Summer Motoring: Kia Cerato

Author: Bob Nettleton,
Publish Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013, 12:00am

The Kia Cerato is one of those cars that has flown beneath the radar of new car buyers here for years, but the just released 3rd edition has both the looks and pricing to change all that.

While it's struggled to make a major impact on our market that is not the case elsewhere around the world, where the Cerato is Kia’s most successful model, having notched up over 2.5 million global sales since the first model debuted in 2004. This 3rd generation Cerato is offered as a conventional four-door sedan or versatile five-door hatchback. It’s the product of 42 months design, engineering and development work and an investment NZ$320 million by Kia.

When a company sinks this amount of time and money into a developing a car, you would expect above average. If you were measure that purely on appearance, the 3rd generation Cerato over achieves with its sleek profile, cutting a particularly dashing figure. It may be a small car class contender, but it’s a lot more grown up, being longer, lower and wider than its predecessor.

There is a freshly engineered body structure that is stronger and takes this model take a few more sizeable steps up Quality Street, with a raft of equipment upgrades plus a host of additional convenience and safety features. Beneath its swanky exterior, the Cerato’s sports the same underwear as its donor model the Hyundai Elantra, first seen here two years ago.

The thing I noticed straight away about the sedan and hatch is the substantial increase in cabin real estate that make it an even more relaxed and enjoyable place. It’s a lot more inviting with a sweeping new dashboard, with carbon-look trim and soft-touch materials around the cabin that exudes a quality look and feel. Interior comfort is raised by ironically lowering the passenger compartment floor and the front and rear seats and by fitting wider front seat cushions.

Strengthening the car's already compelling credentials is aggressive pricing that starts at $29,990 for the entry level 1.8 litre LX in either sedan or hatch form, and peaks at $40,490 for range topping SX. This version is fully loaded with people pampering features including a power-operated sunroof, 3 stage heated and cooling front seats, integrated memory seat, leather upholstery. Throw in a reversing camera, dual zone climate control, Xenon headlights, and the whole show rides on handsome 17” alloy wheels shod with low profile tyres into the mix and what more could you want?

Also exclusive to the SX is a larger and more muscular 129kw 2-litre petrol engine. A 6-speed sequential sports shift automatic is standard across the entire range. For this road test, I got to sample the $33,490 EX. It’s well specified, well priced and well placed to become the biggest selling model in the new Cerato line-up.

The 1.8 litre motor musters 110kw, enough to punch the Cerato along at the sort a decent clip that will satisfy most prospective buyers. Performance is pretty typical of what is being squeezed out of this size engine these days and could leave those seeking a bit more under bonnet cut and thrust feeling a little under whelmed.

The lack of sit on your butt power is compensated for to some extent by impressive levels of smoothness and refinement. Really the engine's efforts to play hard and fast are stymied by its torque delivery, or the lack of it, in the low-speed pulling power. The simple reason for this is its 175nm worth of maximum torque does not leave the departure platform, until the motor is spinning at a power drill like 4,700rpm. If the engines peak torque clocked in 1,000rpm earlier, throttle response would be far sharper. Regardless of how cleverly the sweet shifting six-speed automatic sliced and diced the gear changes, it still only managed to raise the engines performance a shade above the average mark.

A strong focus on safety by Kia when they designed this model is rewarded with a 5-star ANCAP crash rating. Helping the car star in these safety ratings, were features such as electronic stability control, front-side airbags and active horizontally adjustable front headrests. It’s not just the Cerato’s dashing good looks that help it get noticed, distinctive LED daytime running lights do their bit as well, but all in the name of increased visibility and safety.

Apart from a sharply tapering roofline that shaves off a few centimetres of rear headroom for back seat occupants, this is one of the roomier sedans in its class. There is also the bonus of a deep and sensibly shaped boot that swallows a surprising amount of luggage. The hatch back is the more versatile and best looking of the two body styles.

The new Cerato’s ANZAC suspension is tweaked for our roads and those in Australia delivering a quieter and smoother ride on highways and by-ways on both sides of the Tasman. The suspension’s geometry is modified to provide improved steering feel and an all-new electronic Flex-steer system enables the driver to dial up a choice of comfort/normal/sport modes to match their individual driving style. I am not convinced this technology really delivers anything to different from what I could get by just leaving the steering in normal mode.

Handling is well sorted with the car feeling nicely balanced over winding terrain and displaying good adhesive qualities over poorly cambered or rutted roads. Sure there are other cars in this class that are a swifter and more agile. Having said that, the Cerato displayed enough road holding mettle to suggest its going to be pretty competitive in the road holding stakes against most of it rivals.