Kia Sonet iMT
Now seven months old in the Auto Today fleet the Kia Sonet’s term with us is coming to an end. Through the almost 11,000km we’ve spent in the driver’s seat, the Sonet has not once let us down. That’s including the tyres, that have been through the rigour of the Auto Today Road Test, every terrain you can imagine and even long periods of storage, with almost no visible wear and not a single puncture. The 1.0 litre turbo three pot has managed the right balance of performance and efficiency that allowed us to keep driving even as petrol prices hit a century across the country, returning an efficiency of well above 13kmpl on average throughout our test cycles. The air-conditioning has worked well even in choc-a-bloc traffic where the indicated temperature outside was 52 degrees, the seat cooling function has been a boon to quickly drying up in between camera pieces. The boot storage is ample too, with more than enough room for not just luggage but all the camera equipment we lug around. Although for me, it was the iMT technology that turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Before driving the Sonet and really spending time with it, I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive of iMT. Clutch work is a complicated art in my opinion, and there were more than a few places that I could think of that would catch out an automated system. In reality though it performed more than amicably enough for me to miss it when I got back into my manual Swift. Sure, it does lack a little in terms of refinement, especially on a cold start, and maybe the back row of seats could’ve been slightly more comfortable but overall we think the Sonet has proved worthy of its premium price tag and emerged as one of the strongest contenders in the compact SUV space.