CON Houlihan, that late great Kerry-born writer who sadly passed away at the weekend, once said that you couldn’t trust anybody who misplaces an apostrophe. Being a former school teacher Con was a stickler for punctuation and rightly so. But if Con could have test driven the new Kia cee’d I think he would have forgiven the Korean manufacturer’s strange use of the apostrophe in this instance.
The cee’d is pronounced
‘seed’ and was originally known as ED for European Design; the
‘ce’ part was added as shorthand for the community of Europe. And so we got the lower case cee’d, strange but true.
Five years ago the cee’d was the first family hatchback to come out of Kia’s factory in Zilina, Slovakia. It proved to be a winner and helped the Korean company compete in the compact family hatchback business. This second generation was also designed, engineered and manufactured in Europe and Kia is hoping that it will be able to compete against cars like the best selling Ford Focus and VW Golf.
I have driven more attractive cars in recent weeks and months, but the five-door Cee’d is really good value for money. Prices start at
?¬18,895 for the 1.4 litre diesel, while the 1.6 litre diesel version I drove will cost you
?¬21,795. And of course you get that unbeatable seven-year warranty from Kia on all their cars.
Apart from the grille, LED lights and cute headlights the front end doesn’t really have that
‘wow’ factor, but it does have a coupe look to it. However, once you sit inside you will be impressed and hopefully like me find that the car is really smooth and quiet. The interior is predominantly black, but there is a touch of grey on the seats to lift the décor.
And over your head the roof is cream which also brightens the interior.
The controls on the dash are laid out in an intelligent manner and I liked the button to scroll up and down the wavelengths. Long gone are the days when the indicators and lights were on the
‘wrong’ side of the steering wheel in Kia motors.
The cee’d handles very well in city traffic and on the open road. I drove a six-gear manual version and had no problems with the gearbox. The boot space has been increased by 40 litres and it should now be able to cater for most families’ needs. Underneath there is a storage area and further down in the boot is a
‘mini’ spare wheel.
A wagon version will be available in September and you will have to wait until January 2013 for the three-door version, which will probably be called the pro-cee’d. I think the five-door would be the best option, but then as regular readers will know I’m not a fan of three-door cars.
So that’s my take on the latest in a long line of improving new cars of Kia. Take a test drive and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how smooth the car is. And don’t worry in this instance about the apostrophe, everything is in the right place in the new cee’d.