Driving view
Written by | Lei Lei
For the new Lingdu L, as early as a few months ago when it landed on the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the author thought that it would not have much attention, because the front face was too out of line. Even when I saw the real car recently, I still maintain this view.
Unexpectedly, the market is not as expected by the author, and the popularity of Lingdu L is even better than that of the previous generation model, and even test drives have to queue. I wondered, have I become a "non-mainstream" after the 90s? Or is it that with the frameless door of Lingdu L, people forgive its "recklessness" in styling design?
In order to dispel several large doubts, the author decided to visit the store once to find out the situation.
After arriving at the store, the author saw that the two exhibition cars in the store were watched, and most of the age groups were between 25-30, including many female customers. According to the sales introduction, "there are many customers who come to the store to see the car, especially on weekends, the test drive can't be lined up, most of them are rushing to its large space and frameless car doors" - see the net map is not ugly, after seeing the real car, the body is so honest.
In terms of policy, sales said that "at present, the new car is only 6,000 to 10,000 activities, there is no other discount", at the end, he also deliberately came to the sentence "recommend the old model, because the discount is large". (I'll just do it when he's there to clear inventory).)
After a brief explanation of the situation of visiting the store, let's return to the theme of the test drive. Interestingly, on the same day, several customers have experienced this car first, and it is still around 10:30 on weekdays, which shows the popularity of the car.
The initial stage is weak, and the gearbox is seriously dragging its legs
The new Lingdu L is still equipped with the familiar powertrain, 1.4T + 7 speed dry dual clutch, the maximum engine power of 150 horses, the maximum torque of 250 Nm. In order to give you the most real feedback, this time the author did not choose a test drive route based on high speed, but chose the congestion road conditions in cities with more traffic.
As for why it is not Volkswagen's latest 1.5T engine, sales said that the EA211 EVO 1.5T engine will not start loading until the end of the year, which should be the first to be used on Sagittarius, and the new Lingdu L is estimated to be used next year.
Although the current powertrain is not the latest, as the standard of Volkswagen compact cars, after years of optimization, the product is mature and reliable. What I care most about is the performance of this 7-speed dry dual-clutch transmission, because it matches differently on every car. This is said later.
First of all, the power, the engine of 150 horsepower is the mainstream level in the same class, but the actual driving experience makes me forget that this is a Volkswagen. The throttle feedback of the new Lingdu L is relatively slow when starting, there is no feeling of channeling in the old Lingdu, and it is speculated that this adjustment is to allow most consumers to better adapt to it.
When cruising at medium speed on urban roads, the quietness in the car is very good, and it can show a certain sense of luxury.
If you want to drive a little more intensely, the throttle is at the end, but the transmission is still not in a hurry, and it will not be powered out until half a second later. In addition to the low-speed start and daily smooth driving will not have the feeling of power delay, the rest of the time will feel that the power will come a little slower.
As for the old Lingdu gearbox, "the gear should not rise, the gear should not go down". The new Lingdu L is not obvious, but it has emerged with new problems: low-speed setbacks and power stickiness.
Low-speed bumps are well understood, that is, when congestion or low-speed 1st gear is switched to 2nd gear, there will be a slight pause. Power stickiness occurs when you close the throttle, and the engine speed will be delayed for a while and then dropped, making people feel that the whole car is not very smooth to drive.
There is only one situation in which you will feel that the new Lingdu L is very good to open, that is, it is not impatient to open steadily, and its power and gearbox logic can basically meet the needs of daily street walking.
In addition, the comfort of this generation of Lingdu L really amazes me. Mainly reflected in the suspension, Lingdu L gives you the first feeling is very soft, through some road joints, suspension can quickly filter these small vibrations. When changing lanes at a speed of 50-60km/h, the suspension can provide you with a certain degree of support, which feels like QQ sugar, the outside is soft, and there is a certain damping in the middle to make you feel chewy.
However, when driving slightly more intensely, the soft suspension of Lingdu L will bring a certain lateral tilt, fortunately, the body posture is still relatively stable, plus the seat can give the body a good lateral wrapping, the driver will not dangle - the groove point is that the sitting posture is higher, even if adjusted to the lowest position, it will not make you have a wide-body coupe feeling.
In another detail, the steering wheel of Lingdu L is not purely round, but a design similar to a polygon, coupled with a large disc width, creating a driving atmosphere closer to everyday family cars.
The configuration is rich, but the car machine is not easy to use
The interior and size are the more obvious changes in the new Lingdu L, so how much has the interior space of the car increased? I also made a comparison when I arrived at the store, after the front seat was adjusted to the author's daily driving sitting position, the old Lingdu rear leg was about a fist and a half away from the front seat (pictured below).
The new Lingdu L has significantly more spacious rear space (pictured below). Combined with the test drive experience, the extended size of the new Lingdu L gives the rear row, and the practicality is greatly improved.
Needless to say, this comes at the expense of a certain sense of movement. Of course, this is understandable, after all, for most consumers, Lingdu L may be their first car in life, not only to carry the daily commuting and weekend travel needs, but also a long-term companion of their partners, so comfort must be guaranteed.
The new Lingdu L is saichiro-Volkswagen's first new car equipped with a double screen, the two screens have a certain angle, and the design of tilting to the driver's side is in line with the positioning of the car's wide-body coupe. In terms of intelligence, in addition to the car networking system, the new Lingdu L is also equipped with wireless CarPlay function, the overall experience of the car machine is good, the fly in the ointment is that the air conditioning control is difficult to use, and the eighth generation golf is similar.
To turn on the air conditioner, first you have to find the CLIMA button on the central control (it is a touch key, not suitable for driving), and you need to press the air conditioning switch on the central control screen to adjust the air volume and angle, which is very inconvenient.
『 Final Remarks 』
To sum up, the changes to the new Lingdu L are actually very simple. The appearance is indeed a lot rounder, as long as you can accept its changes, it is recommended to buy white or black; the interior has changed a new design language, which is to keep up with the trend; as for the space, compared to the old model, it is obvious that the comfort is good; dynamically, the new model is more like a family car based on transportation, and it is difficult to match the identity of the coupe.
In addition, all of them are based on sports as a selling point, how does the new Lingdu L perform compared to Civic? In the near future, we will have a frontal PK of the two models, so stay tuned.
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