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About the Michelin tires again, the Canadian Driver reviewer made this comment in the forum:
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Surprisingly Michelin MXV4 tires but the tread depth seems VERY shallow on these tires than what I tested in Alabama last spring and the pattern even looks slightly different. I'm guessing it's OEM spec and not the same.
The Carens is expected to launch here in January 2007 and with a projected price in the mid-$60K, its main competition will come from the parallel-imported 1.8-litre Toyota Wish. The Toyota has the edge in third-row and boot space thanks to its squared-off rear end, but this also gives it a more utilitarian appearance than the stylish Kia. Looks apart, the Carens also has a more modern interior and greater refinement on its side, plus the assurance of full service backup from an authorised distributor. For the price, it's an unbeatable combination of virtue and value.
Here's a review of the Carens from the South African website Motoring.co.za: New Carens - the sporty bus, car and van. The following picture is from the review (check out the armrest--I've never seen that before):
The rear parking beeper and the feature that allows you to fold in the side mirrors at the touch of a button really impressed me
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You see, guys, it doesn't matter how good a car looks, or how well it performs. Moms who spend their time carting children around are impressed by two seriously important aspects of their mode of transport: its safety features and choice of colour.
The Carens doesn't have cruise control, for example, but most women don't give a hoot; in fact they'd rather have a properly legible clock and dozens of crash bags than a rev counter or cruise control.
New Carens - the sporty bus, car and van[/url]. The following picture is from the review (check out the armrest--I've never seen that before):
Hi MedicineMan. How do you like this kind of seats? We have this in the Philippines too. Makes me wanna be a passenger rather than being a driver
Besides these two arm rests, the middle portion can be folded as well to serve as an armrest
Hi MedicineMan. How do you like this kind of seats? We have this in the Philippines too. Makes me wanna be a passenger rather than being a driver
Besides these two arm rests, the middle portion can be folded as well to serve as an armrest
Ahh, I can see how it works now. A portion of the middle seatback can be folded down to serve as a shared armrest for the two passengers sitting on either side. If you need to squeeze in one more passenger, you just return all of the armrests to the upright position. Yes, I like this. Now I wish it were available here!
it is a joy to ride on the carens on the second row. back the seats all the way and legroom is fantastic. bring down the armrest the its quite a comfortable seat indeed.
yes we have the armrest here in the Philippines, but we don't have ABS and stability control. The lack of ABS, when I learned about it, made me want to cancel the purchase. In the end the powerful crdi engine and other good features won over.
So if someone who decides what features will make it through or be castrated for a specific country is reading this, well.. id say, "taking out the safety features is not a very good idea". Toyota is selling well here and there is a potential for Kia to take its share of the market... but giving us "castrated" units will not help.
Not having either the back-up beeper or the button for folding in the mirrors (as far as I know !!!) I can't quite vouch for her view, but I did enjoy her review. Though I don't get leather as a mom's dream - I live in fear of it being gouged or spilled upon (and with my gardening stuff, I think I'm more of a threat to it than the kids). Funny how different the packages are from country to country. Don't know if WaveCXS is male or female, but if male, how he feels about ABS ('castrated' is a good word!) suggests it isn't just women who like safety.
I think the value of something like cruise control depends more on the kind of driving you do than on what sex you are. All in all, I wish car mfrs would enable us to pick specific options for "make to order." We had to wait for the car to roll off the line anyway, so we might as well have waited for it exactly the way we wanted it, rather than with leather (although I have to admit the ability to slide on the seats is a nice feature of leather that I didn't previously appreciate). And I agree with the CD day-by-day reviewer that the steering wheel radio controls are intrusive; I change by mistake from time to time too. Could have lived without those.
What would that be called - a "bespoke" car?
Thanks for keeping the reviews updated, MM. And welcome to the forums, Wave.
thanks for the welcome gottarondo. wavecxs is a he the wife drives the carens/rondo most of the time hence the concern about safety, must have of a high W.A.F. (Wife Acceptance Factor).
As I said, for a country brainwashed by toyota and honda. Kia/hyundai here is a hard sell, even to my wife. and with the kind of roads (and drivers) that we have here, we need all the safety features we can get
Drives: 2008 Kia Carens EX Crdi 2.0l 7-seater, 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer, 1996 Toyota Lite Ace GXL
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med man, thanks for the info. actually those awards were quite recent and i've been pushing the dealership to highlight this in their marketing campaigns so they can hopefully get more inquiries, ergo more sales.
yes, like wave said, although we have to arm rests on the 2nd row locally, we don't have abs, curtain airbags, stability control, heated seats, etc. i was really after the crdi and since i've never had those features before in any of my cars, i'm not really missing much.
and like wave, i too have high wife acceptance factor!
we've got a small but growing community of carens owners here. hopefully more and more will be posting here soon like wave and neilbt...
Michael
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