Monday 28th January 2013

Kia Pro_Cee'd - details

Kia joins the hot hatch party with a GT version of the new Pro_Cee'd

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So, we already knew Kia's new Pro_Cee'd and Cee'd GT would pack a 204hp, 1.6-litre turbo, come in three- (Pro_...) and five-door (Cee'd) formats. But, bar some teaser sketches, we didn't know what it would look like.

New Pro_Cee'd three-door spawns GT version

Rather smart, it turns out. Ahead of its Geneva debut in March Kia has released a batch of official pics of the new three-door Pro_Cee'd in its new fire-breathing GT spec, red brake calipers and all. Fire breathing? OK, that's perhaps a little strong. But having conquered the style and reliability high ground thanks to, respectively, designer and now big boss Peter Schreyer and those famous long warranties Kia clearly now fancies adding desirability to the reasons you might choose a Cee'd over the more established rivals.

Even in standard form the new Cee'd is a handsome thing, Schreyer's now trademark 'Tiger's nose' (we think this probably should be in the Viz Profanisaurous somewhere but can't quite think why) heading up a confident, sculpted body with great visual strength and balance. Aforementioned red calipers, Recaro seats and a host of other 'sporty' baubles tick all the boxes too. Will we look beyond the badge though? As ever, that's going to be big question but, on paper at least, the GT has enough oomph to live up to the name. And, if nothing else, promise some significantly reduced times on Top Gear celebs' leaderboard. Still reasonably priced though? We'll see about that.

Red brake calipers - clearly fast in that case

Has Kia got the chassis know-how to go head to head with established European rivals though? The official line is downplayed, 'it's a warm hatch, not a hot hatch' humility, which is probably a sensible tactic given that if they were going the whole hog they'd be expecting to outplay the likes of the Focus ST, Megane 265 and impending Golf GTI at the first go.

Rather Kia has taken aim at some (slightly) softer targets like the Scirocco and Astra GTC, the VW available with a 210hp 2.0-litre while the most potent non-VXR Astra packs 180hp from a turbo 1.6. The Scirocco costs - at a bare minimum - £27.5K while the Astra in SRI trim starts from a rather more reasonable £22K. 204hp driving through a six-speed manual Kia is promising 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds, which doesn't tell us a whole lot but it should at least be what we'd consider 'brisk' if not actually fast.

UK sales of the three-door Pro_Cee'd GT start in the summer, the five-door Cee'd GT to follow later in the year. Expect more pricing and spec details around Geneva.

 

[mrclav]

Kia continue to step their game up against the Europeans - this car reminds me of a Focus. Not my cup of tea but I think they'll do well with this.

[TheRacingSnake]

I keep seeing cars about and thinking they look very nice and being surprised to see they are Kias.

Skoda changed it around and so did the mx 5.

[DanielJames]

mrclav said:

Kia continue to step their game up against the Europeans - this car reminds me of a Focus. Not my cup of tea but I think they'll do well with this.

Looks so much better than the current focus - probably the 3dr lines

[kambites]

It's a bit generic looking, but certainly not offensive to the eye. Nice to see another manufacturer pushing into the sportier end of the market.

[va1o]

Kias are getting good but the prices are now too high, they aren't really a budget brand anymore IMO. This looks OK but at the moment the best mid-size cars seem to be those based on the VAG MQB platform.

[Greg 172]

I'd say it looks far more 3-door Megane/Astra than a Focus. I'm impressed.

[Ferosferio]

The overall shape may be a tad generic but that is one good looking hatch.

Among a plethora of basic Euro-boxes, Kia seem to be doing pretty well but it remains to be seen if their attempt at a hot/warm hatch will tempt their target audience away from the established segment leaders. Fingers crossed for them, it would be nice to see it succeed.

[enroz]

If they get the pricing right, it should sell well.

[AA88]

With a 0-60 of 7.9, I assume it weighs an awful lot?!

[kambites]

AA88 said:

With a 0-60 of 7.9, I assume it weighs an awful lot?!

The petrol 5-door apparently weighs about 1260kg, which is fairly typical for this segment.

