2018 Kia Rio vs 2019

What's the difference?

The Rio GT-Line is the penultimate Rio experience, and honestly the only one in the range I’d consider. 

The changes under the bonnet and to the standard safety offering are ones that the car has desperately needed since it launched in Australia and help push the Rio back to the forefront as one of the best-equipped, well-priced and most entertaining to drive small hatchbacks on the market.

If it was just a little faster and sharper it would reach beyond itself and into hot hatch territory, but there’s still room for a fully-fledged ‘GT’ grade… Are you listening, Kia?

The Rio is a well-designed and spacious hatch with excellent multimedia and a classy cabin.

It’s a shame the S and the Sport, with their dated engine and expensive automatic options, can’t live up to the otherwise fantastic road manners on offer.

That leaves the GT-Line as our pick of the range. With its fun-packed drivetrain and expanded active safety offering, it’s hard to look past as the Rio of choice.

Fittingly, the Rio GT-Line looks like an angry little car with a lot to prove. In this ‘Mighty Yellow’ (love it) shade, it looks like it’s ready to hunt down cars in the segment that own the whole ‘fun’ thing. 

Specifically, it looks ready to take on the Suzuki Swift Sport with its flared side-skirts, black highlights adorning the front and rear bumpers. And the little gloss-black highlight spoiler round the back which looks like a nod to its distant cousin, the i30N. There’s even a gloss-black highlight diffuser and a peppy-looking dual-exhaust.

For what it's worth, I think it looks fantastic. It’s aggressive, but not overtly so and strays away from using tacky carbon-look trim on the outside. But it’s more than just sporty bits. The GT-Line maintains every bit of the excellent spacious design of the Rio range on the inside.

Present are low, comfortable seats, although there isn’t a shred of sportiness about them. The cabin features lots of nice leather touches, and setting the GT-Line apart is the carbon-look dash, which surprised me by being more than just a plastic insert and having a half-way decent texture on it.

The flat-bottomed GT-Line-specific leather steering-wheel is just the right size and has nice ridges for sitting your hands on as well as ergonomic controls for the multimedia and drive information functions.

There are some cheap bits which tarnish the look and feel though. Unlike its direct competitor, the Mazda2 GT, the Rio GT-Line misses out on leather trimmed seats and door trim. In fact, there’s no door trim at all and a basic pad for resting your elbow on, which is hardly comfortable… 

The GT-Line also has basic-looking air-conditioning controls which are the same ones you get in the base-model car, although this isn’t unusual for a car in this class.

Completing the package is a classic four-dial instrument cluster and a colour LCD screen in the centre which presents relatively basic, but welcome, trip information.

Design is a strong point for the Rio. This generation of car has been imbued with strong Germanic style courtesy of Kia’s skilful design boss.

The boxy shape and well-defined lines make any variant in the range look ready to take on the Volkswagen Polo, and the plastic detail finishes are largely tastefully executed. But it’s a shame about the dorky hubcap-clad steel wheels in the base car.

Inside, the Rio’s cabin is easily one of the best in the segment. It has a primo-looking dash with tasteful patterns and colours. The 7.0-inch touchscreen taking pride of place in the dash lends a modern feel to the unit, and the steering wheel could easily be borrowed from the far more expensive Stinger sedan.

A simple dial cluster and low-seating make the cockpit a reasonably nice place to be in any variant. But as good as it looks, the interior is hard materials galore, so don’t expect stellar comfort for your elbows or knees on long drives.

Manuals make the lack of knee room obvious, as taller folks can be susceptible to bashing their knee on the steering column during clutch operation.

The seats are executed in a tasteful pattern and are reasonably comfortable, but offer hardly any side support, even in the GT-Line.

Other than the GT-Line’s carbon-look touches and bespoke seat trim, there is little difference between the interior design of each variant.

The Rio still easily possesses a better looking and more ergonomic cabin than the Swift, Yaris and Jazz.

