Dandelion of a tiger
The Kia Stonic GT-Line S 48 is a vibrant tonic for motoring journalists more acquainted with greyer areas of the British car market. Words and pictures by Frederic Manby.
IRETURNED to India recently and pitied some rescued Bengal tigers, moving slowly in their large but fenced compound. It’s a life of sorts, away from poachers. Their faces looked nothing like that on a Kia, the South Korean brand which says its cars have a tiger nose grille. Grr. Anyway, tigerish or not, the Kia grin remains in various dimensions across the model range, with prices from £13,000 for a cheeky Picanto to the slim grimace on a £63,000 EV6. Yes, that much, but it’s electric and wins important awards.
After a series of greyish test cars the vibrant yellow of the Kia Stonic was a tonic. Unwittingly, just then, have I stumbled on the derivation of the name: Kia’s tonic? It has, after all, gone through various languages, from its inception in the Kia’s European centre in Frankfurt to the Korean factory south-west of Seoul, where it is built alongside the Rio.
The humbler Rio provides the base chassis for the Stonic, which has more ground clearance and interior space in an SUV-ish body. There is plastic cladding along the skirts, plus front and rear skid plates which may shrug off minor skirmishes and, for those big trips, hefty roof rails. Kia calls it “a small, dynamic urban crossover”. Fair enough. It carries a price premium.
You can get a Rio hatchback for £16,710.
The cheapest Stonic is £20,370 and the model choices take it head to head with a current hotseller, the Ford Puma, another small, dynamic urban thing.
In fact, the Stonic is up against a mass of rivals. Your choice may be influenced by the Kia seven-year warranty.
A friend scoffed at the latest Kia name badge. He was driving a beaten-up Isuzu pick-up, so may not be a reliable arbiter on graphics but I know what he meant.
The Stonic looked shouty in its dandelion yellow livery under black roof edging and with various glossy black intakes in the front, some of which were real.
My immediate response was I liked driving it – once again perhaps as a chuckable antidote to the hefty Volvo SUV of the week before.
There are apparent costing short-cuts, though. On a car so well-equipped with bottleholding pods (six), why would they not fit map pockets behind both front seats? “That’s mine, put your Kindle somewhere else”. “Daddy, Barry’s being beastly…” They may also be scrapping over ownership of the single USB port. There’s another in the front, plus a 12-volt socket.
KIa offers two engines, both versions of its three-cylinder, one-litre well-proven petrol turbo engine. The base engine has 99bhp. Its sire, with mild electric hybrid boosting and high revs, gives 118bhp.
There’s little to choose between them for economy or performance and the torque is the same. Discerning drivers, or others subconsciously, will find the mild hybrid system gives a smoother and more responsive engine.
You can sense the battery recharging when the car decelerates and it does give vestiges of pure electric movement at low speed. Each is offered with six manual gears or a seven-speed automatic.
The 99bhp model comes in at £20,370 compared with £23,370 for the better-specified 118bhp entry model. Automatic gears add £1,000. However, that 99bhp entry model has most of the kit, including 16-inch alloys, the glossy body cosmetics, the roof rails, electric windows, air conditioning, cruise control with a speed limiter, remote door locking, crash avoidance radar, high beam assistance and so on.
A new Quantum version for the 99bhp model brings body upgrades, 17-inch wheels, navigation, smartphone linking, a reversing camera, climate control, paint options and cloth and leather-look seats (and manual gears only) at a tempting £21,875.
Kia sent us the 118bhp model in the top GTLine S specification with manual gears. Price, a saucy £24,420. The bigger bill brings heating
'On a car so well-equipped with bottleholding pods (six), why would they not fit map pockets behind both front seats?'
for the front seats and steering wheel, adaptive cruise control and a blind-spot rear warning, rather a boon in busy car parks I think.
The wheels are the attractive 17-inch pattern with sensible 205/55 Continental tyres giving ride comfort and cornering control.
The economy was average compared with a self-charging hybrid but they are more expensive. The trip computer varied between 40mpg in local Dales mileage and 45mpg on a country jaunt to Kirkby Lonsdale, all at a gentle pace. The cabin furnishings were mostly shades of black, with contrast stitching and piping on the seats, firmly bolstered at the sides.
The dashboard screen has primary manual control switches below, with a full set of dials for the ventilation and preferable to the fad for having everything managed on a touchscreen. The small, sporty steering wheel carried a full set of controls, too.
The rear seats had adequate leg room and could be folded flat to extend the boot deck. Forget about a spare wheel in this mild hybrid version. The place where it would fit is occupied by the battery pack.
■ Verdict: A contender.