★★★☆☆ | Kia Ceed GT
What Have We Got
What if you want your cake and eat it. What if you want to have fun but you don’t want to be holding back a monster or fearing every bone jarring journey will end with a trip to the chiropractor? That’s where Kia pulls out their ace card… the Ceed GT. It’s a 200bhp, mid-sized hatchback that isn’t as extreme as the current crop of 300bhp monsters. It’s an outgoing model, soon to be replaced with the all-new Ceed but grab one while you can. They’re priced around £25,000 but there will be some great deals around.
Driving
Kia’s Ceed GT is a hot hatch, make no mistake. It has a revvy 201bhp / 195lb ft of torque 1.6L turbocharged petrol engine, a brilliant fwd chassis, 6-speed gearbox, supportive leather Recaro sports seats, fully independent front and rear suspension and brilliant brakes behind 18” wheels.
It’ll crack 0-60 in 7.4sec while the top speed is 143mph. The all-important CO2 emissions are 171g/km and the brochure says you can get 38.2mpg combined fuel consumption.
Inside
Modern car interiors seem to be dull, unimaginative places. Kia has done a cracking job inside the Ceed. The leather Recaro seats are comfortable, they look great and they do a fantastic job of supporting you.
The materials are high quality and look and feel great. A 7in touchscreen with sat nav was easy to use, there’s a surprisingly high resolution reversing camera and the heated seats and steering wheel were very welcome on these winter mornings.
Headlights are Xenon adaptive with automatic levelling. It’s like turning daylight back on.
Living with it
The engine is revvy and eager but not overpowering, with enough power to be fast and fun.
The Cee’d GT can do the shopping run in the morning, jump on the motorway and eat up hundreds of miles in comfort and actually pretty efficiently, and if you want to let your hair down, pull off onto a B road for some serious fun. This car can take all that in its stride. That’s impressive. In sports mode, the dials show boost and torque which is fun. Changing down through the manual gearbox with a blip of the throttle, the 1.6L engine is lovely and responsive.
The Verdict
To sum up, the Cee’d is great fun. We had it for a week and had a blast. It’s great fun, fast, excellent handling car with a very high-quality interior for around £25k new. You can expect more hot versions from the Kia stable. Like we said earlier, this is an outgoing model so there will be some around for an absolute bargain. If you’re after a fun car that is easy to drive, comfortable, practical and looks great, maybe this is for you?
Love
Engine – Revvy, responsive, fast enough.
Interior
Handling
Loathe
Brand image. Is Kia cool yet?
Price. (There are some big discounts at the moment though)
Synthesized engine sound in sport mode
Lowdown
Car – Kia Ceed GT
Price – Around £25,000 with discounts as it’s an outgoing model
MPG – 38.2 mpg (combined)
0-62 – 7.4 seconds
Power – 201bhp and 264nm torque
Top Speed – 143 mph
Co2 – 171 (g/km)
