General Business

ROAD TEST: Kia Picanto GT

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, smart faux leather upholstery and 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, writes motoring editor Ian Strachan.

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 it the Picanto doesn’t feel that small.

The pint-sized Korean Picanto is also one of the cheapest cars on the road. It starts at just £8,660.

Unlike a lot of small cars it’s nicely styled and doesn’t feel at all cramped. Performance from the 1.25 bhp petrol engine is best described as “peppy”.

I test drove the 1.25 litre powered Picanto GT Line (at £12,450 – this is serious money!) and was pleasantly surprised by its zip.  This 83 bhp unit takes a little bit of winding up, but when it’s cruising at 70 mph it does so easily and without the sort of underbonnet screaming you sometimes get in cars of this size. And you get 61.4 miles to the gallon in mixed driving.

The five-speed manual gearshift is 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, leather steering wheel with steering wheel mounted controls, air conditioning, all-round electric windows, rear parking camera, DAB six-speaker radio, 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.

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