Soul’s new turbo model outruns the last cynics
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The Soul’s slightly stretched form might be harder to detect than the added zip from its turbocharged 1.6.
By John Gilbert
Maybe some engineer lost a bet, or maybe in a lighthearted moment the more rebellious side of Kia just wanted to do something out of the ordinary. Whatever, the feeling persists that when Kia first introduced the Soul it was intended to be more of a short-term, square gimmick car than a long-term player in the Kia automotive stable.
But after seeming to almost hurry to get past the square one and on to more significant models like the Optima, Rio, Forte, Sportage and Sorento, the Soul has grown up and acquired a robust personality, and for 2017 it is finally getting some equipment that makes it far more than the square 4-door, which still holds four large adults and a lot of luggage.
Would you believe the Soul is getting a hot turbocharged 4-cylinder with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission as indications that it is living up to some sort of potential a lot of us never realized it had?
Stylish lines added to the squarish rear of the Soul encase all sorts of useful interior space.
The Soul ! I test-drove had the Kia-Hyundai corporation’s quick-revving 1.6-liter 4-cylinder, turbocharged, along with the corporate 7-speed dual-cutch transmission, which shifts automatically, as two internal clutches trade off instantaneously engaging the next gear up or down.
It’s the perfect transmission for the turbo 1.6, which has now become my favorite Hyundai or Kia engine because of its surprising potency, while retaining fuel economy in the mid-30s with gusts to near 40.
The 1.6 turbo in the Soul ! jumps up to 178 horsepower and 195 foot-pounds of torque, converting the vehicle into a sleeper well-deserving of the exclamation point in its name. The basic Soul 1.6 has 130 horsepower and 118 foot-pounds of torque, adequate for a mall-runner maybe. Upgrade to the 2.0 and you get a healthy 164 horses and 154 foot-pounds. The turbo is another story. Read more
Compact Rogue, Sentra set tempo for Nissan
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The compact crossover Rogue has subtly become Nissan’s signature vehicle.
By John Gilbert
The automotive media is guilty, and I’m no exception. With all the new cars and SUVs hitting the market, it gets easy to look for the most whiz-bang new stuff and, in the process, wind up overlooking some very deserving new vehicles that do more than just a competent job.
Nissan falls into that category of being overlooked and underrated, so we need to set that straight, focusing on two specific vehicles — the hugely popular Rogue SUV and the vastly underrated Sentra compact sedan.
When it comes to crossover SUVs (CUVs), the Rogue is a favorite of both my wife, Joan, and me. It always has been a tidy design, where everything fits, competing right well against the CR-V and RAV4, and to some occupants fit people better and performed better.
The compact Sentra has a reputation of being boring, but not with its new SR sporty model and its turbocharged engine.
And while the Sentra was only a favorite 20 years ago, when Nissan made a classic sleeper as a hot-rod SE-R, I find the new design a vast improvement, making the Sentra look more like a downsized Maxima-Altima than the soap-carving it used to resemble, and it has made a sly move back to bring to life the SE-R. For 2017, the test drive car I got defied Motor Trend’s premature capsule that lists the listless 1.8-liter engine with 130 horsepower as the only available engine, and came as the SR, with a turbocharged 1.6 instead, boosting it to 188 horsepower and 177 foot-pounds of torque. Read more
Chevy makes Trax to fill compact SUV segment
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
Loaded with large and midsize SUVs, Chevrolet relies on Trax to cover compact crossover gap.
By John Gilbert
If you are a cynic, or a hard-core traditionalist, you might view the Chevrolet Trax with some degree of scorn. I mean, for comparison sake, you have the Suburban, Tahoe, Equinox, Traverse, and assorted sizes of pickup trucks, and next to them, the Trax seems almost toy-like.
In that frame of mind, you might look with careful scrutiny to find things that are objectionable about the Trax, which is Chevrolet’s smallest, lightest, and probably least-haul vehicle. And yes, it’s inexpensive, in the mid-$20,000 range, but it’s got a tiny engine, so what good is it?
