Kia Cee'd

WITH such indistinguished predecessors as the Pride, the Mentor, the Rio, the Accent and the Lantra, describing the Kia Cee'd as the best car to come out of South Korea sounds like damning with faint praise.

It's not because this car comes close - very close - to matching the best vehicles in the medium-sized family-car class. It also costs less and boasts an incredible warranty package. What's not to like about that?

Yes, it has a silly name, complete with dodgy apostrophe on the tailgate, but that aside, the Cee'd is a breakthrough car for Kia, one that will change perceptions of the badge in this country.

There's nothing special about the Cee'd, other than the fearsomely efficient way it goes about its business, but nor is there any reason to apologise for your choice of car if you own one.

The Cee'd (pronounced seed) is every inch a serious contender in one of the most hotly-contested sectors of the market. It also boasts something none of its rivals can claim - an unprecedented sevenyear warranty.

Rivals may sneer that the warranty is a gimmick, merely a way of distracting buyers from the Cee'd's mediocre driving abilities, but they would be wrong. The Cee'd drives very nicely and, if previous experience of Korean cars is any indicator, the warranty probably won't be required anyway. In fact, I'd wager that the peace-of-mind a cast-iron warranty brings is likely to sway more private buyers than the manner a Ford Focus handles on the limit.

Such a lengthy warranty also helps guarantee future re-sale value and demonstrates Kia's confidence in its new family car.

Kia and its sister company, Hyundai, are deadly serious about mounting a serious European challenge to volume manufacturers like Ford and VW. The Cee'd is the car on which their hopes rest (a Hyundai-badged version will be here shortly), which is why the package is so well focused and full of far-reaching intent.

Strip away the badges and the car a Cee'd most resembles is the Toyota Corolla. And that's no bad thing in this class because the Corolla has been the world's best-selling car for nigh on two decades.

The bulbous wheel arches help to visually suck the body on to the road and a strong belt-line, paired with chiselled haunches, lend the Cee'd an appearance of strength.

For the moment you can only buy a five-door, but an even sportier three-door and an estate are imminent.

Kia has also examined the marketing possibilities of a cabrio Cee'd by chopping the tin top.

The Cee'd is manufactured at a new factory in Slovakia and was styled in Europe.

Inside the cabin is nicely done, the instruments straightforward and manufactured from, on the whole, quality components.

Looking a bit harder, I found evidence of some cost-cutting: the silver door handles are nasty plastic with a mould ridge that catches your fingers, the gearknob was screwed on at a jaunty angle and the door bins flex disconcertingly if you stuff them too full. They don't have rubber lining so any spare change rattles about.

At least the twin cupholders have rubber bottoms to hold cans of drink in a firm grip. The glovebox is air conditioned but doesn't lock.

Their is also a small cubby hole in the fascia beneath the heating controls.

The seats on LS models have leather bolsters and fabric inserts.

I appreciated the USB port and the aux input for MP3 players. You slot a memory stick into the socket, press a button and your favourite sounds are output through the radio/CD player. In a case of South Korean overkill, the CD can also handle MP3 discs.

Elsewhere, though, the Cee'd looks and feels very well made - the grab handles and sunglasses case are nicely damped, soft plastics are used on the top third of the fascia, carrying through to the door, and the seats are nice and comfortable.

The 140mph speedo sits above a digital odometer and next to a smaller rev counter redlined at 6,500 rpm. To the left of this is a small LCD read-out for the trip computer. The leather steering wheel has remote control buttons for the audio.

The wheel adjusts for reach and rake and there's a rest for your clutch foot.

The only ergonomic sour note is Kia's decision to go with righthand indicators - the opposite to most other cars on sale today. Ironically, this is actually a better solution than putting it on the left, because it enables you to change gear and indicate at the same time (not the accidentwaiting- to-happen you'd imagine).

The Cee'd seats five but adults sitting in the middle of the rear seat have to negotiate a high transmission tunnel with their feet. This spoils what is an otherwise exemplary amount of space.

The seat base folds forward to create a totally flat load area if the boot isn't big enough. There are chromed lashing points in the trunk for awkward items.

The Cee'd is an easy car to drive. Visibility is good, the clutch is very light and the gear stick slices across the gate with the minimum of effort.

Power steering makes light work of parking manoeuvres and you'll appreciate the body's short overhangs front and back and the excellent allround visibility.

The ride is quite firm, but the secondary ride (the ability to cope with unexpected pot-holes and bumps) is actually very good. There's plenty of grip from the 205/55 Michelin tyres (although the spare space saver is a Korean Hankook) and the Cee'd always goes where you point it.

Kia engineers have paid particular attention to noise, vibration and harshness. The 1.6- litre engine sings sweetly all the way up to the 5,500 rpm red line and no tingly vibes can be felt through the helm.

At 60/70 mph the Cee'd is very smooth and refined, only a bit of wind noise intruding into the cabin.

It's frugal too, returning more than 40mpg in a week of mixed running.

The 1.6 LS on test costs £13,500 and for that sum you get almost every extra a driver could conceivably want, including climate control, electric windows, alloy wheels and decent in-car entertainment.

Strangely, I couldn't get comfortable with the climate control. Moving the temperate even one degree away from the Lo' (sic) setting made the cabin uncomfortably warm and stuffy.

Kia hopes to sell 10,000 Cee'ds this year. It will, and it deserves to sell a great many more.

Ignore the funny name and go along for a test drive; I guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.

SPECIFICATION

Engine: 1591cc four-cylinder.
Max power: 120bhp @ 6200rpm
Max torque: 113Nm @ 5200rpm
0-62mph in 10.8sec
Top speed: 119mph
Overall fuel consumption: 44.1mpg.
Carbon emmissions: 152g/km CO2