When the Kia Magentis first appeared on the UK market (to considerable media acclaim), it had one outstanding selling point. Although it cost about the same as entry-level rivals, it was available only with a smooth and reasonably powerful 2.5-litre V6 engine. None of the mainstream repmobile manufacturers could offer so much for so little.Barely two years on, the Magentis has already moved into its second generation, though the differences are mostly cosmetic. Most noticeable is the reworked front end, which is considerably fussier than it used to be, and seems to be heading in the direction that parent company Hyundai took with the second version of its Coupé, before beating a stylistic retreat amid howls of protest from people who thought it looked like a frog.The Magentis isn't anything like as extreme as that, though at first glance I don't think it's a great improvement. But what do I know? There is any case a more important mechanical consideration in the revised Magentis, namely the fact that the 2.5 V6 is now at the top of the range rather than actually being the range. The new car is also available with a four-cylinder, two-litre, 16-valve unit.This puts it smack up against a whole heap of top-selling rivals from Ford, Vauxhall, Nissan, Renault, Mazda, Volkswagen and others. Difficult territory. The immediate advantage of the Magentis is that it is very much cheaper than all of them. The two-litre car with the manual gearbox costs just £11,995, while the four-speed automatic with Tiptronic-style manual over-ride comes in at £13,195 (normally we concentrate on single models in CARkeys road tests, but we're making an exception here for reasons which will become apparent.)There are so few changes apart from the ones mentioned above that much of what we said about the original V6 still applies here. The materials used in the cabin are fairly low-spec, which is understandable given the price, but in general the Magentis is quite a comfortable machine, if not exactly a cossetting one. Room in the front and back is generous, making this a better way of transporting four adults than several of its rivals, and there's a decent-sized boot too.Kia has done some work on reducing interior noise levels, which is probably a result of bringing in the two-litre engine, since the V6 was already very quiet. Both transmission options offer good shift quality, the automatic in particular being smoother than I remember from the older car.Maximum power is 134bhp, which gives the manual a useful turn of speed, while the auto doesn't seem to lose out too badly. In fact, there seems to be slightly more power than the chassis can happily deal with, which brings me to the reason we've decided to write about both cars in one article.Neither of them is particularly clever in terms of either ride or handling. The old V6 rode well but seemed wayward on corners because of insufficient damping. The two-litre models are inferior in both respects. You don't have to drive either of them particularly hard before you start feeling uncomfortable, either because they feel wobbly through the bends or because they quickly become unsettled over bumps.This is particularly annoying because I kept feeling that there was a chassis of the quality of the Mazda6 lurking under there somewhere, and it would only take a couple of days' work on the suspension to release its full potential.And here's the really strange bit - the automatic is very much better than the manual in terms of road behaviour. Not ideal by any means, but definitely the preferred option. It's almost as if the Kia engineers over-compensated for the extra weight of the transmission and in the process came up with a much better compromise.There's always the argument that Kia customers don't need a saloon that handles like a sports car. Well, of course - but I'm sure that most of them can tell the difference between a car that rides and handles well, and one that does so indifferently.Equipment levels are pretty high, and the fact that the Magentis doesn't get a lot of the super-fancy electronic trickery available on the mainstream opposition is not a problem as far as I'm concerned. The two-litre spec is a little lower than that of the V6, but it's not missing much - climate control (although you do get air-conditioning), sunroof, pollen filter, cruise control and various pieces of real or artificial leather trim. If you want any of those, go for the V6 instead; you'll still be paying a lot less for them than you would elsewhere.I suspect there's a bit of pricing policy going on here. A two-litre with all that equipment would probably cost much the same as a V6 (£15,995), and the fact that the manual V6 has been dropped from the line-up seems to confirm that Kia didn't want nearly equally-priced cars with different engines. A pity, because I still like the idea of a very low-budget V6.I think I still prefer the V6, but the manual two-litre is exactly £4000 cheaper to buy and considerably more economical to run. And despite the inevitable question of depreciation, we're still talking about a Passat-sized car which costs less than many Polos. I don't know about you, but I can't help warming to that idea.Second opinion: No, the new grille isn't an improvement, but this is still a handsome car in its overall lines. Looks best with a good, deep exterior colour, though. As far as the interior is concerned, somebody should remove the "grey vinyl" chapter from the Kia design manual, or point out that the material could be made to look better at minimal, if any, extra cost. I think most Magentis owners will use their cars for a lot of the time as main road or motorway cruisers, and won't be much bothered about fast cornering, but it's a fair point about the difference between the manual and automatic versions. It wouldn't take much . . . The only snag about the H-Matic transmission is that, although it works very smoothly, it adds a tenth to the price of the car. But since the 2.0 LX is so reasonably priced anyway, I think I'd probably go for it. Ross Finlay. Engine 1997cc, 4 cylinders Power 134bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 32.8mpg / 204g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 11.5 seconds Top speed 129mph Price £11,995 Details correct at publication date
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