Kia’s 2021 Seltos
Attractive pricing, roomy feel make crossover appealing
SAN ANTONIO » Kia starts the new year adding to their lineup: an entry-level crossover that fits between their Soul and Sportage models. It’s called the Seltos and, although it’s a 2021 model, it’s already on sale.
It may be built upon a small platform, but it doesn’t feel particularly small. There’s plenty of room all around you, so no bumping of elbows with the right-seat rider — unless you want to, I suppose.
The interior looks good, both modern and functional without being boring. The Seltos simply doesn’t look like an entry-level vehicle. Kia officials pointed out that there’s plenty of hip, shoulder, leg and head room — both in front and back — so it does seem to be both larger and more airy than most of its direct competitors.
I particularly liked the instrument panel and the dashboard. The dashboard is reasonably traditional, creating a feeling of width. But dropped in the middle is a large touchscreen with buttons below to control most of what needs controlling in the cabin. Under the air vent your eye descends to the center console where the rest of the controls and plenty of effective “living” space exists.
Look over your shoulder and the occupants of the rear seats will be plenty comfortable. Even if they are small and siblings, there’s enough room between them to keep irritating calls of “Mom she’s touching me!” to a minimum. To keep the rear seaters happy, they have their own air vents and USB charging port, at least on some models. All trims do get two-step reclining rear seats.
Everyone can be entertained by the sound system. For the first time Kia is offering an eight-speaker Bose2 premium sound system which has the neat mood lighting in six colors from the Soul. In some models the mood light changes color and intensity based on volume level of the audio system.
The Seltos has a traditional crossover sports-ute look, and that makes for decent storage space in addition to the aforementioned passenger room. It reflects somewhat of a design “relationship” to Kia’s large Telluride crossover introduced last year.
Kia wants to emphasize a toughness with Seltos’ design that indicates it can even go offroad. It does have a 7.2-in. front ground clearance. Actually, the front chin is unique in North American models to give it that greater clearance and toughen up its appearance. Kia says there will be true skid plates available later on, but for now there’s cladding that gives the appearance, and even a bit of the protection, of skid plates.
Although there’s all-wheel drive available for the Seltos, its off-road capability isn’t a primary capability sought by those who will be buying them. But it is a capability that Kia hopes will tie it into the rest of their crossover offerings.
The Seltos will sit on either 17or 18-inch alloy wheels. All the models we tested on the press launch were top-of-the-line with the 18-inch wheels, and they do give the crossover a solid stance.
The Seltos comes in five trims: LX, EX, S 2.0L, S 1.6T and SX. There are two powerplants, the base 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a 1.6-liter Turbo GDI four banger in the upper trims. Since we were driving an upper model, equipped with the turbo engine, we got to play with 175-hp. and 195 lb.- ft. of peak torque flowing to all the wheels through a seven-speed, dualclutch transmission.
On this setup there’s a switch to change the powertrain and drivetrain management as well as steering mapping for Normal, Smart of Sport setups. I found the Sport setting to make the car nicely responsive and did a very good job of having the car in the right gear for the conditions as we drove through the Texas hill country. The other two settings did a nice job but weren’t as crisp as with the
Sport setting.
The base engine generates 146-hp. and 132 lb.- ft. of peak torque and pushes it to either the front or all four wheels through a continuously variable transmission. We didn’t get the opportunity to drive a Seltos with this powertrain, but it is quite similar to that of Kia’s Soul and it works well enough there.
The suspension of all the models is a MacPherson strut up front and a coupled torsion beam axle rear suspension on front-wheel drive models. One of the advantages to opting for the all-wheel drive versions is that rear suspension is upgraded to a multi-link setup. Since the body is 61% high-strength steel it enhances the car’s stability and handling.
The AWD models use a center locking differential which splits power equally between the front and rear when needed. With it you also get the advantage of torque vectoring cornering control, sends the power to the wheel which will apply it most effectively to the road. Even it you don’t throw this crossover around on the road, it’s worth having. There are also offerings of a surprising amount of active driving assists, especially in a car in the Seltos’ price range.
The Seltos is a very pleasant and quiet car to drive and ride in. The seats are comfortable. The audio system sounds good. The fit and finish are good, nothing looks or feels cheap. Granted we had the nicest model, but that’s one of the real advantages about buying an entry level car — it’s easier to afford the better equipped versions.
That’s because the Seltos pricing is attractive. The base Seltos S starts at $21,990. To move up to the turbo engine requires you to buy the Seltos S 1.6T, which starts at $25,490.00 and it gets you all-wheel drive. The Seltos EX, with all-wheel drive but the base engine, is priced about the same at $25,290.00. The top-of-the-line SX starts out at $27,890.00. Even adding a few more options lets you have a well equipped and capable crossover for under 30 grand.
Kia is going to have a winner with the Seltos. There are a huge number of young people who are fans of Kia’s Soul. As they look at what vehicle will fill their growing needs, the Seltos should be right in their sweet spot.