The GT-Line loses none of the practicality from the rest of the Rio range. The cabin feels spacious, thanks to a low seating position and high roof, and there’s decent legroom for all occupants thanks to the boxy design and wheels far to the edges of the Rio’s chassis.

As mentioned earlier, the steering wheel and multimedia system offer excellent ergonomics, but there’s nothing to rest your knee on in the tight foot-well. While this was a little awkward, it was no where near as irritating as it was in the manual version of the ‘S’ I tested last year.

Front passengers benefit from a deep storage trough in front of the shift lever and under the air conditioning controls there's a little shelf suitable for phones and wallets. The USB, 'aux-in' port and two 12-volt outlets are also located here.

There are two deep cupholders in the transmission tunnel and a small top-box providing some extra storage.

Like all current Hyundais and Kias, the door inserts for both front and rear passengers have huge cupholders which will hold almost any bottle you throw at them, as well as deep hollow troughs for tidbits.

Aside from those storage bins and a single 12-volt outlet, rear passengers don’t get much, there aren’t even any air vents back there but I found the leg and headroom excellent (I’m 182cm tall) for a car this size.

The boot remains the same as the rest of the Rio range, at a decent 325 litres VDA. That’s good for the segment, although it is bested by the flexible Honda Jazz (354L), Suzuki Baleno (355L) and distant cousin, the Hyundai Accent (370L) which is the segment leader.

Under the boot is a space-saver spare. It’s no full-size, but better than a repair kit.

The Rio’s square dimensions lend it a spacious interior, although it is surprisingly bested in this class on boot space by several competitors.

Arm-flailing space and headroom is great for all occupants, but rear passengers get perhaps better legroom than even the driver.

There are well-sized bottle holders in each door, as well as two small ones for front occupants in front of the console box.

Speaking of which, it’s impressive this little car gets a console box at all, because the Jazz and Yaris are left without, while in the Mazda2 it’s a $495 option.

There’s also a decently sized trench in front of the gearknob which houses the USB, AUX and 12v ports. The Rio doesn’t get rear air vents, but it does have a USB power outlet in the back.

Boot space is a decent 325 litres VDA which sounds and looks good, but is bested in this segment by the Honda Jazz (354L), Suzuki Baleno (355L) and Hyundai Accent (370L).

It maxes out at 980L with the rear seats flat, which is almost double the equivalent room in a Suzuki Swift.

Price is everything in such a competitive segment, and so every dollar matters in the small-car stakes.

The Rio range is a three-variant affair, starting with the $16,990 base-model S. The S is unchanged from last year’s model and comes equipped with either a six-speed manual or an antiquated four-speed auto at a $2100 premium.

Standard inclusions on the S are 15-inch steel wheels, a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, a reversing camera and halogen headlights with auto function.

Missing is cruise control or more recent systems like AEB, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring, or cross-traffic alerts.

It’s worth noting the entry-level variants of the Honda Jazz, Mazda 2 Neo and Suzuki Swift are all cheaper, too. And the additional cost of $2100 for a lacklustre automatic is a particular let down.

The next grade up in the range is the new Sport variant ($17,790). The Sport replaces the previously-mid-spec Si, and it gains 17-inch alloy wheels, cruise control, a leather-bound steering wheel and gear shift as well as heated and folding wing-mirrors.

The Sport can also be had with a new six-speed torque converter automatic at a $3000 premium. This transmission is better, but it still can't make up for the failings of the engine; but more on that in the Driving section of this review.

Finally, the updated Rio range tops out with the GT-Line ($21,990). The GT-Line replaces the previous top-spec SLi and comes with an overhauled drivetrain and the presence of active safety features which are not available, even optionally, on lower grades.

The GT-Line gains a bespoke body-kit, flat-bottomed perforated-leather steering wheel, carbon-look interior trim, LED DRLs, fog lights and rear light clusters.

