PEUGEOT 406 Break 1999 test drive - 2004 station wagon

As to your home

The volume of luggage space is usually indicated in liters. Well: this is the most understandable unit of measurement in Russia. But not only the amount of volume liters differ in the universals of Ford Focus Estate, Peugeot 406 Break and Volvo V70.
 
Most station wagons are created on the basis of popular sedans - the exception in our case Volvo. When developing such cars, as a rule, designers are resting - it is enough that the enlarged body does not spoil the appearance of the car, and its contours correspond to the corporate style set by the sedan. The main task is to come up with the design of the arches of the rear wheels, which significantly reduce the useful volume inside the trunk and create inconvenience during loading/unloading of the belongings. The price of station wagons is usually higher, but this difference rarely exceeds 3-5 percent of the cost of the sedan.
And all the same, for some reason it is considered to have such a car with us-however, no one is openly admitted to this. In public, as a rule, the following arguments against the station wagon are given:
- Noisy. According to the cabin, which represents a single whole with the trunk, the echo constantly walks;
- poor visibility: the rear racks interfere strongly and it is difficult to maneuver in the city;
- the rear windows fog in the damp weather, and the fifth door is instantly sprayed, it is difficult to open and close it without getting stained;
- For the criminal element, a large area of \u200b\u200bglazing is a real gift: hit and steal.
In principle, all this is true - the costs of the form. And the fact that we went to our blitz test in the pouring rain helped to really evaluate all three cars from this purely practical point of view.
   
But the most interesting thing was for us to check what was hidden behind the numbers of the volume of the trunk, which are given in technical tables. For example, the claimed volume of the trunk with the backs of the seats in Ford Focus was larger than the Volvo V70. And the largest, according to the tables, turned out to be a cargo compartment at Peugeot 406. But even a primitive practical test showed that sometimes these numbers are far from reality. If the air in the trunk and occupies some volume, then it can not always be replaced by a load adequate in volume-the geometry is a stubborn thing. The real cargo capacity of any station wagon depends on the body - we came to this conclusion by loading a standard cardboard box from a 61x61x61 cm monitor to each car.
   
520/1580 liters. Ford Focus Estate (the case in the USA and some European countries are called) belongs to the number of inexpensive station wagons. Sales in Russia today make up 10-15 percent of the total number of cars sold this brand. The difference in price between sedan and the station wagon is only $ 100 - so you can not take into account the financial factor when choosing a car.
Unfortunately, the station wagon lost the charm inherent in a short Focus-the designers could not enter the original stop-signals in the rear racks of the body. Therefore, Focus estate looks not as stylish as utilitarian. However, it is frankly convenient to move in reverse. Firstly, mirrors-lights help a lot. Secondly, the rear window on Estate is slightly larger than on the hatchback, and its lower edge is not so high.
In heavy rain, the rear windows really fog instantly and very intensively. However, Estate has a very powerful stove, and just a couple of minutes to restore the rear review.
   
But this is from the inside. Outside, the fifth door is very quickly covered with dirt. Therefore, the rear wiper in bad weather must be kept constantly on. Obviously, the engineers took this into account - it works only in intermittent mode, and this is a successful find: the driver is not annoyed by the constant flickering of the janitor in the rear view mirror.
Our cardboard in the trunk of Focus did not fit. More precisely, we had to completely remove the inertial curtain with the mechanism - the only way we managed to push the box close to the seats and calmly slam the back door. The curtain is removed and installed very simply, but if there is only one acceptable place in the trunk of the overall cargo in the trunk - at the legs of the rear passengers.
But this was the only station wagon in which you can open the dirty back door and not get dirty - a special button is located on the front panel on the left. It is also easy to close the door - on the inside there are two handles.
The biggest trouble found in Ford Focus estate is a phenomenally booming trunk. The echo walks all over the cabin even with a closed curtain and a virgin empty cargo compartment. You can deal with this only by turning on the music louder.
525/1740 liters. Not the most expensive, but the most spacious among all our station wagons. This is believed by passport data. In the Peugeot 406 Break (French definition of station wagons), the desire of engineers is very clearly visible to create precisely a utilitarian car - the ceiling line in the trunk does not decrease to the back to the sake of aerodynamics, but remains even. Maybe from there, from the underground space, and extra liters are squeezed.
The rear curtain is very competently in Peugeot. It is divided into two equal parts. The closest to the rear passengers is a rigid plastic shelf covered with fiber material. It has stamping for small objects. From this fixed shelf, a second part is pulled through an inertial mechanism-a soft curtain-tent.
   