The number does seem rather high, though. I suppose it implies that it needs two gear changes to get to 60, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[ehyouwhat]

I have a friend who bought the previous generation of Pro_Cee'd last year, during a Kia finance promotion. He got a top-spec 1.6 diesel model with leather, nav and reversing camera, bluetooth, etc for £250 a month (PCP) with £1.5k down. The build quality seems fine - certainly no worse than the latest Focus or Astra - and the one or two quality niggles he has had over the last eight months or so have been dealt with efficiently by Kia.

His only continuing gripes have been an issue with the iPod control function (apparently Kia are releasing a firmware update sometime this year), and the fuel consumption being poorer than expected; we went on a 600-mile road trip last October and, even after 10k miles of 'run-in' time, and the steadiest of driving on A-roads and motorways, the car won't creep over 50mpg.

Overall though it seems a nice motor and a nice overall package (finance, warranty, etc). I think, with the likely step-up in quality for the newer models - and with a good suite of finance deals - the car could do really well.

[Alias218]

I like that quite a lot. Considering Kia (and Hyundai for that matter) were turning out some outrageously bad cack not 10 years ago, I think this marks a considerable step in their efforts to become more mainstream and highly regarded. I'd certainly have a nose around one of these if I was in the market.

As for the higher prices - unfortunately with better materials and engineering (read: higher development costs) comes higher sticker prices. You can't have your cake and all that.

[Chrisw666]

AA88 said:

With a 0-60 of 7.9, I assume it weighs an awful lot?!

Probably more gearing than weight. Plenty of cars are quicker than their 0-60 times suggest.

[Gorbyrev]

DanielJames said:

mrclav said:

Kia continue to step their game up against the Europeans - this car reminds me of a Focus. Not my cup of tea but I think they'll do well with this.

Looks so much better than the current focus - probably the 3dr lines

+1 - it also looks like the design of one man and not a committee. Mk3 Focus should be delivered in a paper bag compared with the integrity of design seen in the Mk1 IMHO. Even the old Proceed looked good. White one caught my eye on display in a Nottingham shopping centre a few years back. Looked great with dark blue Viper stripes.

[off_again]

va1o said:

Kias are getting good but the prices are now too high, they aren't really a budget brand anymore IMO. This looks OK but at the moment the best mid-size cars seem to be those based on the VAG MQB platform.

Yes, I agree - too expensive for a brand that WAS built on being cheap. For a mid-to-low spec Ceed with the 1.6 diesel engine, you are looking at £17.5k to £19k! Thats a lot of money. To put that into perspective though, a mid-spec Golf is going to cost you £19k-£20k for the same type of engine. But since the Golf is seen as a premium and its supposed to be the equivalent of £1k-£2k more in long-term value.... not sure myself, but its touching Golf money.

Oh, and driven the new Golf - very impressed, a very good car.

[va1o]

ehyouwhat said:

I have a friend who bought the previous generation of Pro_Cee'd last year, during a Kia finance promotion. He got a top-spec 1.6 diesel model with leather, nav and reversing camera, bluetooth, etc for £250 a month (PCP) with £1.5k down.

That sort of deal isn't anything special though, you can easily get a 2.0 TDI Golf or A3 for that kind of money. Goes back to my point that they need to be cheaper than the competition IMO.

[kambites]

va1o said:

...Goes back to my point that they need to be cheaper than the competition IMO.

I don't see why they need to be cheaper than their direct competition, they just need to not be more expensive. I think they're priced pretty much the same as the Leon/Octavia/Focus/Astra, which seems reasonable enough to me.

[Mr Gear]

va1o said:

Kias are getting good but the prices are now too high, they aren't really a budget brand anymore IMO.

You can still get a brand new Kia for £93 a month on lease. It's a Picanto though, which isn't the same quality as the Ceed.

[TheBigUnit]

It's a great looking car, as one might reasonably expect from Peter Schreyer, I just hope it's good to drive. This car will really go under the microscope, because the press will see it as a massive nail in the coffin of the European mainstream manufacturers if a Korean company can produce a car that is desirable.

[kambites]

TheBigUnit said:

It's a great looking car, as one might reasonably expect from Peter Schreyer, I just hope it's good to drive. This car will really go under the microscope, because the press will see it as a massive nail in the coffin of the European mainstream manufacturers if a Korean company can produce a car that is desirable.

I'm sure people said the same about the first truly competitive Japanese cars, yet the Europeans seem to still be going.