Kia Cerato Sport sedan 2018 review

Kia’s last-gen Cerato was a hit with buyers, and it’s no surprise why.

By offering a solid, no-nonsense car with a dependable warranty and promising ownership plan, Kia’s baby sedan and hatch styles thrived in the highly competitive small-car class. It was a sturdy, reliable, no-nonsense vehicle aimed those who buy with their head, not their hearts. Retirees, money-conscious couples, accountants – those sorts of people.

But will the new Kia Cerato sedan keep up the good work? And does it bring anything new to the table, other than a strong warranty and ownership experience (now that its rivals have soon caught up)?

Explore the 2018 Kia Cerato range

• Kia Cerato 2018 review
• Kia Cerato Sport+ 2018 review: snapshot
• Kia Cerato S 2018 review: snapshot
• Kia Cerato Sport 2018 review: snapshot
• Kia Cerato Sport sedan 2018 review

To find out if it had any unexpected tricks up its sleeve, I took it to NSW’s Olney State Forest for a weekend camping trip.

Saturday:

As I was planning on driving 120km north from Sydney to the Olney State Forest Basin Campground, I needed to take a fair amount of gear. It’s not like I could just turn back around to get something from the house, after all. 

Not only was I bringing my own camping equipment – a camp chair, pillow, sleeping bag, a couple of heavy-duty blankets, a queen-size doona, and a single-person swag - but also a hefty stash of food and drink for the crew. They’d already demolished their existing supply from the night before and I owed them a favour from a couple of months ago. You don't bail on your mates.

Step up to Sport and you’ll get 17-inch alloys.

Despite needing to haul a mountain of gear, the Cerato’s boot swallowed it all. Easily. Kia quotes a capacity of 502 litres (VDA) for the new Cerato sedan. Not only is that 50L larger than the Hyundai Elantra or Holden Astra sedan, it’s also 20L more than the Lexus LS500h. And that’s a full-size executive limousine!

Controversially - for a Kia, at least - the spare wheel is a temporary space-saver unit, so it’s not all perfect.

But even though the lack of full-size spare is going to irritate some of the Kia faithful, the looks of the Cerato should make up for it. If there was ever a Kia (other than the Stinger GT) worth falling head-over-heels for, it’d be this one.

Not only did we find the Sport variant to be the pick-of-the-bunch at the international launch this year, it’s also one of the more attractive Kias going around. Not too conservative, not too adventurous - just right.

The ‘S’ base variant is offered at a competitive sub-$20k asking price and comes with basic cloth seats and 16-inch steel wheels. But step up to the $23,690 (RRP) Sport sedan and you’ll get better materials on the dash, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear lever, cloth-trimmed seats with a ‘sports pattern’, sat nav with live traffic updates, and 17-inch alloys - the latter of which complement the Cerato’s exterior design drama nicely.

I reckon it’s a pretty stylish and handsome looking thing. Not too big (or small) either, which makes the cavernous practicality even more surprising.

There are bottle holders in each of the four doors – which can even hold those bigger bottles of electrolyte sports drink - and a slew of charging sockets up front: two USB ports and a 12V auxiliary in the dash; and another USB port in the centre console storage bin.

The dash, while laid out in a relatively conservative (yet very ergonomic) manner, features cool, turbine air vents and a slick an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen. Unlike some of the class competitors at this price point, the multimedia system found on the Sport features a reversing camera, DAB, Bluetooth, sat-nav with live traffic updates, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.

Many of its variant competitors either have a smaller screen (Honda Civic VTi-S); no sat-nav (Volkswagen Golf Trendline, Holden Astra LS+ ) or smartphone mirroring (Mazda3 Neo Sport) - or any of the above (Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport). With the exception of the Subaru Impreza 2.0-L, the Cerato Sport is the only one to have the full gamut.

Not only does the screen dominate the entire cabin, but it’s smooth, responsive, features great resolution, and is very easy to use. It’s leagues ahead of the old car and should continue to feel crisp in the next few years of its model life.

Not only that, but it’s also connected to one of the better stereo systems this side of $25k.

