Kia Sonet

The Kia Sonet stands out from the rest of the range. It looks markedly different in design, and also literally, with a roof that towers over the Stonic, Cerato, and even can reach onto the Seltos.

The Kia Sonet is probably the first rugged looking car to come out from Kia. As a huge fan of rugged looking cars, I decided to check out the Sonet at the Kia showroom.

The car certainly had a macho image in real life. Even better was the price tag that was around 133k at my time of viewing. However, I realised that there were certain elements in the exterior styling of the car which made it look quite cheap on closer inspection. After all this car is not a Rolls Royce so I can still forgive it for such flaws. However I must say that this was quite apparent in the car's door handles.

Driving the car was a rather pleasant experience. I did not go in to the test drive with much expectations, which was probably the right thing to do as no particular part of the car really had a wow factor. It does everything well, albeit not to the highest standards.

One commendable thing though was the build quality. The Koreans seem to be able to do really good interiors nowadays, definitely more solid feeling than the Japanese at a similar price point.

One not so good thing howeveer was the power the car made. It certainly felt adequate for Singapore's roads, however more power would certainly be welcome.

Overall the Sonet is a very decent car but besides its rugged looks, does not really excel at anything else.

The Kia Sonet is quite the interesting little thing. It has the footprint of a small car, but its quite a bit taller than rivals of the same size, sporting a body that is both physically tall and lifted high off the ground.

It's tall, comes with good ground clearance, and has all the SUV-like touches including a big grille, strong and muscular design, and those roof rails, while all being packed into a small body. What's not to like?

Collected the car before the year of tiger, good driving experience on day to day basis. I am 6"2 and so there is plenty of head space for those worrying of head space. Exterior and Interior looks stylish compared to other compact SUVs around. Fuel consumption is pretty decent for a small tank it gives about 13 to 15km/l on a 50/50 city/highway.

With Kia Connect introduction on Q2 2022, I am sure there will be more things to look out for. For great buying experience look out for C&C KIA Cindy.

Collected the car just before CNY. Was in the showroom to view the Cerato and confirm the Cerato. However, my wife saw the Sonet and decided that it was a better choice for her than the Cerato.

Had a test drive and the Sonet was definitely comfortable, quiet and pretty well built with good features missing in the competition. The 1.5L and CVT combi certainly feels laggy from a power standpoint. However, as a day to day drive, there is nothing much to fault. Handling is typically SUVish, can't demand more. If handling is an important criteria, then looking at wrong type of car.

Of course there will be many detractors naming the MII as a bad point, reliability concern etc, but from my experience with various brands and country of make, it will not make much of a difference, especially with our 10 year lifespan of the vehicle anyway. Also, CnC provides a 5 year warranty, so it should be fine. In fact, looking at the road conditions in India, then look back here, i am sure the car will cope well here.

I moved from 3-year old Honda Jazz to this SONET. I got it in time for CNY. The fuel consumption is something I need to get use to because my Jazz is approximately 15 to 17 km/l. Comparing to 13-14km/l, there is indeed more costly in terms of fuel. However this pricing is rather affordable for the switch. Thanks to the COE hike, my Jazz became more valuable. Hence i just top-up a few k for the switch.

The sales person from KIA Fulco - Ong is great. He introduced the car well and I got attracted to this KIA Connect Lite (can remote start)

I compared HRV (2022) and Yaris Cross, is due to pricing. And you will give up on all the tech it has within it. (Tech also need to consider the maintenance and lifespan of such tech)