Just about every manufacturer these days is trying its hand at making a worthy C-segment competitor, but in today’s contracted market, you’ve got to get the formula just right.
Any upstart in this segment will be going up against the Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus and Honda Civic. Each has won South Africa’s car of the year competition and each has a consumer stronghold and a definite presence in C-segment markets all over the world. To take it to these stalwarts, the Kia Cerato is going to have to be good enough to be car of the year.
First impressions of the Cerato are that it’s a worthy contender. Sporting a sharp suite thanks to ex-Audi design chief Peter Schreyer, it certainly is a handsomely styled sedan.
The Cerato has an accomplished air about itself with nothing on the overall package coming across as quirky or gimmicky in an attempt to grab attention.
Looking a little Honda at the front and Audi at the back is perhaps rather generic, but the C-segment tends to thrive on familiarity. Being the newest C-segment competitor, you’d expect the Cerato’s interior to carry some nice features and it does.
The top of the range 2.0-litre model carries a vast array of specifications but, for the purposes of this assessment, we’re going to limit our focus to the entry-level 1.6-litre to see how it fares against its already established competition.
The three-pronged dials on the Cerato are very good it must be said — clear and bright in their red and white accents. Air conditioning, 16-inch alloy wheels, central locking, six airbags, cloth seats and electric windows come standard, as does an MP3 stereo with six speakers.
What you don’t get is a trip computer or a height-and reach-adjustable steering wheel, but you wouldn’t find the former on the entry-level Ford Focus either. Both cars have ABS and EBD, but neither has an electronic stability programme and the Focus has only four airbags.
Performance may not seem all that relevant in this segment, but it is. The Cerato’s 1.6-litre supplies 91kW and 146Nm, whereas the 1.8-litre Focus gains only 1kW and 20Nm from its extra displacement. An entry-level 1.3-litre Corolla is worth only 74kW so that keeps it out of the running. It must be said, the Cerato’s 1.6-litre is a nice little motor.
It’s efficient and feels torquey enough when you need it to so the power difference between it and the bigger 2.0-litre Cerato is negligible in my mind. Each of its competitors’ engines have different negatives and positives aligned to them, but you could do a lot worse than the Cerato’s 1.6-litre.
So far so good for the Cerato then, but unfortunately handling and ride quality are where its luck runs out. Suspension is the answer, especially at the rear, and unfortunately Kia has decided to employ an unsophisticated set-up on the Cerato.
It’s a tremendous shame because the chassis itself feels more than capable of delivering a smile-inducing drive and if it had the Cerato would have been a runaway rookie winner here. As a result, the Cerato’s low-rent suspension means it doesn’t feel firm on the road.
You’re fully aware of the suspension components working away below you all the time and not in a good way. They feel as though they’ve got their hands full with even the simplest driving tasks. Couple this with the abysmally bad power-steering system and you have a very unrewarding C-segment sedan to drive.
To prove what I mean: our launch route took us along the perfectly sinewy ribbon of coastal road that joins Kleinmond and Gordons Bay in the Western Cape.
One of my favourite roads, I know it like the back of my hand and even a Toyota Prius is intoxicating to drive along it. But in the Cerato I couldn’t wait for the road to end.
As an overall package, the Cerato has a lot to offer and with its sharp looks, good interior and zesty engine it promised a lot as well. Such a disappointment that the driveability had to let it down … we could have been talking about a real car of the year contender.
Kia Cerato Pricing:
1.6-litre manual: R180 000
automatic: R190 000
2.0-litre manual: R200 000
automatic: R210 000