Car Review: Kia Ceed GT – made to measure for Goldilocks Blair

The nicest variant of the new generation Ceed is at home in the middle of the marketplace, says Sean O’Grady – not too this, not too that, but just right

The smooth, mildly tuned four-cylinder 1.6 litre 200 horsepower unit will take your Kia all the way to 143mph (Pictures by Kia)

The Kia Ceed GT is the Liberal Democrat of the car scene – sitting between the extremes, it is quite an attractive sort of offering, moderate in all ways, but not enjoying quite the success it deserves.

As a carefully badged “GT” it is explicitly not as rip-roaringly fast and sure-footed as, say, a VW Golf GTI and the like. But… on the other hand, it’s much more entertaining than its non-GT-tuned Ceed siblings. It’s a “warm hatch”, you see rather than a hot hatch.

(Kia)

Much the same goes for the brand. Now that Kia has grown up, with more sophisticated and appealing models particularly to European tastes, it is no longer a straightforward “budget” brand, as the likes of Dacia, SsangYong and MG are nowadays. (In this respect it has enjoyed parallel upmarket progress to that of its sister marque Hyundai, all part of the same giant South Korean industrial group.) In customer perceptions it is probably “up there” with Vauxhall and Skoda, just a sliver behind VW, but still obviously not quite nose-to-nose with BMW or Audi. (This is the case even though those “premium” brands are much more commonplace sights on the roads, so hardly, in that sense, exclusive.)

(Kia)

The Ceed also sits in the middle of the marketplace in size, being a conventional five-door hatch, smaller than most of the oversized SUVs that dominate the showrooms now.

So a very “centrist dad” car, you might say. All it needs is a “Bollocks to Brexit” sticker on the back and Tony Blair could go around in it. Kia do a very nice, lustrous shade of “Track Red”, by the way.

(Kia)

Me, I’ve always voted Lib Dem, and I’ve always liked Kia’s cars, and this one of my favourites. It’s the nicest variant of the new generation Ceed. This means, like all the other Ceeds, it’s been designed in Germany with a distinctly Audi-esque look to it, built in Slovakia (which may soon be making more cars than the UK, no further comment) with engineering and quality control from South Korea. That means it also gets a 7-year warranty and generally good reports for its reliability and durability (though still, I sense, a little behind the Japanese brands on reliability).

The spec

Kia Ceed GT

Price: £25,535 (as tested, range starts at £18,295)

Engine: 1.6l 4-cylinder petrol; 6-speed manual

Power output (bhp@rpm): 201@5,000

Top speed (mph): 143

0 to 60 (secs): 7.2

Fuel economy (mpg): 38.2

CO2 emissions (g/km): 163

Most of the Ceeds, if I’m to be frank, tend a little towards the sober, conservative, dare I say bland approach to interior and exterior features. Usually I’d still opt for the cheapest model in any range – because you get most of the latest engineering, tech and safety features, and normally manufactures and dealers try to charge much too large a premium for the fancier versions. But the Ceed GT almost justifies the extra expense, because those little extras it boasts just lift the car so much.

There’s the smooth, mildly tuned four-cylinder 1.6 litre 200 horsepower unit that will take your Kia all the way to 143mph (if you can find somewhere to do that legally and safely), and they’ve even added a rorty popping audio soundtrack to complement its natural “song”. The six-speed gearbox is nice and smooth, though it could do with a shorter throw. And the Kia could maybe deal with a bit more power and a bit more pace – but let’s not forget its “Goldilocks” aspirations: not too fast, not too slow, just right. The only disappointment is the fuel consumption, which is certainly on the heavy side of moderate – about 38mpg overall is not so competitive these days.

(Kia)

The red stitching in the cabin and the comprehensive array of kit also lends the interior a classier sort of feel, once again above the mainstream but not as special as you’d find in, say, a Mercedes-Benz A-Class (also a more expensive package, of course). The Ceed GT ticked all of my usual boxes – heated seats with no fewer than three different settings for the (c)old bottom, heated steering wheel and an easy-to-use cruise control system. Like a lot of new cars these days the touchscreen menu for something as complicated as the massive menu of the DAB radio stations is a bit too tricky for comfort or safety, even if most of the controls are on the steering wheel. I found the satnav not quite simple enough either.

(Kia)

Most of all I liked the red centre caps on the 18-inch diamond cut alloy road wheels. It must cost Kia about a fiver to fit this “exclusive” design element to their flagship hatchback, but it does the trick.

(Kia)

I’d be won over by the Ceed GT if I didn’t know that you can find some of the premium makes (eg BMW 1-series) it competes with for about the same, or less than the Kia’s list price via various online car dealers, and Ceeds seem to be less subject to aggressive discounting. There seems to be a bit of a glut of certain famous brands out there at the moment, and some ripe bargains to be harvested. Maybe something to do with Brexit? These are strange days, after all.