All Rio variants score a reversing camera with rear parking sensors.

The range, spanning from $17,790 to $21,990 is a decent one, but the safety and performance improvements of the GT-Line make it our pick of the range, and it's worth spending the extra money for one.

Just be aware that the GT-Line's circa-$22k pricing will put you in a car the next size up fairly easily.

It’s a shame both the S and the Sport do not get any active safety features and are burdened with antiquated (or expensive) automatic transmissions.

The big news is here. The GT-Line is the only Rio to score a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo engine which produces 88kW/172Nm. 

The rest of the range has the holdover (and critically-panned) 1.4-litre 74kW/133Nm engine which has hampered the Rio’s score in the past.

Even though you only score an extra 14kW, the three-cylinder is a much more modern and punchy little unit packed full of character. It allows you to actually explore the better properties of the Rio’s chassis with the solid dollop of extra torque (39Nm) making all the difference. 

At this price, you can also say farewell to the archaic (and also critically-panned) four-speed automatic, as the GT-Line gets a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, a first for Kia in Australia.

While not as slick as a VW offering, the Kia dual-clutch is still a pretty quick-shifter and can be placed in manual mode by tilting the shift-lever to the right. Frustratingly though, there are no paddle-shifters which would really help extract a little more fun out of the combination.

There’s also a start-stop system on the GT-Line which is better than the irritating Volkswagen ones, but still not quite as intuitive as Mazda’s ‘i-stop’ system.

There are two engines and four transmissions in the Rio Range. But only one combination is likely to put a smile on your face.

The S and Sport are only available with a 1.4-litre four-cylinder non-turbo petrol engine which produces 74kW/133Nm. That sounds competitive on paper, but in real life it fails to deliver.

Both cars come with the same six-speed manual, but the S can be optioned with an ancient four-speed auto at a $2100 premium. This is an antiquated transmission and not good value.

The Sport is available with a six-speed auto at a $3000 premium. It’s a much better transmission and improves the drive experience, but it's expensive for an auto and cannot make up for the engine’s failings.

Up the top of the range is the much more impressive 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo in the GT-Line.

The GT-Line is not available with a manual and can only be had with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, a first for Kia in Australia.

The engine produces 88kW/172Nm but can make use of its peak torque in a much wider band than the 1.4. Combined with the slick-shifting dual clutch it's a much better combination.

Kia claims the Rio will use 5.8L/100km on the combined cycle, and although the little engine is a modern turbocharged unit, it will happily drink base-grade 91RON petrol and E10.

On my week of fun-packed driving, I extracted 8.9L/100km.

Understandable, given I was pushing the little engine to see what it was capable of, and frequently turning off the stop-start system. Still a miss if you drive the car how it really should be driven, though…

The 1.4-litre manual variants of the S and Sport have a claimed/combined fuel usage figure of 5.6L/100km. The S’ four-speed auto has a claimed figure of 6.2L/100km and the Sport’s six-speed has a figure of 6.0L/100km.

Meanwhile, the three-cylinder turbo offering in the GT-Line with the seven-speed auto has the best claimed figure of the lot, at 5.4L/100km.

In my test of the S and Sport I found a more realistic figure to expect from the 1.4-litre to be between 7.5 and 9.0L/100km. This is generally worse than fuel figures we’ve experienced in cars like the Suzuki Swift and Mazda2.

My test of the GT-Line produced an 8.9L/100km figure, but I was having a lot of fun.

All Rios have 45-litre tanks and drink base-grade 91RON unleaded petrol.

The Rio is awesome to drive compared to it's lesser 1.4-litre versions. The little turbo three-cylinder engine has small amounts of lag to contend with, but generally shoots up the rev range and into its power band with gruff enthusiasm.

After my initial drive, though, I found myself desperately searching for a ‘Sport’ mode. The GT-Line is loads of fun… but if it were just 15 per cent better the Suzuki Swift Sport (the only hot hatch left in this price segment) would have a serious competitor on its hands.

