The conflict of appearance and internal content was disclosed in the literature of the mid -19th century by the famous French writer Viktor Hugo — in the «Cathedral of the Parisian Mother of God». Robinar Quasimodo was disgusting from the outside, but beautiful inside. Such a metaphor promotes empathy for the character, but in real life, I often want to still according to Anton Chekhov, so that everything is fine in a person. In the car, by the way, too. The designers and designers of the French brand Renault, obviously, remembered the classics and decided to adjust the appearance of the Symbol model to its qualities, which before that attracted a huge number of admirers. Symbol sedan became an independent Renaul model six years ago (before that he was called Clio), but only now his appearance, with the exception of the emblem, does not resemble Clio hatchbacks. Most journalists saw a novelty at the Moscow Motor Show, but we met her almost at home. No, not in Paris — in the Turkish vigorum. It is in Turkey, more precisely — in Bursa — and these machines are produced. French designers retained a silhouette with a curved “back”, but the body underwent thorough modernization. The overall length increased by 90 mm, and the wheelbase has been preserved unchanged — 2470 mm. Heavy rear racks «facilitated» due to additional windows. New lighting equipment and bums added solidity, the side surfaces of the body revived the ribs, with a light stroke rising from the upper part of the front arches to the rear lights.
Now let’s return to the dimensions and look at them from the point of view of a not passerby, but passenger. The unchanged wheelbase has no hope of increasing space in the cabin. The narrowed trunk of the trunk remained the same, which somewhat complicates access to a spacious bowl of 506 liters. The decoration of the salon is the loser, but this applies only to design — finishing materials correspond to the class of cars. The main changes are aimed at increasing comfort: noise and vibration isolation of the new Symbol is still at a high level. The quality of the Turkish assembly and French ideas also do not cause complaints. A very delicate question is visible from the cabin: how do the French intend to “breed” two models of class B — Symbol and Logan? The answer may be this: the novelty will take an intermediate position between Logan and Megane models. Having shot the French corvette on a picturesque raid, we went to plow the road expanses of the western coast of Turkey. In the filling of the second, Symbol differs slightly from the predecessor: for the development and preparation for production (the French, Turkish and Romanian branches of Renault took part in the work), $ 100 million — the amount by the standards of the modern auto industry is modest. The chassis scheme has not undergone changes: the front suspension of the MacPherson type, the back is semi -dependent with a twisting beam. The brake system configuration is standard for this class — in front of the discs, the drum mechanisms behind. As before, gearboxes are available in mechanical (5 steps) and in automatic (4 transmissions) performance. The machine was perfectly set up — it quickly thinks that they demand from it; gas to the floor, and the KP, without hesitation, smoothly goes to a low gear, easily accelerating the car. Changes have also occurred in the range of motors — since October in Ukraine and Russia there will no longer be the old eight -plastic 1. 4 (75 l. With.) — only a sixteen -valve engine with a capacity of 98 liters. With. Europe will offer another 75-horsepower «four» 1. 2 16V and diesel 1. 5 DCI (75 or 85 forces). In general, a reliable, unpretentious and comfortable favorite of corporate fleets with pleasure runs not only along the coast of the Aegean Sea, but also in our native expanses. Since 2000, more than 600 thousand “Symbols” have been produced at the Oyak -Renault plant (by publishing standards, a weighty magazine!). Now the old model is completely discontinued for the sake of the new product. It will cost, apparently, somewhat more expensive than the previous version, but the works of Hugo and Chekhov are also not cheaper from century to century. True, their literature remains the same as it was, and the new Symbol still changed for the better outside, leaving all the good and kind inside.