Priced at £21,040, our Ceed SW’s 3 trim level, one below the top spec, typifies Kia’s strategy of heavily specifying its cars.
Metallic silver paint is our car’s only option at £465, and running through the equipment list demonstrates a good balance between the practical and the cosmetic.
For instance, standard directional headlights, which swivel with steering input, are valued in urban and rural settings alike, shedding light on the inside of corners to potentially avoid harmful or damaging obstacles.
Meanwhile, on the inside, the stitched pretend-leather seat inserts and door trim, described tactfully as “faux”, look and feel the part, although the driver’s seat lacks lumbar support adjustment.
The satnav and infotainment systems, sharing a seven-inch touch screen, are fairly intuitive and have not required me to leaf through the heavy-duty handbook. However, a foray into the Cotswolds resulted in two very different ‘fastest’ setting routes to and from the destination.
A more rapid, if slightly longer, M4-related return journey was overruled in favour of skirting Oxford with resultant traffic delays.
