Having had a play in the Kia Cerato GT, NZCV took a quick spin in the 'fleet choice' version.
Here’s looking at you Cerato, and we like what we see, with the nice external lines of the hatch and an attractive and ergonomic layout for the interior and dash, enhanced by the white stitching of the seats along with the GT line logo.
The svelte lines do come with one downside, the aggressively sloped back window of the hatch does compromise the load carrying ability both in terms of height and also the size of the opening when the back seats are folded down; great cargo length as long as the load is not too high. This is illustrated by the hatch having much smaller load capacity than the sedan version at 428 vs 502 litres.
The Cerato features a 2.0 litre engine delivering 112kW of power and 192Nm of torque. This produces good progress on the road, especially as it is mated to a very smooth six-speed automatic transmission – although the engine feels a little buzzy at higher RPMs.
The ride quality is pleasant, and the handling has no noticeable vices. The Cerato is also commendably quiet.
Cerato’s trump card is the interior, the leather rimmed steering wheel could provide a design example for many manufacturers, whilst the front leather-shod seats are a particular strength of the Cerato, being comfortable and very supportive.
It is easy to set the seat to the driver with eight-way power adjustment and two memory settings plus lumbar support. Both front seats are heated and cooled to ensure comfort and we already mentioned the white stitching.
The large 8-inch touchscreen sits proud of the dash but is partly recessed giving a better-connected appearance than some cars where it seems to have just been stuck on the top of the dash. It features Satnav and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with the standard functions.
My elder daughter was rather taken by the Qi compatible wireless phone charging pad that worked with her Samsung Galaxy.
Apart from being five-star ANCAP rated, the Cerato features all the modern safety aids such as EBS, lane keep assist, blind spot, rear cross traffic monitoring and smart cruise control.
The Cerato would – in many ways – be an ideal fleet car, winning on comfort, appearance and sheer ease for a driver to just jump in and feel at home due to the excellent ergonomics. Kia’s three years (or 45,000km) free scheduled servicing adds a bonus for the fleet operator.
A few weeks ago, the “Royal we” were quite impressed with the Kia Cerato GT hatch, since this vehicle proved conclusively that Kia knows what it’s doing when it comes to producing firecrackers.
Yes, Kia had warned the Cerato GT was not going to be quite as quiet as the motoring writer’s corps were used to with product bearing the Tiger nose grille have been previously, but there had to be a trade-off for performance.
Methinks they made a little too much of a mountain from a molehill. That, or we’re all just big kids under a very thin veneer and a good “yeehah!” trumps a “my isn’t this refined?” any day of the week.
When Kia announced it was also introducing a GT-Line version, some may have been a little confused. Other manufacturers do this as well, so why wouldn’t Kia be any different?
Basically, a GT-Line version means the vehicle in question looks like its performance variant (the GT), but doesn’t have the same degree of firepower.
Specifications:
Kia Cerato GT-Line
BODY TYPE Five Door Hatch
DRIVE Front Wheel Drive
Engine type 4-Cylinder Petrol
Engine capacity 2000cc
Max power 112kW @ 6200rpm
Max torque 192Nm @ 4000rpm
l/100km (Combined) 7.4 litres
C02 emissions 167
Boot capacity 428 litres
ANCAP rating 5 Star
Price $39,990
