Robin Roberts (WheelsWithinWales) gives his first impressions of the latest version of Kia’s city car, the Picanto…
Kia is bucking the trend and staying faithful to the city car sector with the arrival of the latest Picanto…
While other manufacturers put the brake on city cars to concentrate on mid-sized models and cross-overs, claiming smaller models are unprofitable, the Kia Picanto is about to prove them wrong and make money for the booming Kia brand.
In a tightening market the Kia Picanto could loosen sales, bringing a lot of desirable features to owners who have to watch how they spend money and get value for money.
The new range starts from £15,595 with a simple four-tier line-up: ‘2’, ‘GT-Line’, ‘3’ and ‘GT-Line S’, two petrol engines and a choice of transmissions and they are now available to buy.
Picanto sales accounted for more than one-in-five A-class UK registrations last year as its sales climbed over 35% in 12 months and now it has been given a significant facelift both outside and inside.
There’s a range of advanced technologies and inside Picanto offers Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, an 8-inch touchscreen, navigation and multiple USB charging ports, all of which are standard on every variant of the new Picanto and it has a suite of features to please the safety testers at Euro NCAP.
Under the small bonnet you have 1.0 3-cyl or 1.2 4-cyl petrol engines with lower emissions than the previous versions and five-speed manual or automated gearboxes.
In the UK, the 1.0-litre engine is available on the ‘2’, ‘GT-Line’ and ‘3’ grade variants while the 1.2-litre engine is available exclusively on ‘GT-Line S’ models with the top model costing £19,145.
Luggage space expands from 255 to over 1,000 litres (9.01 to more than 35 cu.ft) and it seats four at a squeeze.
The Kia Picanto is available with 7.9 per cent APR, and £1,000 finance deposit contribution from Kia, on a PCP deal. This is offered across the entire model line-up, from the entry-level ‘2’ right up to the range-topping ‘GT-Line S’. All variants come with Kia’s seven-year/100,000-mile warranty.
First Impressions
Picanto has always been a favourite city car and its strong sales performance backs up the experience of running one on a limited budget.
Our 2-grade Picanto test car had a distinctive three cylinder petrol engine note but it fairly whizzed up the rev range with ease and was not an unpleasant sound, just a busy one. The standard five-speed gearchange was feather-light and direct which as just as well because the one litre engine required frequent changes over the hilly test route we used.
Even so and with some longer stretches of flatter roads between the slopes we saw a very respectable 61 mpg recorded.
Maximum speed is a claimed 90 mph so it easily keeps up with the flow on motorways but you have to carefully judge overtaking with just 62 bhp coming at a busy 5,000 rpm and only 93 Nm (68.59 lb.ft) torque developed at 3,750 rpm. The 0 – 62 mph time is a sedate 15.4 seconds.
The front struts and rear multi-link suspension would not be out of place in a sports car so it handles well despite some body roll due to its profile and a tendency to run wide on tighter turns unless you ease off the throttle.
It’s roomy infront, less so in the back with limited knee and shoulder space and, as mentioned, the boot capacity rises to 1,010 litres (35.67 cu.ft) from just 255 litres (9.01 cu.ft) as the seats fold.
VERDICT
The Kia Picanto is a very good, modern and well equipped city car with long-legged economy potential and just group 5A insurance and these are important considerations with all motoring costs climbing so steeply.
