Kia Cerato dons a tux
IA LAUNCHED its all-new Cerato sedan in South Africa last week, and the new one’s a bit bigger, a bit more comfortable and slightly more mature than its predecessor.
Not that the previous Cerato slacked in any way when bringing the fight to its class rivals like Jetta, Focus and Corolla.
It’s just that the new third-generation one has evolved, as next generations almost always do, to become a little softer to the touch and a little prettier to look at.
As is normally the case, the new Cerato is longer, wider and lower than the last one, which of course means there’s more space inside. It’s ergonomically better with a dashboard angled towards the driver, and passengers as well get lots of extra knee, leg and shoulder room. The front seats are now wider but have deeper side bolsters, and boot space has also grown from 415 to 482 litres.
The interior’s materials are now of much higher quality, and there’s a new carbon-look finish that gives the dashboard a nice contrast. I’d say build quality is right up there with the best Csegment sedans, maybe even better, but there’s still a disappointing amount of road noise that comes into the cabin even at low speeds.
The new Cerato will come in three flavours, starting with a 1.6-litre EX, moving up to a 2.0 EX, and then the flagship 2.0 SX. The 1.6 option is the same engine as in previous Cerato, but with power upped ever so slightly from 91kW and 156Nm to 95 and 157 respectively. Standard features here include cruise control, a sound system with MP3/iPod/Bluetooth/USB connections, six airbags, and remote central locking among other basic items, but this version is in all honesty stripped bare of some of the nice extras available in the top SX.
The 2.0 EX adds leather seats, a trip computer and a sunroof over its 1.6-litre counterpart, but it’s priced close enough to the top SX that it almost makes no sense.
The SX then includes must-haves like a colour TFT touchscreen display to control infotainment, park-distance sensors, stability control, Xenon lights and a rear-view camera among a long list of other things. A six-speed automatic transmission is available in all models for an extra R10 000.
I drove the 2.0 SX (118kW/194Nm) at the Cerato’s media launch in Durban launch last week, and I’m impressed with this new generation engine.
It revs smoothly and freely, and at sea-level offers good torque considering there’s no turbo.
The six-speed manual gearbox also feels positive in operation, and reminds me of previous generation Japanese cars in the way it moves slickly through its gates.
But, with long ratios and a punchy motor, there’s not a lot of need to stir it around looking for the right gear all the time. A very relaxed drive here.
The electric power steering’s not perfect though. The top model gets a Flex Steer function that allows drivers to choose between three levels of sensitivity, but none of them cure that dreaded Korean dead spot at the straight-ahead position. Also, if the road cambers, the steering tracks heavily with it.
But I’d say most drivers probably wouldn’t notice this small flaw in an otherwise excellent package.
The new Cerato hatch is scheduled for South African launch in August, and the new Koup should arrive in November.
K