Rio goes upmarket
Kia’s hatch grows up with mature styling and upscale cabin
BACK in 2011 Kia’s local representatives were given the task of predicting how many South Africans would want to buy the thennew, third-generation Rio and, for the first year’s allocation, they boldly ordered ten times what the previous version had sold in its final year.
The South Koreans at HQ clearly thought our local lads were smoking their socks, and yet in the end it actually sold more than double that.
Since then Kia SA has gone on to sell over 7000 Rios a year on average and it’s also become one of the carmaker’s most popular models abroad. So a lot is riding on the allnew, fourth-generation Rio that you see here, which was launched to the South African media in Johannesburg last week.
The first thing you’ll notice is that Kia’s design team has played it rather safe with the styling. You could certainly accuse it of being conservative, but in my opinion it’s a pleasing kind of conservative, the dignified, easy-on-the-eye, not-a-lineout-of-place kind that also seems to work well for carmakers like Volkswagen. That newfound maturity continues inside the cabin, where high-quality materials and a sculpted design create a more upscale, even slightly sporty vibe, and the top half of the range gets an 18cm touchscreen infotainment system that’s compatible with Apple CarPlay and (subject to it becoming available in SA) Android Auto. The new Rio is 5mm lower than its predecessor but has grown 15mm in length, 10mm of that having gone into the wheelbase. Rear legroom is fairly ample and boot space has increased by 37 litres to what Kia calls a class-leading 325 litres.
Kia won’t be offering a sedan version of the new Rio, at least for now, as it’s not currently available in right-and drive. However Kia is busy building a new factory in India and it’s very likely that SA will be able to source RHD sedans from there when it comes on stream in 2019. The current sedan will continue to be offered until at least the end of this year.
The new hatch is being launched with two carry-over normally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engines in the form of a 62kW/120Nm 1.25-litre and 74kW/135Nm 1.4. The smaller engine is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox only, while the larger unit
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