| Week at the Wheel | Kia Magentis 2.0 CDRi |

Inside & Out:

Have you ever been to Disneyworld in America? If you have, cancel that Magentis test drive, because Kia's saloon is exactly like every Buick something-or-other you've ever picked up from Alamo for your fortnight away. It even bongs exactly like a Florida holiday special when you do something it doesn't like, and it comes loaded with useful 'objects in the mirror are closer than they appear' stickers for both door mirrors.

The Magentis isn't criminally awful, it's just so interminably 'meh' that anyone with even a remote interest in the car as something more than an updated horse and cart couldn't possibly get excited about it; it's a three-box Korean saloon conceived, evidently, way before Kia found its moxie and began making stuff like the Soul and the Koup coupé. The Magentis is stuffed full of hollow grey plastic, last-decade switchgear and an overriding ambience of mothballs and Rich Tea biscuits.

However, the Magentis also secretes the distinct whiff of a product that might, somehow, last a long time; just because the indicator stalks click into place with all the tactility of a biro jammed into a polystyrene cup, it doesn't mean they won't remain that way for many years to come.

And it is big. Well, quite big. There's plenty of headroom and rear legroom, but it could do with a little more seat and wheel adjustment to suit drivers at the tall and short ends of the homosapien spectrum. The boot's not bad in terms of volume either, despite being hamstrung slightly by a narrow aperture.

Engine & Transmission:

In every way the Magentis has a drivetrain built for no more than to propel its occupants from one place to another. For some it will be a perfectly reasonable method of propulsion, in that the gearbox has a pleasant action and the engine turns the wheels in the same direction. However, it's not memorable.

The 2.0-litre CRDi diesel engine has all the hallmarks of an oil-burner from a bygone era. It's coarse, noisy and runs out of steam very low in the rev range, basically discouraging any sort of speed. It also has a bizarre, almost inexplicable 'torque disappearance' characteristic that manifests if you, heaven forbid, try to press on a bit. Pin the throttle to the floor after a gearchange; brace yourself for a noisy lump of torque and... Nothing. Pause. More nothing. Ah, there it is.

It's as though the throttle is so badly calibrated that there's an actual time delay on it. So, eventually, you just give up trying to drive it with any sort of fervour and settle back into Lionel Ritchie mode - easy like a Sunday morning.

Ride & Handling:

But the ride's more Limp Bizkit than Lionel - it keeps rolling. Back to our opening gambit, the ride and handling of Kia's saloon was ostensibly developed on a Florida freeway, with no heed paid to the perils of cracked British tarmac. At times, the Magentis rides less like a big saloon and more like a 4x4 sitting on rubber springs. And you can forget about handling too, because even if it would let you go quick, try taking a corner in this thing even moderately fast you'll be sitting on the door cards by the time you've straightened the wheels.

Still, target market wise, where 'soft' equals 'comfy', there's not a great deal to complain about.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

Any thoughts a buyer looking for the relatively low-volume exclusivity a Magentis will provide will have their budget aspirations brought into sharp focus by the £17,295 asking price. It is well equipped (you can really only specify metallic paint as an option) and it is quite economical, but at that money we'd be asking whether we could put up with winding the rear windows down in a Mondeo or a Skoda Superb instead. The latter car in particular is a shining example of how to do the 'space on a budget' thing properly, and although like-for-like the Skoda will undoubtedly cost a grand or two north of the Kia, it quite simply embarrasses the Korean in every way.

Overall:

Kia can, and does, do so much better than this. The recent facelift has dragged the Magentis closer to the 21st century, but it's still nowhere near the dizzy automotive heights of the year 2000. It's unfair to be too disparaging towards it though (despite the fact we just have been) because it's hardly embarrassing. In fact it's half decent; it's just that it is so utterly soulless that it can only appeal on price - a basis on which it still falls slightly short. At £2k cheaper it would make sense, but as it is, it's an anachronism.