FIRST DRIVE
Kia Picanto Ice 1.1-litre
City driving made easy – that what Kia has done with its Kia Picanto 1.1 Ice.
In this sector of the market, competition is fierce from the likes Ford, Renault and VW. But the Korean maker has sent a warning to these well established brands that it is herte to stay and potentially take a lot of punters with them.
From the front the 2008 Picanto has that grown-up look about it, the grille has come from big brother Cee’d and the front headlight cluster gives the Picanto’s face a neater shape.
The rear has been given new bumpers, while there’s also a new shaped rear light cluster.
Moving to the inside – the cabin is hardly recognisable from the original Picanto that came out in 2004. The overhaul includes an all black dash with orange peel effect design on it. The steering wheel is new as are the instrument, which are now light up in orange. The controls look really fresh and upmarket and take the Picanto up another rung in its development.
Getting a good driving position is quite easy – even though the steering wheel can only be adjusted for rake, the driver’s seat does however have a height adjustor.
We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of legroom in the rear with two adults seated – however the boot will only hold a couple of soft bags when there are four of you as capacity is only 157 litres when the seats are in place. With the rear seats folded flat this expands to 882 litres of luggage space.
If you have lots of nik-naks there’s plenty of cubby-holes up front – there’s twin cup-holders and the door pockets are a good size. Comfort around town is pretty good although the Kia tends to skip and bounce over potholes and uneven surfaces – and unfortunately there’s plenty of these in Glasgow.
There’s little feedback through the over assisted steering, but the Picanto is easy to manoeuvre into tight spaces which makes city life a breeze.
The Picanto performs well on motorways – the four-cylinder 64bhp 1.1 petrol engine is quieter than the 1.2 that VW use in its popular Polo. Road roar from the tyres is minimal although the large wing mirrors make wind noise a little intrusive.
It’s green to as the 1.1-litre engine only kicks out 126g/km of CO2 emissions which puts it in Band B and should cost you £140 for a years road tax.
The Kia Picanto has one final trick left up its sleeve – its price the 1.1 Ice model starts at £6,995 and comes with air-conditioning, electric windows and five doors as standard.
So Kia really has made city driving easy and if you’re on a budget then this is the ideal car for you.
At a glance
| Name: | Kia Picanto Ice |
| Price: | £6,995 |
| Engine/power: | 1.1-litre/64bhp |
| Co2 emissions: | 126g/km |
| Combined fuel economy: | 53.3mpg |
Simon McBride