The new Kia cee’d Sportswagon is the latest Kia to arrive in the UK, replacing Kias cee’d SW. It comes with a choice of 89 bhp 1.4 or 126 bhp 1.6 litre diesel engines & four & a half trim levels, 1,2,3,4/4 Tech.
The SW proved popular with UK fleet customers & the new Sportswagon like the smaller cee’d, is aimed fairly & squarely at these customers, with the entry level 1.4 CRDi capable of a combined 67.3 mpg & CO2 emissions of 109g/km. Standard equipment on this model is excellent & includes air con, Bluetooth & six airbags.
I was driving the 1.6 CRDi 126 bhp 4 model, costing £22,895 with all the goodies attached. However, the 1.6 range starts at the more reasonable £17,965 & with impressive fuel economy of 64.2 on the combined cycle & emissions of 116g/km, is still a very tax friendly engine & will probably have bigger appeal to fleet customers, simply because of it’s more powerful engine which makes for better motorway cruising.
As with all of Kias recent models , the Sportwagon looks good & has been designed to be as a Euro friendly as possible, with an attractive sweeping exterior & a quality black & chrome interior. The driving position is A1 & the top of the range model came with more extras than I could get my head around. The six speed gearbox was smooth & the 1.6 unit offered power when required on the motorway, whilst proving easy to use around town. It’s quiet too & the improved suspension makes for a comfortable ride all over.
Let’s not forget that the Sportwagon is an estate. At just over 4.5 metres in length, it’s smaller than it’s main competitors, but offers greater capacity, with 528 litres in the boot, which increases to 1642 litres with the 60:40 rear seats folded down. I utilised this with the collection of a new dishwasher which fitted neatly into the boot. This was made easier as the boot floor is flush with the tailgate opening & with the rear seats folded to ensure a completely flat load deck, I slid the boxed dishwasher in no problem at all.
Every version of the Sportwagon has an under floor storage compartment & side load areas., perfect as I discovered for holding large bottles of milk, a retractable luggage cover, load securing net hooks, a boot light & a 12 v boot mounted power socket. My model also came with a sliding aluminium luggage area rail & a high level luggage barrier. Roof rails are also standard across the range.
Kia haven’t scrimped on safety either. Electronic Stability Control, Vehicle Stability Management, Hill Start Assist, Emergency Stop Signalling & six airbags are offered across all models.
There were 3 settings of power steering available on my model,Comfort, Normal & Sport, so that the level of assistance can be increased when parking & decreased to make the car more stable at high speeds. I drove the whole week in Normal as I found this setting easily the most enjoyable of the three.
The Kia audio system with i Pod, Bluetooth & sat nav functions was fully integrated into the dash. Kia have obviously spent time & thought on this & have succeeded in making it a straightforward proposition for even the technically lacking like myself to use. I connected my Blackberry first time which is always a good sign.
In conclusion, there’s absolutely nothing to dislike with the cee’d Sportwagon. If I needed a small estate for work & for play, I certainly wouldn’t grumble if I was given one as a company car. It’s attractive to look at, highly practical, good to drive & offers good fuel economy with low emissions. Even I managed close to 48 mpg in my week in it. This is a car not bought with the heart, but with the head & will be cherished by it’s drivers for being sensible rather than exciting.
There’s no doubt that Kia have another class leader in the cee’d Sportswagon. Just don’t expect Daniel Craig to be driving one in the next James Bond film. 3.5/5.
