Make way for the Kia Rio
alloy pedals and artificial leather seat trim that also extends onto the crash pad area.
The Rio is powered by Kia’s 1.4- litre Kappa series engine with multi- point fuel injection and continuously variable valve timing.
It develops 74kW at 6000rpm and 133Nm of torque at 4000rpm while combined cycle fuel consumption for the LX manual is 5.6L/ 100km and the automatic variants are rated at 6.2L/ 100km.
The New Zealand market will The Rio hatch is the first of three major new product introductions for Kia New Zealand this year.
It will be joined by the nextgeneration Picanto small car that is set to debut in this year’s third quarter.
Kia’s big move comes in the last quarter of the year with the new Stinger set to take the brand into a market segment it’s never been before.
Revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, the boldly styled Stinger will offer 2.0- litre direct injection turbo — the same engine just launched in the Optima GT sedan — and 3.3- litre V6 twin turbo engine choices in combination with an eight- speed automatic transmission and rear- Kia’s fastback GT style Stinger receive the new Rio in the Australian specification rather than the Euro- spec that was the basis for the previous generation.
That means the indicators get switched across to the right- hand stalk and there is the suspension wheel- drive.
The V6 version will offer 272kW output and 510Nm of torque driving through an eight- speed automatic transmission and capable of 0- 100km/ h acceleration in 5.1secs.
Stinger has an eye- catching five- door GT fastback design and will take Kia into the rear- wheeldrive performance car segment around the same time as Holden VE Commodore production reaches the end of the road and the choice of large cars with rear wheel- drive reduces.
Stinger pricing has not been confirmed. Guesswork suggests something in the vicinity of $ 65,000 and $ 75,000 might be realistic for the two powertrain variants. damper valving and electronic steering calibration which has been tuned by Kia Motors Australia engineers to sharpen the steering response and achieve an improved balance between ride comfort and suspension control.