Test Drive: KIA Cee'd 1.4 Face Lift - 2009

The Kia Cee'd recently had its first facelift. For a car launched just under two years ago, this may seem like Kia has rushed things a bit, especially since even in the fast-paced happenings of today's automotive world, a mid-cycle facelift usually comes after three or four years of continuous production.

Well, not many people know that things happen differently in Korea, where the distinction between a mid-cycle facelift and a totally new generation of a car model is so thin you could pass one for another and vice versa. In other words, albeit this may seem just a small nip and tuck on the front and a new design for the taillights it's actually a bit more.

A few months ago we got the chance to drive and give our opinion about a non-facelifted Cee'd equipped with the 1.6 gasoline engine. After arriving at a semi-optimistic conclusion about it we all agreed that this might, for the first time, be the little Korean car that could. That could what, you ask? That could actually be the thorn in Volkswagen Golf's spine, some people say.

Well, although the car left us with a very good impression, it became apparent that a few glitches shouldn't have been present in order for it to actually fight with the Golf "mano a mano". Believe it or not, as if Kia engineers had listened to our complaints in the first test, this early-facelift pretty much covered what was wrong with the Cee'd in the first place.

While the upgraded exterior design is obviously the first thing you notice upon seeing the new model, it's actually the inside bits which left the biggest impression. And no, we're not talking about the car's interior, but about the technical, untouchable, bits. Read on to find out what we actually thought about the revised version of the Kia Cee'd.

Seen from the distance, there's not much to be said about this early facelift. As we mentioned on our previous Kia test drive with the pre-facelift version of the Cee'd, the car continues to follow a very clean and understated design. There are some changes though, but things only become truly apparent after you get closer.

Sir May B. Bach's Opinion

You know, I sometimes get the feeling you guys have a very... ahem... odd sense of humor. From time to time, immediately after you put me in a 100+ grand Porsche sedan you make me drive a sub-15 grand... ahem... Korean substitute of a car. It's like eating the brain of a live monkey one day and... ahem... fish'n'chips from a garbage can the next.
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Unlike the exterior, the Cee'd's interior doesn't benefit from the same amount of novelty. That's not to say that it's identical to the previous one, of course. For one thing, the steering wheel has been replaced with a completely different-shaped one. The result is rather nice, we should say, since the new one not only looks better but it also feels better thanks to the better grip.

3D Interior Panorama

>> Click to view the interior panorama

In a totally surprising fashion and completely unlike the engine we tested on the other occasion, the little 1.4-liter four cylinder we drove now was very different in the way it behaved, especially compared with the official numbers. To make things clearer, if we only look at the specification sheet, this is an "upgraded" engine.

Lou Cheeka's Opinion

Heey... I remember the Kia Cee'd. Didn't we test a similar one a few months back? I don't remember if I liked it or not, but I can surely say this one is a looker. Those squinty headlights look like a Geisha's eyes, nice! Oh and did you notice the chrome strip on the front grill? Bling-bling!
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Since the city driving part of our test drive changed our perception about the revised engine for the better, we were expecting similar results in the "Open Road" category also. Turns out we were a bit mislead by the previous numbers, because the minute we arrived on the highway it became apparent that 90 horsepower are, after all... only 90 horsepower.

Mary's Opinion

OK, last time I learned that Kia is NOT a Japanese watchmaker, nor a sports apparel brand. I also became acquainted with the fact that Koreans aren't just awesome World of Warcraft players, but they also make pretty good cars (yes, I have a kid brother who's a WoW fanatic).
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Just like our previous Kia Cee'd test drive, the car we got to drive wasn't the best-equipped in the range, so keep in mind we're only going to talk about a medium-specced model. For starters, we didn't exactly enjoy the fabric trim on the seats, since it was quite on the cheap side.

Second of all, although the center console, the steering wheel and even the gear shift lever have been either revamped or completely replaced, the hard plastics on the interior door panels remained, also giving somewhat of a cheap feeling.

Other than that, the usual pleasant surprises remained the same as on the non-facelift Cee'd: gigantic interior space (for a car in this segment, naturally) and perfectly tuned suspension. We have to add the fact that the suspension wasn't identical, but actually a bit better from both the comfort and dynamics involved in driving.

The "see-saw" movements we experienced with the older Cee'd were completely gone while doing higher speeds, thanks to an even more sport-oriented tuning of the suspension. Oddly, the comfort felt when driving over rough pavements was kept the same, or even slightly improved, thanks to the new gas-shocks.

