CARS OF THE WORLD

Hyundai Solaris 2021.

The bestseller of the Russian market Hyundai Solaris, which was renewed last year, has acquired a new top — and limited edition! — a complete set called Prosafety.

More expensive and richer packaged «Solaris» simply do not exist — the red sedan has everything you can equip it with. Even remote start of the engine with a key!

Such a sedan costs 1.2 million rubles and is equipped exclusively with a 1.6-liter 123-horsepower engine with a 6-speed «automatic». Today CarsWeek and I figure out what makes the top-end Solaris stand out.

What does he look like

During the restyling, Hyundai Solaris was updated very modestly: it has new optics and bumpers.

The large 3-D mesh grille is beautiful, like the intricate folds and corners of the front bumper and the round fog lights.

At the stern, there is a new bumper and lights with a cute pattern of LED position lights and brake lights. The direction indicators are still ordinary bulbs, and in the front too.

The headlights have changed their shape and content: in the top version, there are diodes and modern daytime running lights.

The Prosafety trim also features chrome door handles, power folding mirrors and turn signal repeaters, and rather sophisticated 16-inch graphite-colored wheels with directional five-spoke wide spokes.

The roof aerial is old-fashioned. In general, the changes are insignificant, but when you see the pre-reform «Solaris» in the stream, it becomes noticeable that these light touches still managed to refresh the model.

The abundance of sharp corners even made the sedan a little more aggressive, although the silhouette remained the same.

What’s inside him

The limited version of Prosafety, contrary to the name, does not mean the presence of additional safety systems.

Here and so there is a decent set of six airbags and side curtains, but all this equipment was available to Solaris before as part of separate packages of options. As well as a good rear-view camera with «markings».

The differences are the remote start of the engine with a button on the key, which is especially important in this frosty winter, the two-tone interior trimmed with artificial leather with red inserts on the door panels, as well as red stitching on the steering wheel and gear lever.

Together with the red body color, this decor looks very nice. There would still be red button illumination!

But no — it remained blue in Korean. Other notable options include keyless entry, heated front and rear seats, steering wheel and windshield, as well as a multimedia system with an 8-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Yandex.Auto support.

Unlike all competitors, it has a built-in Yandex.Navigator. It is noticeable that the touchscreen that has grown by an inch has been fitted to the old front panel.

The tidy with a color display is perfectly readable, and during the restyling it was decorated with a checkered pattern.

With the update, the Solaris driver’s seat has an electrically adjustable lumbar support. The seat is flat, but it distributes the load well, the pillow is short.

The rear is not bad in width, but cramped in length: with the growth of the front passenger 180 centimeters, the knees of the rear will already rest against the back.

For the driver, there is a comfortable adjustable armrest, cup holders and a few compartments for small items.

They saved money on the illumination of the glove box. Under the center console, you can find a pair of power outlets for charging gadgets and one USB-A connector. The same port — only one! — allocated to the rear passengers.

What is it made of

The update did not bring any technical changes to Solaris. Everything is simple here: MacPherson struts in the front, a twisting beam in the back, the same springs and shock absorbers.

The body is made mainly of ultra-high-strength steels — there are 52% of them. The reinforcements for the car’s underbody, as well as the front and middle pillars, which must ensure the integrity of the interior power cage in the event of an accident, are made by hot stamping for greater strength.

Steel, by the way, is supplied to the plant near St. Petersburg by both Russian NLMK and Severstal, as well as South Korean enterprises.

The top version of Prosafety sports rear disc brakes. It’s nice that the set with 16-inch wheels comes with a full-fledged spare wheel on a cast disc, and not a tiny stowaway.

The 1.6-liter naturally aspirated gasoline engine G4FG belongs to the Gamma family and is made in China.

It develops 123 horsepower, it has an aluminum block, an intake tract of variable length, phase regulators at the inlet and outlet, in addition, it has nothing against AI-92 gasoline.

The six-speed hydromechanical automatic transmission is in-house developed and manufactured in South Korea.

How he drives

A relatively powerful engine for this segment accelerates a one and a half ton sedan from standstill to 100 km / h in 11.2 seconds according to the passport, but in general Hyundai Solaris feels quite dynamic — just look how smartly taxi drivers rush on them.

123 «atmospheric» forces and 150 Newton-meters of torque behave noisily at high revs, but to be honest, it’s a sin to complain about the lack of traction.

And the «automatic» is good — it switches quickly and smoothly, no twitching in traffic jams and under alternating loads. Of course, there are only six gears, so fuel consumption in the combined cycle is 10-11 liters easily! But at least 92nd.

«Solaris» keeps the high-speed line well on country roads, stands confidently in turns, and in fast turns almost does not rest and does not slip outward with the front axle. Not bad.

The steering is moderately transparent, with good feedback. However, the smoothness of the course is much more important, and here it is also not bad.

On a good surface, the suspension notes all the little things, but the worse the road gets, the oddly enough, the more comfortable the Solaris starts to ride.

The power consumption is commendable — the suspension is resilient and impenetrable. Only chipped asphalt causes an unpleasant itch on the steering wheel. Winter tires dominate the background noise.

Outcome

In general, Hyundai Solaris is a strong product, a car whose market positions are objectively strong. He has no failing flaws or striking features, but it’s hard to find fault with him.

It just does everything the average car is capable of. Nice appearance, comfortable, albeit cramped in the back row of the salon, reliable handling, excellent passive safety, endurance, finally — everything with him.

A big plus from the Koreans is a warranty period of five years or 150 thousand kilometers, albeit with a number of restrictions. But nevertheless, it is still much more than that of classmates.

Last year, however, Hyundai Solaris, despite the update, slightly lost in sales to the Volkswagen Polo — we will get to it a little later.

The top version of Prosafety is also limited in circulation — only two thousand copies will be released. This is the most expensive and packaged Solaris — it costs 1,236,000 rubles.

And prices start from 805,000 rubles for a simple Active package with a 1.4-liter 100-horsepower engine and a 6-speed manual gearbox.

The 1.6-liter engine will appear at 911,000 rubles, the automatic one — at 926,000 rubles. Pretop equipment Elegance costs 1,101,000 rubles.