It would be as simple as adding paddle-shifters, upping throttle response and sharpening each shift. It’s that close to being something truly great.

This is thanks to the Rio already having fantastic locally-tuned suspension, responsive - if a little stiff at low-speed - steering, and wheels that sit way out to the edges of the chassis.

The GT-Line rides super-flat, dispatching corners with ease, and despite the large alloys with slim rubber allowing quite a lot of road noise into the cabin, impacts with potholes or imperfections are smoothed out reasonably well.

I’m sure the Continental ContiSportContact 2 tyres (costing just under $1000 for a set…) on our test car helped with the feel… I don’t doubt most examples will end up with much cheaper rubber after a year or two on the road.

Sure, the GT-Line could benefit from fully-independent rear suspension, bucket seats, maybe a bit more power and a sporty manual gearbox… but at that point you’d be talking a car costing north of $25k.

Make no mistake - the Rio GT-Line is nowhere near a track-ready hero like the Clio RS, Peugeot 208 GTi or soon-to-arrive Ford Fiesta ST, but it’s such a warmed-up improvement over previous Rio offerings it proves little Korean hatchbacks have the potential to be a lot of fun.

The Rio has some excellent, and some not-so-excellent driving characteristics.

It’s frustrating, really, because all Rios have a nice wide footprint, solid steering and excellent suspension tuned here in Australia.

The downside is the drivetrains in most variants can’t live up to the promise laid out by the rest of the experience.

The outdated 1.4-litre feels breathless until torque starts to arrive somewhere around 4000rpm. In manual versions, this means you’ll be shuffling gears with annoying frequency to try and keep the power up. In the four-speed auto S you’re left with no choice but to be stuck without power, then suddenly too much power, while the six speed in the Sport helps to smooth this out a little.

All 1.4-litre variants feel slow off the line no matter what you do. Overtaking is a chore.

The new 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit in the GT-Line is a different story altogether. It’s an enthusiastic little engine with a wide power band. It does have a small amount of lag to contend with, but it sounds gruff and has a heap more character than most engines in this class.

It’s not quite on the same level as the Suzuki Swift Sport, but performance-wise, it's a rung above competitors from other brands.

All Rio variants carry a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from 2017 onwards. Although, safety across the range varies geatly.

The entry-level S and Sport have no active safety items whatsoever, even optionally. This is a roaring shame given even base variants of the Swift and Mazda2 have AEB, and it is available as an affordable option on the Toyota Yaris.

The GT-Line, again, is far superior to the others in that it comes standard with city-speed auto emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning, lane keep assist (LKAS) with lane departure warning (LDW), and driver attention alert (DAA).

No Rio variant is capable of supporting blind spot monitoring (BSM), rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA) or active cruise control.

Standard fitment across the Rio range is the standard suite of stability controls, six airbags and three top-tether or two ISOFIX child-seat mounting points.

The solid ownership promise of a seven-year/unlimited km warranty has always been a strong point for Kia, and it’s no different in this segment for the Rio. It outclasses the five-year warranties on the Mazda2 and Honda Jazz, and makes the three-year offerings on the Toyota Yaris and Suzuki Swift look comical.

The GT-Line requires a service once a year or every 10,000km and the brand provides costing for each service for the first seven years, ranging from $285 - $778. 

It averages out at a really quite expensive $484.57 over the seven years, though. The Mazda2 costs an average of $301 over the same period. Worth considering.

One of the Rio’s strong points has always been Kia’s fantastic seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty. It far outstrips the now-standard five-year warranties offered by other brands.

While other brands are upping the pace, the Rio still has the best warranty in this class.

The same can’t be said for ownership costs, sadly. The Rio only needs to be serviced once a year or every 15,000km, and costs an average of $390.71 per year for 1.4-litre variants, or a significantly more expensive $484.57 per year for the GT-Line.