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A modern design, loaded with tons of features, at a great price!
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Having driven the facelifted KIA Cerato EX for a few weeks now, I must say that I have been thoroughly impressed, and at this price point, this is the best value car there is on the market now in terms of features, design and driving experience.
For a start, this is a impeccably modern and stylish car, with the new KIA logo and tiger nose grill adding to the overall design. As a testament to that, not only did I get numerous comments from family and friends about how good looking the car was, it was the first time I got stares and glances from pedestrians while waiting at a traffic junction! The designers at KIA have really done a wonderful job; The car looks both sporty (especially the back and front grille) yet modern. Some friends even said it looks like a BMW 3 Series, which speaks to the BMW design elements since KIA's Head of Design was ex-BMW. This is especially important when you compare to its cousin Avante, which has a polarizing exterior design that many friends & family who bought said they have regretted.
The interior is also superbly designed, which I dare say rivals your conti brands and definitely much nicer that the Japanese ones I have driven. The interior design, while modern and minimalistic, is loaded with features such as a 10.25 inch touch screen, auto brake hold, rear aircon vents, and even Apple Carplay and Android Auto (it is a sin for a car not to have these nowadays! I am looking at you, Japanese cars). It is also loaded with safety features like blind spot monitoring, lane keeping assist and lane departure warning etc.
Boot space is the largest in its class at 502 liters. In terms of fuel efficiency, on highways, I managed to clock up to 17.2 km/h, which is even higher than the 15 km/l stated.
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Smart looking, Value for Money budget sedan
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Having driven the Cerato for about a month, and having owned the previous generation (K3) for 4 years, I must comment that KIA has come a long way since. While it's cousin Avante has a more polarising look, the Cerato has a more 'generic' look, coming through as more mainstream. Nevertheless, it looks smart and sharp to me. It's many included features make the car a very worthwhile buy as compared to the competitors like the Altis, Civic etc, not to even mention the price difference. Definitely there will be die hard continental, Japanese car fans who will not even take a second look at KIA when purchasing a car. However, having owned a KIA for a number of years, and seeing the number of COE renewed Fortes on our roads, the reliability speaks for itself. The ride is comfortable, quiet and reasonably powerful enough for day to day drives. Combined with the new active safety and existing passive safety features, it is a well suited car for our driving environment.
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Average Looking & Performing Car
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Quite an average car with little to take note of. I think there are better options out there (like its cousin Hyundai Avante)
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A great choice of family sedan
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When it comes to Korean family sedans of this price point, most will think of the Avante. But I'm one of those that really can't stand the design on those, especially that needless, angular crease on the door that looks like the car was involved in an accident...
Okay, enough about the Avante, it's the Cerato's review. The Cerato's design isn't anything extremely polarising, it's deisgn isn't unnecessarily complicated just to make it stand out from the others. Instead, you get a simple and apt design for a value-for-money, economical family sedan. Sweet and unpretentious.
The Cerato is also packed with all sorts of features such as adaptive cruise control, forward collision avoidance and most importantly - ventilated seats! (YES! Avante isn't the only family sedan that has these lifesavers!)
Now, with the same engine as before, the Cerato sure isn't particularly fast, but I don;T really see why you would need much more power from such a car. It does it's job just fine without massive power.
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