Kia ex-cee’ds expectations

While taking issue with the name of Kia’s popular family hatch, Seán Creedon found that the new cee’d has everything in the right place…

The great Kerry-born writer Con Houlihan once said that you couldn’t trust anybody who misplaces an apostrophe. Being a former schoolteacher, Con was a stickler for punctuation and rightly so. I don’t know if Con ever drove a car, but if he could test drive the new Kia cee’d, I think he would forgive the Korean manufacturer’s strange use of the apostrophe in this instance.

The cee’d is pronounced ‘seed’ and was originally known as ED for European Design. The ‘ce’ part was added as shorthand for the community of Europe. And thus, the lower case cee’d: strange but true. I’m not sure about that apostrophe, though…

Anyway, five years ago the cee’d was the first family hatchback to come out of Kia’s factory in Zilina, Slovakia. It proved to be a winner and helped the Korean company compete in the compact family hatchback segment.

This second generation was also designed, engineered and manufactured in Europe and Kia hopes that it will be able to compete against cars such as the best selling Ford Focus and VW Golf.

I have driven more attractive cars in recent weeks and months, but the five-door cee’d is really good value for money. Prices start at €18,895 for the 1.4l diesel, while the 1.6l diesel version I drove costs €21,795. And of course, you get that unbeatable seven-year warranty from Kia on all their cars.

Apart from the grille, LED lights and cute headlights, the front end doesn’t really have the ‘wow’ factor, but it does have a coupe look to it. However, on the inside, you can’t help but be impressed by smoothly and quietly the car handles.

The interior is predominantly black, but there is a touch of grey on the seats to lift the décor. And the cream colour used overhead really brightens the interior.

The controls on the dash are laid out in an intelligent manner, and I liked the button control on the radio for scroll up and down the wavelengths. I’m also glad to note that long gone are the days when indicators and lights were on the ‘wrong’ side of the steering wheel in Kia motors.