New Korean hatch bucks the style without substance trend
Fleet buyers behold, the new Kia Cerato sedan or hatch is one helluva good deal. If you need reason to lock horns about your next fleet purchase, consider this.
Starting with the top-spec Cerato SLi auto for $32,490 you get so much safety gizmo, it’s almost not worth mentioning the base model Cerato S with six-speed manual at $19,990 drive away.
The SLi gets all the fruit including lane departure and forward collision warning, HID headlights and LED daytime running lights, heated front seats with driver seat ventilation and eight-way power adjustment, dual-zone climate control, sunroof, paddle-shift gear change to keep hands on the wheel and alloy pedals, and 17-inch alloys with a full-size spare. All of this is on top of the Si, one tier down, at $28,990.
2017 Kia Cerato SLi interior.
The Si sedan and hatch get blind spot detection and rear cross-traffic alert with lane change assistance, to be the eyes in the back of your head. On top of the safety assist tech, standard across the Cerato range you get ABS stability control, hill start assist, vehicle stability management and emergency stop signal activating hazard lights when making an emergency all-stop. You also get reversing camera as standard on the S Premium, Si, and SLi variants; optional on base model S. Six airbags and front/rear parking sensors are standard across the whole Cerato range.
2017 Kia Cerato engine.
Cerato firepower comes from the 2.0-litre four cylinder petrol engine which is good for 112kW and 192Nm of power and torque respectively, with Euro 4 compliance and a claimed combined 7.1L/100km in manual or auto, sedan or hatch. You also get three driving modes, ‘Eco’, ‘Normal’ and ‘Sport’. Suspension has also received local tuning and refinement through Kia Motors Australia to make it an even better handler and more comfortable, as well as weight saving through use of a cast aluminium engine block and cylinder heads, and multi-point injection.
Kia’s somehow packed so much into such an affordable and compact small car which makes the re-styled and pumped-up 2017 Cerato, especially in SLi range-topping guise, a remarkably enticing option for fleet shoppers.
2017 Kia Cerato Si sedan front 3/4.
2017 Kia Cerato SLi 5 door hatch front 3/4.
