adjustments, but there was not comfortable on such a destructive coating in any of the cars.
Strictly speaking, cars have nothing to do with it. Just gentlemen, journalists, when they saw that the route was almost dead (four hours of driving oncoming cars!), Rightly decided that the harsh Kazakh traffic cops were not in general, they rode about 140. Along the way, between jumps, noting that in Kia They were able to make a rather interesting product.
The Mohave salon is highly hidden, but the main thing is just huge. The sofa of the second row can be adjusted both in the longitudinal direction, and by inclination of the back, and if the third row is folded, then passengers can even get enough sleep without constraining themselves in poses.
On the go, the moha is good on a relatively smooth straight line on the highway, it holds the trajectory confidently, accelerates that with gasoline, which with a diesel engine is assertively and powerful. But here on a broken road
- Actually, all settings for the American market. For Russia, they did not make any adaptation of the platform, they limited themselves to only more powerful batteries and a generator, - people from Kia are justified, but they recognize the suspension and really came out harshly.
Not only the suspension, but also the steering mechanism does not like shaking. He is too vibro -loaded, and literally transfers the profile of the road to a four -spoke lamb, who does not have, moreover, tides under a convenient grip. Strange omission, given that the adjustments in the top versions are given special attention: the column in two directions and the pedal node in the range of 7.5 shift inspection, where are connoisseurs of such freedom of planting live?
Mohave has been sold in the USA under the Borrego brand for about a year. If you read Russian, it will turn out to be quite a harmonious Borrego, but if you read with a distortion for the sophisticated comedians of Barryg, it would be a real gift. In Russia, the car is named Mohaw, by the name of the desert in the state of California. The options reached us almost without correction, from the already mentioned air suspension of the rear axle to the navigation system. The interior decoration and TU can be selected in traditional beige colors for the southern states. And almost - because in Russia only the all -wheel drive version of the car will traditionally be.
However, why a different transmission by a frame SUV?
The basic equipment of Mohave includes not only the blocking of the central differential, but also the handout, which increases the gear ratio of the box by 2.4 times. A serious argument against the drum, and on a slippery slide with a slope of 50-60%, the SUV climbs quite confidently, and without lowering.
Penetrable motors help. Basin V6 3.8, developing 362 Nm at 4400 rpm, does not suffer from a lack of power, but a three -liter diesel is lucky much more. By the way, they make a special bet on it, and they are offered only with a new six -speed automatic transmission motor is content with five gears.
On the rocks, a very handy came the rear view camera with a screen mounted in a salon mirror: to slide down the rocky slope between the ravines with it is more comfortable. And to maneuver on the damaged parkeckt, over a hundred kilometers of the dusty steppe, the lens remained almost clean, and did the good picture have a merit of the features of the aerodynamics of a square body?
I already traveled to Kazakhstan, but in the city of Baikonur, and even more so at the cosmodrome itself, I did not have to be. To everything, our arrival was timed to launch the TMA-16 Union rocket to the international space station, and at the end of the test we were even allowed to the site, from which there were some 3-4 km-seizures to the starting table. But the city itself left a dual impression. Closed to outsiders (entry-departure strictly according to passes), quiet and shellless, with a car movement of not more than 40-50 km/h, with mandatory Lenin in the central square and dried with heat of parks and squares, Baikonur is experiencing not his best years. Russia pays to Kazakhstan about $ 350 million annually to use the entire space infrastructure, but at least visually, this affects the development of the city very weakly.
In general, the debut took place. The main thing that the Koreans were worth noting did not try to jump above their own heads, clearly outlining the strengths of the frame of the frame, a powerful diesel, internal volume. As for the shortcomings
At the final press conference, the pride of the journalists skillfully tickled with promises, they say, we will take into account your comments, and we will make appropriate changes in the pendants to the cars that will be assembled on the Kaliningrad Automobile Training.
Reasonable. Indeed, for the Americans, an SUV, such a mowing-is a tractor, a truck that will be able to transport his wife, children, mother-in-law, a mother-in-law and a mother-in-law itself along the way the house-Supermarket barbek. In Russia, at the wheel of such machines, they are used to promoting their own business and doing it comfortably. And it is difficult to imagine under what circumstances the owner in the tie will disassemble the third row of seats or use the reduced series of transmission, coupled with the crazy diesel traction. As a given, several of the many qualities, this is great. But it’s not the main thing to wait for the news from the car.
Kia-Mohav really knows how to do a lot. He is not a hero of the disputes of the owners who has a larger diameter or wood in the cabin of a more wooden, and a seasoned car, a gadget of high cross -country ability and a solid internal volume. The hero of the change in Kia, the application for the game at a new level now we are actively working on the image of the brand and on increasing loyalty to the brand - marketers say, simultaneously using the phrase Dynamic & Youthful, active and youthful, as a new idea of \u200b\u200bbrand development. But
I, if I were a potential buyer, would have been doing exactly any case before. I’ll lead a home elephant, leave the heels of bags to the trunk, I will take six friends and go with all of them to visit Obama land. There they will definitely tell me and show me why they love these healthy, indestructible SUVs. With an average salary of $ 40,000 a year for all states, they will find their arguments easier for them, and without any work on loyalty.
Ah, I didn't say? In American car dealerships, Borrego-Mohave 2WD costs from $ 26.245. A little cheaper than we have Kia Sportage with plastic overlays on arches, all -wheel drive, gasoline engine and a manual box.
 
Author: Alexander Mikhailov
 

Source: Wheel magazine [October 2009]