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Buying bang for your buck: Chrysler 300 and Kia Cadenza

In today's car market a Chrysler or Kia with a base price of $30K can easily become $45K, just by checking a few random boxes. You can do the math – that extra $15K will cost you $300/month over the life (and death) of a 60-month payment book. If your goal is only to get places in a stylish sedan capable of staying with traffic, you can keep your outlay far closer to the base price of these cars. Although they may not appear on many shopping lists, there's a lot to like in the lower-spec versions of both Chrysler's 300 and Kia's upscale Cadenza. The Chrysler is relatively ancient among current product platforms, while the Cadenza was Kia's first upmarket initiative, now supplemented by the larger K900 and the fall debut of Kia's Stinger GT. But you will not find a better transportation value in a Kia showroom than its underappreciated Cadenza. Here's a closer look at both: CHRYSLER 300: This car is a testament to all that was right about the DaimlerChrysler merger of the late '90s. At the time of the 300 introduction, elements of its platform were taken from the Mercedes E-Class, and with proportions suggesting a mix of stately American and neoclassic German, the 300 continues to offer a "just right" mix of respectable accessibility. The guy owning the package store could "Dub" it, while Miss Daisy would have been eminently comfortable in its back seat. In 2017, the 300 is an outlier in the sedan landscape. This is a large four-door with rear-wheel drive (all-wheel drive is optional). But in a sea of Accord this or Avalon that, the 300 impresses as an almost-relevant update of sedans in your murky past. The attachment to Chrysler products of 50 years ago goes beyond the Hemi that might be under the hood; it's the entire vibe of a car company trying hard to distinguish itself in today's marketplace. Despite numerous updates, the Chrysler still seems last century, and that's just fine with older drivers with the cash – or credit rating – to consider a $40K car. Behind the wheel, Chrysler's 300 exhibits all we love about American motoring. You would never confuse the handling with 'crisp,' but it's competent, while the ride is almost sublime. This is a car that in fully-loaded form deserves a Hemi, but the V6 is generally unobtrusive, and might net you 30 mpg on the highway. The conventional, 8-speed automatic goes about its business exactly as an automatic should.

2020 Kia Soul EV First Drive Review | EZ to like

SEOUL, South Korea – The 2020 Kia Soul is the third iteration of the boxy little crossover and the second generation of the battery-powered variant, the Soul EV. While the 2020 Soul overall is mildly upgraded compared to the outgoing model, the Soul EV makes a major leap where it counts: with a new powertrain that more than doubles the stated range to an impressive 243 miles. The new 2020 Kia Soul EV scraps the previous 30-kWh battery for a new, more energy-dense 64-kWh unit, shared with the Hyundai Kona Electric. The battery pack feeds a motor that now makes 201 horsepower – also shared with the Kona Electric, and producing the same horsepower figure as the Soul Turbo. It spins out 291 pound-feet of torque, which is immediately available underfoot. That's enough to chirp the front tires, and it instantly squirts the Soul ahead in the urban cut-and-thrust. It's also plenty powerful enough for high-energy merging onto the freeway. Kia estimates a 0-to-60-mph time of 7.2 seconds. The battery is replenished via standard Combined Charging System (CCS) DC fast charging capability, with the port now behind a flap in the front grille insert. The CCS can handle up to a 100-volt feed at a public charger – should you find one, it can top up the battery (from 20 to 80 percent) in as little as 42 minutes. With a more common 240-volt source, a depleted battery can be replenished in five to six hours – rather than 63 (!) plugging into a standard 120-volt outlet. Owners definitely will want to install a charger at home, and Kia has partnered with Amazon to sell three Kia-recommended 240-volt chargers: A 40-amp Bosch from $764, a 40-amp JuiceBox from $549, and a 32-amp ChargePoint at $699, although others brands and models can be used. Buyers in northern climes will want to check out the Cold Weather Package, which supplements the standard heated seats with a heated steering wheel, upgrades the climate control to a more efficient heat pump, and also adds the capability to heat the battery (when the car is plugged in) for better range in cold conditions. How energetically the car responds to a prod of the accelerator depends on which of the four drive modes you're in: Sport, Normal, Eco, or Eco+. Sport unsurprisingly was our favorite in a half-day drive in and around Seoul. Some drivers might find it too snappy, and of course it also drains electrons the fastest. In Normal mode the car is still spry, while in Eco and Eco+ one really needs to leg the go-pedal.

Hyundai, Kia to put solar panels on vehicle roofs

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that future Hyundai and Kia models will be equipped with solar panels capable of generating electricity as a way to increase fuel-efficiency and range and lower CO2 emissions. Hyundai says the solar panels will feature in the rooftops or hoods of select vehicles "after 2019" and will supplement traditional internal combustion, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. The parent group said it's developing three different types of solar roof charging systems comprised of a solar panel, controller and battery. The first generation will be a silicon solar panel system mounted to the rooftops of hybrid models and capable of charging 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day, depending on weather conditions and other factors, starting as early as 2020. The second generation involves a semi-transparent solar roof system applied to a panoramic sunroof and capable of charging an electric-vehicle battery or a battery mounted on a gasoline engine. Hyundai says the latter configuration will help it increase vehicle exports, since solar-equipped ICE vehicles will be able to adhere to regulations limiting CO2 emissions. A third-generation system is being tested right now. It will add solar production capability in the hood and roof of EVs – but the companies don't provide more detail than that at this moment. "In the future, various types of electricity-generating technologies, including the solar charging system, will be connected to vehicles," said Jeong-Gil Park, executive vice president of engineering design at Hyundai Motor Group. "This will enable them to develop from a passive device that consumes energy to a solution that actively generates energy. The paradigm of the vehicle owner will shift from that of a consumer to an energy prosumer." To date, solar vehicle charging technology has mostly been for light-duty tasks, like cooling off the interior or trickle-charging a conventional battery, such as the system offered in the previous Nissan Leaf. Systems that do more than this have typically come with a very steep pricetag for modest capabilities. Panasonic has developed a 180-watt solar roof available for the Japanese version of the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that is capable of adding up to 3.7 miles of range per day – at an unspecified (as of this writing) but undoubtedly high cost. Elon Musk, unsurprisingly, has also discussed making a solar roof optional for the Tesla Model 3.