Due to the fact that the lock is located exactly in the middle of this combined design, it is very convenient to remove it. To do this, you do not need to dive into the bowels of the trunk, puffing trousers on a dirty bumper or spinning in the back seat, as under the pitchfork. One but - the design is so massive that it takes up too much space in the trunk. If you plan to load oranges with barrels, then it is better to leave it in the garage. So, in order to push our box into the trunk, the shelf had to be removed.
When driving in the car, silence reigns - despite the fact that in the trunk we have a lot of extraneous cargo, which is always in any city car - we even carry children's sledges. The dense shelf definitely plays a positive role.
Surprisingly, the rear window of 406 Break is practically not sprayed with mud, and the janitor has to turn on extremely rarely. Definitely, the role here is played by a small spoiler at the top of the fifth door. It creates additional aerodynamic streams that discard dirt and dust.
The ventilation of the salon is very well thought out in Peugeot - they do not fog up glass at all in heavy rain, so it is easy and pleasant to drive this car. Only the rear -view mirrors would like to have more - many owners of the station wagons park in mirrors.
485/1641 liters. The most expensive and most comfortable Volvo V70 is the only car that was specially created in the image of the station wagon and does not have a basic analogue-sedan. Volvo hatchbacks, as you know, does not produce.
V70 is a fundamentally new model, first shown at the Detroit exhibition in January 2000. It has nothing to do with the previous versions of S/V70 and was created on its own platform using the design elements and security systems of the representative sedan S80. But no more: V70 an independent car, and not a cargo version of the eighty. And it is oriented exclusively on the American market. Although in Russia the station wagon is also sold successfully - from the beginning of the year 76 cars have left, which is very good for our market.
The secret of success is simple - the designers and designers successfully coped with the task of combining the comfort of the representative class of the representative class and the capacity of the station wagon. As a result of this compromise, the passport dimensions of the trunk will surprise even the exacting buyer - 485/1641 cubic meters. Dm.
Reducing the cargo space with normally set backs of the rear seats guarantees maximum comfort for the rear passengers. In the Volvo V70, they feel no less confident and freely than in the representative Sedan S80. With all this, our reference box got into the trunk from the summer. The back door could be closed without fear of squeezing the glass on the corner of the box. In many ways, this is facilitated by the traditional body shape for Volvo - the back door is almost perpendicular to the ground.
The V70 trunk is literally stuffed with various comfortable devices: a luggage grid for fixing the cargo on the floor and a retractable grid between passengers and trunk. In fairness, we note that using the grids is not too convenient - you have to almost completely dive into the trunk or climb the back seats with your feet. Among the other mules, we found an apron covering the rear dirty bumper and a special fastener for bags of food.
With laid out seats, the size of the luggage compartment is huge and resembles a cave - two adults can comfortably accommodate inside the entire length and there will still be a place. Even by eye it is noticeable that it is much larger than PEUGEOT 406.
At the same time, there are completely no extraneous noises in the Volvo V70 - in motion this car sounds as it should sound a representative sedan.
In heavy rain, the rear windows practically do not fog - you can not even turn on the blowing. The glass on the fifth door remains clean for quite some time, despite the fact that it is located almost steeply to the ground. Obviously, a massive rear bumper plays a protective role, which causes fire on himself.
DEBRIEFING. Let us return to the beginning of notes, gentlemen, private entrepreneurs, lovers of recreation in the fresh air and fathers of families. Having a fresh sedan is, of course, prestigious. And no one should worry that you are transporting in his trunk. But with all the advantages of a car with four doors, a good and convenient station wagon does not spoil the image at all, but only emphasizes that the owner is a rather business and active person who can conveniently arrange his life.
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Alexey Ilyin

 

Source: "Autopilot"