(Cars Today Friday 21 April 2017)
all-New
Korean Star
Kia’s Cerato K3 Sport looks sharper, but its real value still lies beneath the skin
The Kia Cerato K3 Sports edition offers more bang for your buck both in looks and performance. Photos: Derryn Wong
Engine: 1,591cc, in-line four,
130hp, 157Nm
Performance: 195km/h,
0-100km/h: 12.1, 6.8L/100km,
160g/km CO2
Price: S$105,999 with COE
On Sale: Now
Derryn Wong
features@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE — Korean cars should be
more popular. While Samsung and
LG can compete with the best of
the world when it comes to consumer
technology, Kia and Hyundai are
much further down the top ten ranking
than they used to be when Certificates
of Entitlement (COEs) were
slightly cheaper.
Kia’s Cerato K3 medium sedan, for
instance, was Singapore’s best-selling
car in 2009 and 2010, but that was
in the era when COEs never topped
S$20,000 in a bad week.
A new Cerato, introduced in 2013,
faced a much tougher market, but Kia
has not stopped improving its cars,
and it still shows.
Four years on from then, the Cerato
K3 remains an impressive piece of
machinery for its cost, and with this
new Sports edition, packs even more
bang for the buck.
The obvious visual differences are
the 17-inch wheels and exterior body
kit, which is all tastefully done and
does not make the car look like it escaped
from the latest instalment of
The Fast And The Furious.
Inside, it is the same familiar Cerato
experience: Plenty of room all
around, and with a rear bench that
will easily seat three adults in relative
comfort. Kia’s signature black-on-red
theme does well here, and while there
is a lot of plastic in sight, it does not
look or feel like it is built to a budget.
What is new on the inside is the
infotainment system, a seven-inch
touchscreen unit that showed up in
the Kia Niro hybrid earlier this year.
Not only does it provide an easier,
more visually appealing interface, it
has Bluetooth connectivity.
That is common enough nowadays, but it can also connect directly
to smartphones via Apple CarPlay
and Android Auto, which is a feature
that is still hard to find, even in more
expensive cars.
That is a theme which is repeated
often in this Kia, since it also has other
features you would otherwise pay
more for, or which would be missing
in this price bracket, such as keyless
entry; a powered driver’s seat;
a reverse camera; and a full load of
six airbags.
Air-conditioned seats are rare in
German cars, for instance, and might
end up costing a fifth of the Cerato’s
total price to put in. Ditto the sunroof
or advanced smartphone connectivity.
The Sports edition is mechanically
identical to the rest of the Cerato
range, packing the same 1.6-litre engine
and six-speed automatic gearbox.
It is not a firecracker in the driving
department, but it is pretty much
on a par, if not better than, anything
in this price range — it is smooth,
quiet and powerful enough for most
situations. The unrepentantly anaesthetic
steering is the only significant
niggle here.
The Cerato K3 SX Sports costs
S$105,999 with COE, but you would
struggle to replicate the amenities on
board in similarly priced machines,
even down the range. It costs, however,
S$6,000 more than the normal
SX variant, which loses the sunroof,
bodykit, HID headlamps, infotainment
system and auto-dimming mirror
in the exchange.
It firmly remains a modest family
sedan; so while the Cerato K3 SX
Sports does not promise tyre-shredding
thrills, the thing that will make
most buyers enthusiastic about it is
much more universal: The fact that
it packs loads of features for a modest
price.