Kia Ceed 1.4 TGDI 2018 prototype first drive

Hold the front page, the new Kia Ceed isn’t just built on a new platform: they’ve gone and got rid of the apostrophe too. The new Kia Ceed, then, replaces the cee’d, and even gets an uppercase first letter in the process. How conventional. 

Seriously, how conventional? Pretty conventional. This is the replacement for the European-designed, engineered and built Kia cee’d that has been in service since 2012, and it picks up similar themes. This steel monocoque, front-drive, new ‘K2’ platform contender sits in what Kia calls the ‘C1’ segment, alongside the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, and other non-premium hatchbacks. This one’s a five-door hatch. There might be a more premium Ceed variant along later.

It’s on the money in terms of size, then, at 4.31m long, the same as before, and with the same 2650mm wheelbase, although everything in the new car’s cabin has been, they say, shifted backwards by 68mm. 

What that means, if I understand it right, is that anything cabin-related now happens a bit further rearwards than before: they’ve moved the driver’s hip-point back and down a bit and then redesigned around that, with a requisite shorter front and longer rear overhang. 

That all helps crash protection, apparently, and visibility around the A-pillars too, though those are set slightly further back than before, in an effort to make the bonnet meld less discreetly into the glass area, so it’s all more striking. 

It kinda works, too, not that you can tell too much from these pictures of it in disguise, but it looks a little more bold, a little more premium, a little more Peugeot 308 than before. While the car has not been revealed yet, we've had a drive in a pre-production version to get a first taste.

The Kia Ceed now has more room in the pleasingly-finished-enough front cabin, which uses respectable materials, albeit ones that don’t look quite as solid as a Volkswagen Golf’s, but probably are, underneath it all. It also has the second-biggest boot in the class, behind the Peugeot 308, because they don’t count the Skoda Octavia as being in that class. Some of all that room has had to come from somewhere, I suppose, and my knees suggest it’s from rear legroom, which is no better than fine.

In the UK, we’ll get 1.0-litre turbo triple, 1.4 naturally-aspirated, a new 1.4 turbo (replacing a naturally-aspirated 1.6) and a powerful 1.6 turbo petrol engine, and two 1.6 diesels, when the Ceed goes on sale in late summer 2018. I’ve tried the 138bhp 1.4 turbo petrol driving through a six-speed manual, and a 134bhp diesel with a 7spd dual-clutch automatic.

The Ceed gets MacPherson struts at the front and an independent multi-link rear suspension setup, with 16in or 17in alloys; the latter with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, which Kia’s engineers like a lot for their grip and ride compromise.

The Ceed isn’t quite finished, hence the disguise, so we’ll overlook some creaks. Easily, in fact, partly because they’re not that bad but mostly because the petrol car is dynamically really appealing. 

The old cee’d didn’t drive badly, but this one’s seriously good. The body-in-white is both stiffer and 25kg lighter, and although extra kit has put most of that weight back on, having rigidity where it matters surely helps, while the steering ratio is quicker than a Volkswagen Golf’s.