What makes the Kia Cee'd 1.6 EcoDynamics a car for all seasons

Updated: 07:07 EST, 22 February 2010

A low price, no-nonsense, won't-break-down car for people who don't care about labels

One thing I've learnt in all my years of food-sourcing is that the label often lies. I've seen exactly the same product sold under different labels in different supermarkets, one twice the price of the other. I've seen food that was bred, butchered and prepped on the other side of the world labelled British - just because we added some salt and wrapped it in cellophane. Worst of all is bottled water.

Whether it's 'filtered through Highland rocks over millions of years' or 'collected from the virgin cloud-forests of the South Pacific', the label always promises a unique taste. Yep, that would be tap water. One dead giveaway is that after all these millions of years supposedly being purified to perfection by the timeless forces of nature, they stick it in a plastic bottle and put a Best By date on it.

Sometimes, though, it works the other way and the label undersells the product. One example is Kia. They don't shout about themselves much and as a result, have never quite overturned the lazy label we gave them when they arrived here in the Nineties as cheap Korean also-rans.

Since halfway through 2008, of course, cheap has seemed like a very good label indeed and - like the pound shops springing up in every high street - Kia's time has come.

In fact, that's putting it mildly. Hyundai-Kia (the two Korean firms joined in 1998) became the world's fourth biggest car manufacturer last year, overtaking Ford, and the Government scrappage scheme has given it an even bigger boost. Hyundai sold more cars than anyone else under the scheme, and Kia wasn't far behind.

So why the change in fortunes for Kia?

From left: Illuminated display, driver console

I think it's simple: it offers a seven-year warranty on every new car, and no one else does. You can only afford to do that if you're certain your cars won't break, and that'll win people over quicker than any flashy TV ad with dancing robots.

The new Kia Venga compact MPV comes out this spring and should sell well. But it was really the German-designed, Slovakian-built Cee'd hatchback that started the turnaround for Kia, and it's been upgraded for 2010. So, at the start of the year, I borrowed one.

Mine was the five-door diesel EcoDynamics version, which looks like a Golf mixed with an Astra - hardly likely to set your buttocks on fire, but well made and far from cheap-looking. You get 89 horsepower, optional stability control, fold-down seats and a large boot with a low sill that makes shopping easy - I was told to mention that by a lovely old dear I met in the Waitrose car park, who wanted one.

As for the EcoDynamics badge, it means you get energy-saving tyres and Intelligent Stop and Go (a first for a diesel, I think), which turns off the engine when you're sitting in traffic in neutral, reducing emissions into the £35-a-year tax band. That's cheaper than my scooter. Even better is the fuel cost: I swear I got 70mpg out of it, and I wasn't hanging about.

So often these special 'eco' motors feel like they're built from tree sap, swallow spit and recycled tissue paper. Not this one. It felt solid, the doors and boot closed with a satisfying thud and the bonnet needed all my strength to lift it. Inside there's plenty of legroom both in the front and rear, and the reach-and-rake adjustable steering wheel ensures you get a comfortable driving position - no electric seats, though. DIY is the order of the day for Kia.

There are three trim levels now called, ingeniously, 1, 2 and 3. The first gets you air-con, cooled glovebox, electric front windows and steering-wheel mounted controls. The second adds alloys, fog lights, heated mirrors and a better stereo, while the third has a different front grille, cruise control, electric back windows and a kind of glossy black dashboard. The EcoDynamics version is a 2.

I notice Kia is still using hard plastic where VW and others have moved on to soft-touch stuff, but the revised dashboard is well laid-out, with a new silver finish and a nice big central dial for the stereo and simple rotary air-conditioning controls. The stereo was decent, but the heating took a long time to warm up. You really notice that when it's five below zero.

Engine noise was a little loud, so with the Kings Of Leon blasting out of the speakers to drown it out, I set off. The steering's not bad. It won't match a Golf or the brilliant current Focus for fun, but it handled OK, with only the usual amount of safe understeer you expect on a small family car. It coped smoothly with a cracked motorway and over speed bumps in town, having had its suspension tweaked in response to customer feedback, and the gear-shift is nice and short and snappy.

Given the choice I'd want a more powerful engine, as overtaking wasn't much fun. The 113hp diesel is supposed to be the pick of the bunch, but it's a grand or two more expensive and not as fuel-efficient.

Mind you, if we're talking about price it's worth pointing out that this here EcoDynamics badge costs you £2,000. Leave it off (sorry, polar bears) and you could get the same engine with the same horsepower for less than £13,000, albeit in a slightly flimsier trim.

And that's really what these Korean workhorses are all about: low price, no-nonsense, won't-break-down cars for people who don't care about labels.

If you do care about labels, there are thousands of old VW badges you can buy on eBay from old Beastie Boys fans and stick on the front. No one will know but you.

Either way, you'll have a little bargain that does what a car was always meant to do: go from A to B. I wouldn't mind having one. God, I must be getting old.

TECH SPEC

£14,195, kia.co.uk

Engine 1.6-litre diesel four cylinder

Max power 89hp

Max torque 235Nm at 1,750-2,500rpm

Top speed 107mph

Fuel consumption 67mpg

CO2 emissions 110g/km (tax band C)

Transmission Six-speed manual

Standard features 16in alloys with Michelin Energy Saver low rolling-resistance tyres, ABS with EBD, gear-shift indicator, Intelligent Stop and Go, fog lights, four-spoke steering wheel with audio and trip computer controls plus Bluetooth, six-speaker radio/CD/MP3 player with iPod connectivity, air-con, cooled glovebox, front electric windows, heated mirrors, seven-year/100,000-mile warranty

Optional extras Four-speed automatic transmission, Vehicle Stability Management with electronic power steering and Hill-Assist Control

DRIVE TALKING

What's hot on the road this week

ELECTRIC DREAMS

Dispelling any doubt we're entering an era of hybrids, Porsche is working on a hybrid 911 GT3 racer, with two 60kw electric motors driving the front wheels while the four-litre 'boxer' drives the rear. It will be unveiled at next week's Geneva Motor Show. There'll also be a new road car, the range-topping 911 Turbo S, which goes on sale in May from £123,263.

SMALL CHANGE

Also at Geneva will be Audi's long-awaited 'Mini-killer', the A1. With prices expected to start at £13,000 when deliveries start in October, the three-door compact hatch gets a choice of three clean and efficient turbo engines - a 1.2-litre and 1.4-litre petrol, and a 1.6-litre diesel - and the latest Ingolstadt technology like start-stop and energy recuperation, ESP with a new differential lock and 'S tronic' twin-clutch transmission.

ARISE, THE JUKE

James made it one of his cars of 2010 last week, and now we have photos of the Nissan Juke, the small sporty crossover to be built in Sunderland from October at around £11,000. Billed as 'a sports car on top, an SUV from the waist down', it gets a 1.5-litre diesel and two 1.6-litre petrol units - one a turbo yielding 187hp - and new 'torque vectoring' technology on the all-wheel drive system.

SPORTY SWEDE

Rounding off the Geneva Motor Show launches is Volvo's all-new S60, now branded a 'four-door coupé'. Sportier than any previous Volvo, it comes in 2.0-litre and 2.4-litre diesels and a 3.0-litre petrol producing no less than 304hp. With Dynamic Stability and Traction Control, Pedestrian Detection braking and City Safety as standard and FOUR-C active chassis as an option, it will also be the most hi-tech Volvo when it goes on sale in summer. 

By Simon Lewis