Disappointingly, there is a glaring omission of air-vents for rear-seat passengers, which is bound to incite some A/C-related parent–offspring conflicts on a hot Aussie day. While I didn't don a three-piece and cap to chauffeur around any VIPs, rear-seat passengers should appreciate the centre fold-down armrest and limousine-like levels of knee and legroom. It truly is vast back there.

After scything up the Pacific Highway and out west into Ourimbah's backroads, the Kia and I arrived at the mouth of the Basin Campgrounds; essentially, a deep, frozen pit in the bowels of the Olney Valley. The roads had turned from asphalt, to bitumen, to potholes and dirt, before finally settling on clay near the carpark. Thick clay.

The time was 4:00pm but the Cerato Sport’s instrument cluster was telling me the temperature had already fallen to just five degrees. This didn’t particularly inspire confidence about the night ahead, but at least my mates had already started a fire…

Sunday:

After a horrible, frozen night of listening to my teeth smash themselves to bits, I was keen to get home.

I was cold from the weather, lumpen from the forest floor, and dirty from my midnight slip (I left the tent for a pee, tripped on one of the anchor ropes, slipped and instantly caked my back in mud). Such is the way with camping; senseless abject misery. All I could think about was a shower and a nap.

After rinsing my neck and back in the nearby stream (which must’ve been made from liquid nitrogen), the Kia’s huge boot once again proved to be a welcome sight.

The Kia's big boot was a welcome sight, and I chucked everything in. No need for packing, folding, or mindful consideration of space. Just toss in your crap and go!

Not only did the damp weather prematurely snuff-out our fire, it also transformed the steep mountain access trail from a dusty road to a muddy track. It tried its best to skew the Cerato’s progress when it marched through, but ultimately, dirt and earth gave way to steel and power. And to think you need an SUV…

Strong marks to the traction control, too. Normally it’s impractical (or just outright dangerous and illegal) to activate and evaluate the operation of a vehicle’s traction control systems on the public road, but in this unique circumstance I saw quick and proactive action over the 225/45 tyres; adjusting, re-adjusting, calculating and re-adjusting power delivery over and over again in smooth, compliant succession. It’s far from the clunky systems of old that simply cut all power and leave you dead in the water.

Not that there is a huge amount lot of power; pulling out of intersections, overtaking on hills, and merging into busy highways quickly highlight the Cerato’s lack of mid-range pep. The optional $1500 torque-converter six-speed automatic adapts well to varying circumstances and helps compensate for the lack of grunt, but it can only do so much.

Kia's 112kW/192Nm four-cylinder has been around for a while now, and is starting to show its age.

A smaller, turbocharged unit – like the 1.6-litre direct-injected engine in the Hyundai Elantra – would be better suited to the task, but the existing 112kW/192Nm multi-point injected, 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine (carried over from the previous-gen Cerato) is a venerable (if vocal) unit with a good track record of reliability.

The Kia Cerato also comes with an industry-leading seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and capped-price servicing scheme to match. The first seven years of servicing (up to 70,000km) will cost a very respectable $2447.

But, as expected with older, more 'proven' engine design, fuel efficiency takes a bit of a dive.

All Kia Ceratos get a temporary full-sized spare.

Despite spending the majority of my time in the ‘Eco’ drive mode (as opposed to the optional Smart, Comfort, and Sport modes), I recorded a hefty average of 9.1L/100km at the pump, compared to the official combined figure of 7.4L/100km as advertised by Kia. All Ceratos will take regular, 91 octane unleaded petrol.

Once out on the highway, the Cerato settled down pretty well. Unlike the mountainous country roads that made the Kia wander through gears, the Cerato’s drivetrain is much better suited to flatter, low engine load scenarios. The 2.0-litre variant is more at home on the highway. Here, the vehicle’s suspension compliance, sound insulation and tall-ish gearing help make up for the engine’s lack of torque.

Longer journeys are made better by the comfortable, well-trimmed and very supportive front seats. While they don’t feature lumbar adjustment – a small and common design oversight in this class – spine comfort did not deteriorate after the two-and-a-half hour drive as I came back to Sydney.