The Magentis reminds me of the way medium-sized family cars - repmobiles, if you will - used to be back in the early 1990s. As the happy owner of just such a car, I mean this as a compliment.Manufacturers were very good at this sort of thing back then. The Ford Mondeo, Nissan Primera, Toyota Carina, Vauxhall Cavalier and so on of that period were not particularly interesting; in fact, you could lump them all under the title of "boring cars", but they were good boring cars - unpretentious, useful, and in most cases rather nice to drive.The Magentis is like that. It has no outstanding features whatever, though it does have several good ones. It has a pleasing, if undramatic, shape, and for its overall size it's quite spacious inside. The amount of room for rear passengers, in particular, is very impressive, and a luggage capacity of 420 litres is decent enough for the class, though some potential UK customers will probably be put off by the fact that it's a saloon rather than a hatch.It also has a lightness of touch which most of the opposition has lost. Back in 1993 you could have a lot of fun with the handling of a Cavalier, say, or a Mondeo, whose modern equivalents feel distinctly more stodgy (even more so in the case of the Primera, which was transformed from a marvel of cornering poise to a bar of soap in less than a decade). Nowadays only the Mazda6 continues to demonstrate that a car of this type can still offer driving kicks.The second-generation Magentis isn't as good as the Mazda, and like some other Kias it has a tendency to front-end bounciness which can make it feel like an over-driven MPV. In fact it shares the same platform as the Carens MPV - and not, as before, the Hyundai Sonata - but that shouldn't have anything to do with the bouncing, which eventually limits both the ride quality and the handling ability. Before you've reached that point, though, it can be driven with a light touch, allowing itself to be fed into corners with less effort than most of the opposition.One of the few things about the Magentis - in the form tested here, at least - that can't be compared with anything found on an early 90s car is the 138bhp two-litre CRDi turbo diesel engine, introduced to make the car more appealing to fleet customers in particular. It's found in every other Kia apart from the Picanto and works well in all of them, and it does so here too, producing decent performance along with the potential for 47mpg economy. There's a two-litre petrol too, and a 2.7-litre V6, but the diesel has to be the unit of choice.And that's funny, because as recently as five years ago the original Magentis was available only with the V6. Things have changed in a big way since then. Kia used to describe the first Magentis as a luxury car, even though it had an economy price. There was no alternative to that smooth but thirsty engine, and Kia even went so far as to put a grille that looked as if it might have been half-inched from a Cadillac in front of the radiator.In this new version, that grille has gone, and so have most of the references to luxury. This is probably just as well, since you're not going to find many luxurious appointments in a car costing less than £16,000. Although it's being said that the seats and trim are "specifically developed for European tastes and driving styles", they're not particularly special. There's nothing actually wrong with the seats, which are comfortable enough, but the trim is quite plasticky and not out of the ordinary for a large car that doesn't cost very much.But the Magentis is so amiable that you don't worry about this after the first few miles. Instead, I found that it was a perfectly acceptable mode of everyday transport, not delightful in any particular way but generally satisfying - the epitome, in other words, of the early 90s boring car.The level of equipment is reasonable, with little complain about, though you can get more by spending an extra £1500 for the LS trim. You have to do this if you want a steering wheel that's adjustable for reach, rather than merely for tilt, which is rather odd - I would resent having to pay £1500 for this, and I don't see why it isn't available on both versions.LS cars also get a substantial number of bits and pieces which are not part of the GS set-up, such as leather upholstery, rear parking sensors, a trip computer, cruise control (for the diesel and V6 only), heated and powered front seats, traction control, ESP and a different kind of switch for the heater fan, among other things. I suspect that the LS diesel would be better value at £16,995 than the GS is at £15,495, but in the end that's down to personal choice.I wasn't especially excited by the prospect of having a Magentis on test, and my heart remained unbroken when it was taken away, but in between I enjoyed having it, and I do miss it slightly now that it's gone. If you need a simple, useful, forgettable saloon car in your life, that's as good a recommendation as any. Engine 1991cc, 4 cylinders Power 138bhp Fuel/CO2 47.1mpg / 162g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 10.4 seconds Top speed 125mph Price £15,495 Details correct at publication date
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