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Different sides to the same coin

SINGAPORE — A heart transplant can give a person a new lease of life, but the same often applies to cars. Take the Kia Carens, for instance.

SINGAPORE — A heart transplant can give a person a new lease of life, but the same often applies to cars. Take the Kia Carens, for instance.

The seven-seat Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) failed to dent sales charts here when it was equipped with a 2-litre petrol engine, but maybe things may be different with a new, 1.7-litre diesel powerplant under the bonnet.

The new engine is paired with a twin-clutch, seven-speed transmission. It makes the Carens noticeably more perky, giving it the sort of acceleration that MPVs aren’t supposed to have, while cutting the Carens’ appetite for fuel by one-third, to a claimed average of 5.2 litres per 100km.

And since diesel is cheaper than petrol by about 44 per cent, for every dollar you would have spent fuelling up the old petrol Carens, the diesel model would cost you just 37 cents. Rev the engine hard and you can hear it’s a diesel, but it doesn’t clatter too badly.

WELL-EQUIPPED WAGON

While the new engine makes the Carens better to drive, the car is largely unchanged inside. You get a fair bit of real estate for the money, but the rearmost seats are best reserved for children. Headroom is too tight back there for a grown person, and there are no air-conditioning vents.

The equipment list is generous, offering convenient features like keyless entry and engine start, automatic wipers and a Bluetooth sound system with steering wheel-mounted controls.

Upgrading from the basic EX spec to the SX model costs S$5,000, but adds four airbags (for six in total), a panoramic glass roof, 17-inch wheels (up from 16-inch rims) and snazzier LED tail lamps. The SX pack is probably worth getting for the airbags alone.

The only thing missing is GPS navigation, but you can add a simple system for S$279, or a fancy one with a reverse camera for S$2,000.

What’s not listed on the spec sheet is how the Kia would probably serve as a dependable workhorse. Last year, the influential JD Power and Associates Initial Quality Survey found that (in the USA at least) Kias had fewer defects when new than cars from any other brand, except Porsche.

Yet, people somehow continue to associate the brand with low cost and low quality. Perhaps what’s needed for the Carens to succeed is not just a heart transplant, but for buyers to have a change of heart about Kia.

KIA CARENS 1.7 CRDI

Engine: 1,685cc, in-line four turbodiesel, 141hp, 340Nm

Performance: 189kmh, 0-100kmh: 12.0s, 5.2L/100km, 127g/km CO2

Price: From S$109,999 with COE

On Sale: Now

PROS: Perky new engine, well-equipped and well-built

CONS: Third row seating is uncomfortable

SINGAPORE — Meet the BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer. Fancy name aside, you might be surprised to find out it does exactly the same thing as the Kia Carens.

BMW is associated with rear-wheel driven, premium automobiles but the 2 GT marks a big step sideways for the German brand. It’s the car maker’s first seven-seat multi-purpose vehicle (MPV).

It’s part of the brand’s efforts to crack the less expensive, but still premium, market with front-wheel driven, compact cars.

Luxury-branded MPVs are few on the ground — the closest comparison could be made with the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, but that only has room for five. But it should be noted that the BMW isn’t priced far off from comparable non-luxury badged offerings from Citroen or Volkswagen — though it’s still more expensive.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF DRIVING MACHINE

Despite being a BMW, the first thing to address is that its driving dynamics won’t exactly set your world alight. Still, it handles very well for a family van. Compared to the Kia, it’s even more obvious to occupants that the car’s powered by a 1.5-litre turbodiesel engine, but the BMW’s powertrain is smooth, faultless and impossibly miserly with fuel.

It’s also a bona fide MPV: The third row can fit full-sized adults, the second row seats (with folding, adjustable tray tables) are adjustable and can even be folded with a button in the boot, revealing a cavernous 1,905-litres of space.

There are also enough niceties to see where your money’s been spent: Active safety systems like lane-keeping assist, a full-length sunroof, automatic tailgate, BMW’s iDrive infotainment system with navigation and connected features, LED headlights are only part of a comprehensive list of standard features.

It may cost more than half as much as the Kia but think of it like a Samsung Gear vs Apple Watch face-off. The latter might make you more likely to roll up your cuffs (not for work) but they both do the same thing, essentially. Thankfully the 216d Gran Tourer isn’t like the frivolous, super-expensive, gold-plated edition of the Apple Watch, since the basis of its higher asking price is firmly grounded in concrete usability.

BMW 216D GRAN TOURER

Engine: 1,496cc, 12V, inline 3, turbodiesel, 116bhp, 270Nm

Performance: 192km/h, 0-100km/h 10.9 seconds, 4.4L/100km, 116g/km CO2

Price: S$162,800 with COE

On Sale: Now

PROS: A real MPV: spacious, utile, feature-filled, drives decently

CONS: More expensive than non-luxury Continental competitors

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