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Kia Magentis: Double counter

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Large, slightly angular, proportional in German. Black. Kia Magentis stood at the door of a roadside cafe somewhere near Tver, gloomy hanging the front overhang over the high curb, and we drank the third cup of coffee in front of a long road. Ahead waited another half thousand kilometers of the Moscow-Petersburg highway.
We have two drivers and two cars. Little Fiesta, and big man Magentis. CD, and a business application. We have not decided who is going to the city on what it is going to the city, but a rapidly cooling cup with a soluble black slurry made me think faster. Outside the window, light rain began to spill. Dawn.
It would seem that for a long road the choice is obvious! The lively, but acute and small Fiesta tired on a straight line, and overtaking with a 1.4-liter engine cannot be called pleasant more likely, it was easily reckless from them. Two liters paired with mechanics under the hood of Magentis is another matter, the nopa keys lay on the table. The rain intensified. Coffee finally cooled down, but I continued to hesitate. And there were reasons for that
Gliding with a glance of 4.8 meters of Magentis length, I feel like a cool guy. For a car, one axis standing in a business class, I would have been asked from 639,900 rubles yes, there would not have climate control, side pillows and safety curtains, leather and electric drives of seats, but under the hood there would be a double-sized 2.0-liter gasoline motor. The basic Ford mondeo, for example, is more configured for the same money on a European buyer instead of electric windows in a circle in a circle he has seven airbags, and1.6 liter units. In Russia, a portrait of a buyer of such a car can not even be lost, it will be lost among those who have issued a loan for a more powerful version. That is, more expensive.
It is like Koreans - to beat competitors pointwise, one, but a significant advantage. Moreover, according to their show rooms, KIA managers go for sure without calculators to throw a price tag for a package of options, where it is impossible to buy satellite navigation to rubber rugs. Everything is static, as on Easter Island: two engines, two boxes, six configurations. In addition to the motor and the price of is nothing more. Is it necessary?
In each of the five versions, in which the 165-horsepower Magentis is proposed, its character will also be motionless. A smooth, but heavy interior rudely pushes consciousness somewhere back, to the past. Excessively a soft driver's chair, the body is weak, but for the dimensionless sore parts of former member drivers, it will fit for sure.
The motor does not rage, but clearly makes noise at medium and high speeds.
I am leaving for another overtaking, and after 3,000 revolutions it begins to seem that they put a roller with cotton under my right leg. Acceleration is even, noisy, and completely devoid of at least a gram of emotions. Peak of torque at 4,600 rpm? Leave it! Any reaction of the car to my actions is as if drawn along the school line. The tight steering wheel does not share information, but it is still possible to catch zero. And still, a long road to feel the car, his reactions are too distant from me, the driver, from my actions and teams. Now, if they were driving me
But you won’t call the chassis itself. The course stability is good, you can’t steer even at high speeds. The suspension with a deaf t-tie rises a gag ring around Novgorod. I myself was still strained from the type of pits and asphalt lats, more like barricades, but my fellow travelers sitting behind me not much.
And as soon as, tired and exhausted, I slowed down at the editorial office to move to the back sitting and sending myself home, I felt what I had to feel. Magentis is an ideal taxi. Without provoking anyone from the editors at least the slightest violation of the speed regime, he perfectly coped with the distorted functions. A wide rear door, a neat notching overhead, 500 liters of luggage allocated for baggage. The sofa seemed to be taken from another car, with a good profile, moderately hard. There are more than enough space, and no noise of the motor, street, road vibrations and blows.
Frankly, the car did not hook me with absolutely nothing. But today there is nothing less important than my opinion. I'm just a driver. The driver of the car that was not designed for me. Mandentis’s bet plays where the front row of seats ends. Unwits isolated motor compartment? Well, what, because the rear arches with excellent Shumka. Licky steering? Passengers are not about this, to the best of the hard and energy -intensive rear suspension swallows irregularities and fights well with swing, delighting them with indicative comfort.
If a comparison with the Volga is appropriate, I would compare: everything is exactly the same there, only with a difference of several decades.
And I would like such a Volga for my country - reliable, inexpensive, roomy, photogenic. Such a car must be assembled in Russia, and throw all your strength to optimize production and localization. To reset 13-15% from the price - and who then dares to look at the elderly Epica, weak Mondeo or expensive Camry? Solid car, and not for loans and leasing, but immediately into hands, taxi pages, institutions
Koreans, sell us Kia Magentis. We will make our new car-river from it.

Author: Alexander Mikhailov
Photo: Roman Ostanin

 

 

A source: Wheel magazine [November 2009]