• The big test of regular headlights: is it worth overpaying for optics?

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    The more expensive a car, the better its headlights shine? Is not a fact! This is vividly confirmed by the “Behind the Wheel” light test, in which 11 most popular cars on the Russian market compete for the efficiency of lighting engineering.

     

    It is considered that xenon headlights, by definition, better than halogen and always inferior to best LED headlights on the market . This is not always the case. Much depends not so much on the light source, but on the headlamp design. And since many models are offered with different light sources, we have compiled our own unique rating of cars - according to the light efficiency.

     

    Let's see if it's worth paying extra for more advanced optics.

     

    At the Dmitrovsky avtopoligon we collected 11 popular cars, which will begin to form the light rating of the magazine "Driving." In the future, we will replenish this list with other models so that our readers have the opportunity to consider this very important factor in our latitudes when choosing a new car.


     

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  • Of the top five sales, four models hit our test. Kia Rio drove to the tests in two versions - with reflex headlights and with linzovannaya, which equip expensive versions. On Vesta all versions are equipped with the same lighting devices. Hyundai Creta and Solaris are presented with linzed optics laid to machines in the maximum configuration (we will check the simpler version next time using the same technique and include it in a single rating comparing with the current results). Grant, another model from the top-5, decided not to take: the dealers are about to have a restyled version. So, the updated Grant is the first candidate for the next light test.

     

    Captions with halogens and LED headlights, we have already compared (ZR, № 4, 2018). But it was in other weather conditions, so that measurements are not a sin to repeat. Another pair of cars with different light sources is Octavia : halogens in the basic version and Bi-LED headlights as an option.

     

    The last pair is the Datsuns: an on-DO sedan and a mi-DO hatchback . Hatchback is not included even in the top 25 market, but not to take it to the test would be wrong. The fact is that these cars have different halogen headlights: on the sedan - with reflectors, and on the hatchback - with additional lenses. Find out whether there is superiority pyatidverki with more advanced (theoretically) light sources.

  • Statistics 2017: Which cars are preferred in South Korea?

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    Last year, according to AEB, the Korean car Kia Rio became the Russian bestseller . And what kind of cars do Koreans prefer? Rio is not offered on the domestic market, and heads the local car sales rating in three classes above - this is the five-meter Hyundai Grandeur sedan (in the main photo), which just at the end of 2016 changed the next generation. The demand for a new model has almost doubled to a record 132 thousand copies, although legal entities made a significant contribution, because Grandeur is a favorite of Korean taxi companies and corporate garages.

     

    Hyundai porter

     

    Unfortunately, so far in South Korea, only annual sales results of local brands have been made public, which, however, occupy 87% of the market. In 2017, 1 million 550 thousand new passenger and light commercial vehicles were sold - 2% less than a year earlier. Kia, Samsung (the local unit of the Renault Nissan alliance) and especially Chevrolet showed a recession: the American brand, which replaced Daewoo in Korea, has not yet taken root in the market and has lost more than a quarter of buyers over the past year.

     

    Hyundai avante

     

    But the brand Hyundai growth of 5% (665 thousand cars) and the first four lines in the popularity rating of models. Following the Grandeur sedan are the Porter truck (101 thousand cars) and passenger models Avante (local version of the Elantra, 84 thousand) and Sonata (83 thousand). Analogs under the Kia brand are seriously lagging behind: these are Bongo (62 thousand), K3 (28 thousand) and K5 (38 thousand). But the most popular crossover in South Korea is the third-generation Kia Sorento (78.5 thousand cars), known to us with the prefix Prime.

     

    Kia sorento

     

    As for imported cars, even after the weakening of the customs regime and a significant reduction in duties, the demand for them in South Korea is low: according to preliminary data, about 235,000 foreign cars were sold last year, which is about 13% of the total market. The most popular brand is Mercedes-Benz (about 75 thousand cars), and the E-class with the result of about 37 thousand copies topped the rating of imported models. BMW is in second place (58 thousand), and then, oddly enough, the “Japanese” - Lexus, Honda and Toyota (10-12 thousand cars each) go in a tight group. Concern Volkswagen after problems with dizelgate was in disgrace: sales in Korea stopped, unsold cars had to be taken back to their homeland .