KIA Cee'd Review

Europe is a very conservative continent. Well, not the continent itself but the people who live on it, naturally. Taken with a grain of salt, the aforementioned “conservativeness” can also be applied to the type of cars people buy. Never before has a Korean model caused such a stir on the European market, which is known for not easily accepting foreign brands in a mainstream way.

The Kia Cee'd is the first model to actually succeed in inserting itself among the European all-stars in almost every market it began activating since 2007. Some people say it's the industry-unequaled 7-year warranty. Others say it's the fact that it was designed by Europeans, for Europeans (yes, we're well aware of the reference, so another FUBU pun is coming later).

We were first struck by its somewhat odd name, but that was only until we learned what it actually means. Contrary to some (popular) belief, it isn't a misspelling of the product that comes out of the ripened ovule of the angiosperm and gymnosperm plants. Apparently, the model's project name was ED all along its design process – with the E coming from European, while the D came from Design. That would have totally made sense, but some marketing head honchos at Kia decided to also add the C for Community and the E for Europe.

In other words, the car was actually called the Kia Community of Europe European Design. Obviously it wouldn't have been very bright on their behalf to name a car like this, so they stuck with Ceed instead. Probably after a few other brainstorms, the name became Cee'd to be even more catchy. Well, after three days of seeing what the Cee'd can do, we can only say that we kind of agree with everyone praising this model, although not in every aspect.

Designed by a team which was lead by a Hungarian named Miklos Kovacs, the Cee'd couldn't have looked more European. Still, it does keep a bit of an Asian flavor among those stealthy, clean lines. Sure, some people even go as far as to say that the side profile is a bit similar to the previous generation Mazda 3 or the Nissan Murano, while others can almost swear that the headlights remind them of the Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse more then they should.

From our point of view, this a simple, clean-designed compact, destined to appeal to as many average car-buyers as possible. On the plus side, it is a bit aggressive but it mostly has “friendly lines”, which shouldn't scare the family men (and women) away.

On the downside, apart from the taillights vertigo design when on, everything else is pretty much boring looking, with nothing in particular to give you some eye-candy. This is probably one of the reasons for its major appeal. It does nothing wrong, so it manages to integrate perfectly in the stereotypical European compact car choice.

As for the design details, we somehow got the idea that they look like blank spots, designed to wait peacefully for the facelift coming this autumn. Until then, the Cee'd's exterior design is pretty much like the epitome of blandness in the compact class, along with the Toyota “I'm falling asleep” Corolla. Even the VW Golf is more butch in this segment now.

Of course, on the whole, the Cee'd is as far from “ugly” as it is from “interesting”, and obviously the “bullet” gray color of our test car didn't make it more exciting.

We had heard a lot about the Cee'd's roomy interior with soft-touch plastics, and plus, our photographer drives a nearly similar model – albeit differently equipped - so our opinion on the matter should be pretty well formed. Well, turns out it actually is.

The best part about the inside of the Cee'd is its gargantuan space. Don't except to fit five American football players with their gear on in there, but five – casually dressed – people can easily fit in. This is probably the first time when we've experienced something like this in a model that is supposed to battle against other hatches in the European compact segment.

The legroom, the headroom, everything is specifically designed as to fit each occupant just perfectly. On top of this, there are small storage places everywhere in the car, either hidden or in plain sight. This was a very nice surprise since it gives the car a lot of points in the user-friendliness area. The luggage compartment is in the upper side of the compact class limit as well.

Also, the quality of the fit and finish is quite far from what you would have expected from a Korean car company... ummm, let's say 10 or 15 years ago. Yeah, the "aluminium" trim on the center console is obviously plastic, but it doesn't look or feel cheap, while the rest of the dashboard is covered in soft-touch rubber-like plastic. The steering wheel and gear lever are covered in leather, while the rest of the upholstery uses regular cloth.

Speaking of the upholstery, this was pretty much the only thing that reminded us of the low price of the Cee'd. We know it might sound a little snobbish, but since the car is already this cheap, you might wanna fork out the extra cash for at least the half leather/half cloth upholstery, since the standard one doesn't quite do it justice.

Technically, an engine which runs on petrol and achieves its maximum torque at 4,200 rpm shouldn't be allowed to be driven in the city, especially since it's only a 1.6-liter four banger. Well, it turns out that the mill under our test car's hood had a thingamajig called Continuously Variable Valve Timing, which made it achieve a power output of no less than 122 hp. Don't know about you, but that's mighty respectable from a normally aspirated engine coming from a Korean manufacturer.

So it's all good from the numbers' point of view. Except it isn't. No matter how much hp or Nm (lb ft) an engine makes, it is mostly for nothing if they are useless until a certain rpm range, which was the case for our Cee'd. In the first third of the rev scale, the power reserves are only enough to make the car move decently, which in itself uses a lot of fuel. In other words, this is an engine made for the outdoors not stop-and-go traffic.

Sadly, the car's onboard computer went a bit HAL 9000 on us and showed quite a curious fuel consumption during the various stages of our test drive. This means that we can only give you an estimation based on our own calculations of the fuel consumption in the city, which is around 10 liters per 100 km (US 23.5 mpg), or even worse if we had kept the air conditioning on all the time. In other words, if you intend on using your Cee'd mostly in the city, we would suggest you go for one of the two diesels available.

Apart from the rather high fuel consumption, we didn't have many quarrels with our test car while driving it in a busy city. Parking may be a small issue since it didn't have any parking sensors and the rear visibility is a bit obstructed by the unusually-shaped D-pillar. Also, the "pull me" system for putting the Cee'd into reverse isn't very good, since on more than one occasion it didn't work from the first shot, making all kinds of coffee-grinding noises. The ground clearance on the other hand is high enough to park over almost any kerb.

After driving the Cee'd mostly in the city, we kind of felt the high-revving nature of its engine would be better off on the highway or other similar roads. Turns out this isn't exactly the case, and we suspect it's mainly because of the transmission's way-too-long ratios. There was more than once when we were craving for shorter ratios and a sixth speed just for comfort cruising.

The power band is a bit shorter than in other naturally aspirated engines of this capacity and not even the CVVT system can't compensate for this fact. So, it's not the engine's fault since the gremlins are actually feeding off the gearbox. A naught to 100 km/h (62 mph) time of 10.8 seconds isn't too shabby for a car with 122 hp and almost 1300 kg (2866 pounds), but after you reach this speed everything goes ballistic. And we mean that in the bad way.

The fuel economy worsens with every extra km/h, while the car really struggles to reach higher cruising speeds. We didn't measure it, but it took what seemed like minutes to go from an onramp to highway speeds. Almost as slow as the Logan MCV with 85 diesel horsepower we tested earlier, which was also heavier than this.

On another, equally saddening note, the almost perfectly optimized stability and stance we had experienced at lower speeds and all that comfort/sportiness compromise went out the window once we passed 140 km/h (87 mph). Don't get us wrong, it didn't seem unsafe or anything, it's just that we were expecting a bit more than the up and down wiggle we got all the way, especially considering the suspension's performance at lower speeds.

All in all, we liked the engine but its performance was compromised by the longer than life ratios from the transmission. Neither the fuel consumption nor its oomph at higher speeds was very good. The car seemed very stable but only until reaching the highway, when it started to show the fact that it doesn't quite like those kind of speeds. Also, the acoustic comfort was severely disrupted but we found out it was because of the tires, since on some parts of the highway the Cee'd was as silent as a cave.