However, in real life you can try to find fault in the size, but once you climb inside you find that there is a surprisingly adequate amount of room, both in the front buckets and the rear seats. It doesn’t seem that anything that compact on the outside can be that roomy inside.
You can’t find fault with the instrument layout or the fit and finish of the dashboard or controls. In fact, they all seem laid out to perfection.
And when it comes to design, the Trax looks good from the front, especially with that little ring of LED driving lights that outline the headlight enclosures. It looks good from the rear, with a nicely proportioned taper to the hatchback and rear corners, as they slope upward toward the roof.
It also looks good in silhouette, rounded off nicely and proportioned just right all along the lines that sweep from stem to stern.
Surprisingly adequate storage room under the hatch helps Trax adapt to family life.
The Trax is the brainchild of General Motors when it went over to South Korea and bought out the Daewoo factory, which had made stylish but marginal cars that were faltering in the marketplace, particularly alongside such outfits as Hyundai and Kia.
The first Trax caught my attention, because I have always thought that any vehicle that’s big enough needn’t be bigger, and unless you have to haul a heavy trailer around, or make frequent trips with half a dozen or so occupants, then anything bigger than big enough is too big. Why should we haul around excess weight?
So the latest trend toward compact crossover SUVs was instantly appealing to me, and I appreciate nearly all of the dozens of downsized, economical and agile performers amid the sea of crossover vehicles. But the Trax still is mind-blowing when it takes its place in Chevrolet’s arsenal of medium to enormous SUVs.
Then along comes the 2017 model year, and Chevrolet redesigns the Trax. It’s not an all-car, but what they cal“refreshed” in the industry. Meaning the corners might be rounded off, the contours tweaked just a bit, and everything sort of tightened up.
In the process, Chevrolet also upgraded the interior considerably, and what might have seemed a bit tacky in the original is now nicely padded and soft to the touch, as well as fitting together better.
Under the hood, there beats a 1.4-liter 4-cylinder engine with a turbocharger mounted, for crying out loud. There is no optional engine, but the Trax doesn’t need one. Chevrolet seems to have connected on the perfect group-think in plotting out the engine that will make the Trax perform the best, in either front-wheel drive or the all-wheel drive that folks in the snow-belt or who might face some foul weather should demand.
Raising the hatch reveals decent stowage space form a compact SUV.
I had the chance to spend a week with a gleaming white Trax, and I thought it looked good in all circumstances. It also performed well on a freeway trip, and delivered fuel economy in the high 20s. EPA estimates range into the 30s, in fact, and you might reach the estimated 34 if you stayed under 65 or 70.
Among the new features are a Premier trim level, which offers larger 18-inch wheels with your all-season tires, and Apple CarPlay or Android Auto are now compatible, boosting the Trax to the properly high level of connectivity.
Lane departure warning and forward collision alert are now available, too, and, going back to the cynical big-truck guys, there can be no faulting the quickness of acceleration or the quick response of the steering, which is well-coordinated with the suspension.
There is no recommended towing capacity for the Trax, although you might get away with a light fishing boat or extra light camping trailer with the AWD models.
Trax continues to be a made-in-Korea vehicle, which is not an issue for anyone this side of our new president. And for anyone who has driven anything by Hyundai or Kia in recent years, we won’t question the technology or quality control of the Trax.
Trax redesign for 2017 features rounded corners and refined interior features.
In fact, there are reports that the Trax has made its own impact on the new smaller compact-crossover segment by becoming the vehicle with a Chevrolet bow-tie emblem that is sold to the largest percentage of female buyers. Some estimates range as high as 60 percent female buyers, in fact, proving that women might be wiser than some of those cynical, macho types who think trucks have to be huge, hefty, poor in fuel efficiency, and twice as expensive as the basic $22,000 Trax.
The facts that it’s highly maneuverable, quick, attractive, and with all the improvements packed into the 2017 model make it worth evaluation for anyone looking for the security of weather-worthy AWD in a contemporary and high-style Trax.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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