Kia gave their oddly titled cee’d a mid-life facelift at the tail end of last year in a bid to take it more upmarket. Or more midmarket, to be precise it’s no Golf inside. But then, with prices starting at £12,595, it doesn’t have to be.
The styling in general has been improved, with a sharper-looking front end that includes a new grille and some chrome trim. There’s a new ‘LED look’ rear light cluster, which looks upmarket from a distance but on closer inspection is just a plastic cover. The dashboard has been redesigned to include a new circular control that makes the stereo and MP3 players easier to control.
I drove the 1.6 litre CRDi version in estate format, which weighs in a couple of hundred quid shy of £16,000. It’s powered by Kia’s new 1.6 litre diesel, which is a nice little unit.
With 113bhp, you’re not going to smoke any boy racers at the lights, but there’s plenty of low-down power and given a decent straight you can easily overtake slower vehicles on a single carriageway.
Kia has fitted some extra sound insulation and the cee’d is impressively quiet up to 70mph. The six-speed gearbox is smooth and ensures revs are kept low at cruising speeds for less noise and better fuel economy. If you need a bit more oomph, you can always change down a gear.
Driven carefully it shouldn’t be difficult to at least get within sight of the official 61.4mpg. I drove from Dundee to the west coast and back with four big guys, a load of gear, and no real regard for economical driving, and still comfortably broke 50mpg. Add in the competitive purchase price and Kia’s standard seven-year warranty, and you’ve got a car that’s cheap to buy, run and maintain.
Ride quality is excellent and while handling is indifferent, this is unlikely to matter to the majority of buyers. Passenger room is pretty good, and none of the four six- footers inside emerged with cramp after a five-hour round trip.
The boot has a big 534 litres, expandable to 1664 if you drop the back seats, making it very useful as a workhorse.
To be honest, my only real beef with the cee’d is that it’s quite dull. Visually it’s okay, just bland and indistinguishable from the herd. Comfortable and easy to drive it may be, but there’s no real sparkle to the experience.
However, the vast majority of drivers are not motoring writers or even motoring fanatics. They’re just ordinary people who want to go from A-B without getting wet, spending too much money, or being too uncomfortable. The cee’d ticks all those boxes.
It’s daftly named. It’s deeply dull. But it’s also deeply decent.
Price: £15,8050-60mph: 11.1 secondsTop speed: 117mphEconomy: 61.4mpgCO2 emissions: 122g/km