Unlike the 1.6-liter we experienced in our previous Kia Cee'd, we now had a much less powerful 1.4-liter four-cylinder mill at our disposal. Since this may seem like a step backwards, from a number of reasons, we'll have to set some things right from the start.

OK, so we're talking about the newest version of Kia's 1.4-liter mill, also equipped with Continuous Variable Valve Timing and 16 valves. Compared to its first iteration on the Cee'd, it now offers 19 horsepower less, while the torque figures remain the same. Why would Kia de-tune it, you ask? Well, we did too, and the answer makes pretty good sense.

First of all, despite having a rather good horsepower/displacement ratio, all those 109 ponies weren't available until quite high on the rev band. This may not be a downside when talking about a track-focused sports car, but remember we're talking about a family grocery-getter here.

Second of all, all that top end horsepower didn't help the fuel economy one bit, on the contrary. The new version of the engine not only has a dialed back horsepower, but also a totally different torque curve, therefore actually improving the engine in two areas: fuel economy and performance during city, low-rev driving.

The multi-link rear suspension, apart from not exactly being common in this segment, has now been improved with the addition of gas shocks. This translates into better control and a much better compromise between sportiness and comfort, making the Cee'd receive marks at least as good as the Volkswagen Golf, which is no mean feat for a Korean manufacturer that's far from being as established as the segment leader in Europe.

Earlier on we mentioned the fact that the Cee'd's interior doesn't feature THAT much of a difference compared to the old one, but we were talking mostly about the design. Although we still didn't get to drive a fully-decked model, our test car had a level of equipment similar to the non-facelift we drove before.

The headlights weren't equipped with xenon, but the facelift does bring some improvements to the standard halogen ones, which now have a magnifying glass. The windshield wipers still don't have an automatic rain sensor, while the headlights have to do without a light sensor as well. For a car costing around 13,000 euros, nobody is complaining, especially since the standard features are more than plenty for this level of equipment.

Sure, the seats are manually adjustable, but there are four electrically-operated windows with an automatic function. The seats weren't heated, but there was a dual-zone climate control system, unlike the single-zone which was available before.

The inboard-built radio CD-player has different buttons now, but it still has MP3 capabilities and an RDS radio with up to six preset stations. Both the AUX and the USB inputs are still tucked in at the base of the center console, making music pirates or iPod lovers happy everywhere.

The Cee'd was crash tested by the European NCAP organization almost two years ago, and as we were mentioning in our last Cee'd test drive, it received five full stars and a percentage to make some European brands envious. We're now talking about a facelift model, but underneath all the body panels everything is almost the same, or absolutely the same when it comes to safety.

So, it's the same stable upon impact passenger safety cell and the number of available airbags has remained the same: two dual-stage front airbags, two front side (and two rear side airbags as an option) and two head airbags that can offer protection to all outboard passengers.

Other than that, out test car was also equipped in standard with an anti-lock braking system and an electronic stability program which could be switched off from a button. All in all, the standard safety equipment is very good for this category of price.

Still, considering EuroNCAP has revised its crash testing procedures as of 2009, we don't know if a re-testing session would bring the Cee'd five whole stars again, since the ESP is standard only on some trim levels. As far as we're concerned, our test car had it in standard, so our marks are as high as on the old one in this chapter.

In our test drive with the previous version of the Cee'd we were praising how good the whole package was and the fact that it had managed to actually become a success story. Probably the first success story of a Korean car in the good ol' European continent, if we may say so. The problem then was the fact that it didn't quite rise up to completely beat Volkswagen Golf's supremacy in the segment. Now we can reveal the fact that the Cee'd facelift is closer to the Golf than ever before, especially considering it's keeping the same dumping price, the industry-leading 7-year warranty and the spacious (and now updated) interior.

Last time we didn't like the noisy and pretty lifeless 1.6-liter engine. This time around, with no less than 32 horsepower LESS, we actually enjoyed the 1.4-liter four banger under the hood, as long as we kept it in the city. No, this time we actually didn't quite dig some parts of the design, mainly the front grill. Not to say that it's a general opinion here, but most of us think the chrome strip around the grill actually cheapens the car instead of making it look more upscale.

The ugly bit about the Cee'd 1.4 facelift is probably the fact that you can mainly enjoy it in the city, since the 90 horsepower mill isn't enough to fully unleash the car on the highway or during a more... dynamic drive. Too bad, since the updated suspension actually gives you more confidence in pushing the car closer to its limits.