Super Stonic is young at heart

Stylish SUV targets youthful audience

AFTER a brief break from SUVs last week with the excellent Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer, we’re back once more with world’s favourite type of car.

This one’s from Kia and is named the Stonic, apparently a combination of Speedy and Tonic. It’s all part – along with a photograph in the brochure of a young hipster putting his surfboard into the back of his Stonic – of promoting this new model to younger buyers.

It’s a fantasy that all makers of SUVs and crossovers cling to despite the fact that the average new car buyer is 52 years old.

Slightly daft name aside, the Kia Stonic is a very attractive looking motor and will certainly appeal to a young audience, especially the First Edition version that we’re testing.

It comes with a two-tone paint scheme as standard and a choice of four roof colours (black, lime green, red or orange) that’s also echoed on the mirror cappings and rear spoiler.

UK buyers only have the choice of this trim and the level 2 spec which has the two-tone paint as an option. There are three engines to choose from: a 1.6-litre diesel and two petrols, a 1.4-litre fourcylinder producing 98bhp, and a 1.0 three-cylinder turbo with 118bhp. Kia expects 60% of buyers to go for petrol so we’ve chosen to test the 1.0-litre version.

Kia claims 56.5mpg for this engine which will work out at about 10-15mpg less in the real world. All Stonics come with a six-