Sales king re-evolution, test drive Wuling Hongguang S1 luxury model

[Autohome Original Test Drive] Wuling Hongguang series models, as the best-selling models on the planet, have always been concerned by a large number of users. SAIC-GM-Wuling Motors launched an upgraded version of Hongguang S in August this year – Hongguang S1, which is a model positioned between Hongguang S and Baojun 730. Compared with Hongguang S, it has a lot of improvement in appearance, interior and driving quality. Overall, it has a good performance. For its appearance and interior, friends who pay attention to this car have already gained a considerable understanding of it (click here to see my colleague Zhou Churan’s real picture of Hongguang S1). I believe that many friends who have not yet tested it must be curious about the performance of this car’s driving quality. So today, let’s take a look at how this car works.

As mentioned earlier, the Hongguang S1 is upgraded from the Hongguang S, which has improved the appearance, interior and power smoothness. Overall, the appearance of the Hongguang S1 is more fashionable, so it can be applied to more occasions, making it not only a commercial model that can only "work and pull goods", but also a step towards a more versatile MPV model.

Compared with the Hongguang S, the front face design of the Hongguang S1 is obviously more dynamic and fashionable. In the front face design, the Hongguang S1 uses the same color as the body to extend into the shield-shaped forward air barrier, while the lower air intake barrier has also been redesigned to look flatter. With dynamic fog lamp components, the Hongguang S1 looks more dynamic than the Hongguang S.

The Hongguang S1 series is equipped with lenticular low beams and folding remote control keys as standard, and the configuration is more high-grade, but the lowest model is still equipped with manually adjusted rearview mirrors. However, for models of the Hongguang S1 class, such a configuration is already quite kind. In terms of tires, the Hongguang S1 luxury model uses Kumho’s 195/60 R15 tires, and the low-end model uses the lower-priced Linglong tires, but the Hongguang S1 series comes standard with 15-inch 16-spoke aluminum alloy wheels.

In terms of body size, the Hongguang S1 has some changes on the basis of the Hongguang S. Its body height is lower, while the width is increased by 41mm, which makes the lateral visual effect of the body better. The wheelbase is the same as the Hongguang S, 2720mm, which is 30mm smaller than the Baojun 730 and maintains a certain difference from the Baojun 730.

The lower edge of the rear window of the Hongguang S1 luxury model has added chrome decorative strips. It is precisely because of this design that the rear window of the luxury model cannot be opened sideways, which is different from the standard model and comfort. However, in actual driving, although the rear window cannot be opened, the comfort of the third row passengers is not greatly affected.

The rear details of the Hongguang S1 have been redesigned, especially the taillight assembly, with a horizontal split taillight for better visual effect. The luxury rear also has 4 reversing radar and reversing imaging system, which is quite abundant in this class of models.

● Interior: fine design, good sense of grade

The interior design of the Hongguang S1 highlights the skills of Wuling designers, and there is an improvement on the basis of the Hongguang S. It uses an upper and lower two-color design, and the model we tested uses an upper brown and lower beige interior color scheme. Although the center console and door panels are made of the most basic hard plastic, the overall look is more refined and the sense of grade has also been improved.

The steering wheel of the Hongguang S1 adopts a three-spoke design and uses a small number of chrome-plated decorative parts as embellishments, which looks relatively simple. It is also equipped with electronic steering power, which is more careful in configuration. And it also has a monochrome LCD screen in the center of the dashboard, which looks very high-grade.

The luxury central control entertainment system also supports the mobile phone screen mapping function, allowing Android or Apple phones to project the screen onto the central control screen in the car through the HDMI interface, making it more convenient to operate and enhancing the convenience and comfort of using the car.

Dynamic test drive: the improvement of driving quality is more obvious

The 1.5L P-TEC DVVT engine on the Hongguang S1 has a maximum horsepower of 112 horsepower and a maximum torque of 147 Nm

The engine has also been optimized for ride comfort, and a dual-mass flywheel has been replaced inside the engine. The vibration of the engine during operation is smaller than that of Hongguang S, and the overall driving texture has been improved significantly.

In terms of gearboxes, the Hongguang S1 is still equipped with a 5MT manual gearbox, but the gearbox has been redesigned to improve the shifting texture compared to the 5MT manual gearbox used on the Hongguang S, with clear gears and smoother gear shifts.

This car still uses a front-and-rear-drive design. The gearbox switches smoothly after being readjusted, the clutch pedal travel is very short, and the engine is biased towards low-speed power output adjustment, so the power output is quite smooth at starting and low-speed driving, with good performance.

Due to the use of a dual-mass flywheel in the engine, the engine has better smoothness at medium and low speeds, and has improved in terms of operation refinement compared to the engine used on the Hongguang S model. When driving at medium and low speeds, the engine vibration phenomenon on the previous Hongguang S was significantly reduced.

For the Hongguang S1, the speed of 80km/h can be said to be the speed commonly used in medium and high-speed driving. When cruising at 5th gear and 80km/h, the engine speed is maintained at around 2500rpm, and the engine noise at this time is clear, but still within an acceptable range.

And when it comes to noise, the noise control of the Hongguang S1 has been significantly improved compared to the Hongguang S, which can also be seen from the engineers’ efforts on the NVH aspect of this car. However, we can still clearly hear the obvious noise from the engine, rear axle and tires when driving at medium and high speeds. But for this price and this class of models, even its sibling Hongguang S, its noise control performance is quite good.

In terms of chassis suspension, the Hongguang S1 uses a front McPherson independent suspension/rear coil spring semi-independent suspension, which has some differences from the leaf spring rear suspension used on the Hongguang S. However, in order to be able to accommodate the need to load more goods and take into account the production cost, its suspension is set to be relatively hard, and the fine vibration of the road surface will be clearly transmitted into the car. If you encounter large potholes or ups and downs, the beating of the vehicle is also more obvious. If it is an MPV, then the chassis is not the strength of the Hongguang S1, but for its price and main purpose, it has performed quite well.