Kia Picanto GT – 2022
By Ian Strachan.
The car I’ve just been testing has 16 inch alloy wheels, reversing camera, DAB radio with Bluetooth and music streaming, keyless entry, hill start assist, cruise control, smart faux leather upholstery and heated leather steering wheel. Is it a BMW, a Mercedes, a Range Rover? No. It’s one of the smallest city cars on the road; the diminutive Kia Picanto.
The latest Kia Picanto is a small car that thinks it’s big, and it’s packed with features you’d expect to find on a car twice its size. And once you’re inside the Picanto doesn’t feel small at all.
Unlike a lot of small cars it’s nicely styled and doesn’t feel at all cramped. Performance from the 99 bhp petrol engine is best described as “peppy”.
I test drove the three-cylinder 998 litre Picanto GT Line S which comes at a competitive £17,450 on the road, and I was pleasantly surprised by its zip. It cruises comfortably at 70 mph without the sort of underbonnet screaming you sometimes get in cars of this size. And you get 53.3 miles to the gallon in mixed driving. It will get you from 0-60mph in less than 10 seconds
The five-speed manual gearshift is springy and pleasant to use, and the ride feels sure and stable with nicely rated suspension and confident cornering. It never felt as if it needed that extra gear.
But the real surprise is the interior space. Kia has pulled off a clever trick here. Sitting in the Picanto you feel as if you’re in a much larger car – certainly bigger than its city car size.
Legroom and headroom are quite adequate for front and rear passengers. The front seats are big enough to feel comfortable on a long drive, and the rear seat accommodates two adults easily – and they don’t have to be really good friends.
Open the tailgate and you’ll see how Kia has done this. The luggage area is quite small – just about large enough for one medium suitcase. Clearly to get the interior space something had to be sacrificed. That said, there’s no wheel arch intrusion so what you see is what you get.
That apart I like the Picanto. It has a personality all of its own and at less than 3.6 metres long it will slot into the smallest parking space.=
Standard equipment on this spec includes 16 inch alloy wheels, heated leather steering wheel with steering wheel mounted controls, automatic air conditioning, all-round electric windows, heated front seats, rear parking camera, DAB six-speaker radio and music streaming with voice control,, electric heated door mirrors, front fog lights, automatic headlights and all round airbags. Plus you get Kia’s industry-leading seven year warranty.
Cars in this class are becoming increasingly popular and the Picanto, with its great range of body colours and appealing looks, could well cash in.
