Goodwood Test: Kia Ceed 2022 Review

The Kia Ceed has dropped both its apostrophe and any pretence that it was still some uber-cheap hatch. Nowadays every Kia is a proper competitor for the mid-level market and the Ceed can be no exception. Most of the headlines from Kia and Hyundai have been around the headline projects: the show stopping EVs, but the majority of the cars that the two companies still sell, are this kind of family fair. So no matter how much you read about EV6, EV9 and co. remember that this is the one gunning for major sales, hoping to cut the Ford Focus right out of the loop with more tech at a low price. The Ceed is bang into the middle of the car market – a reasonably large hatchback with enough space for four cutting in at around £25,000. So this is key.

The Ceed is not particularly eye catching, especially in the Peter Schreyer-led modern era of going for broke design-wise. But despite being a classic three-box hatchback it still has some flair applied.

Beginning with the very E60 5 Series-style winged eyeliner headlights, which come with a grille that still retains a lot of the previous generation of Kia design. The current Ceed has been with us since 2018, but had a light spattering of new elements added in 2021. Key to this were the changes to the front. It’s now more aggressive, with swooping lines out to secondary fake vents in front of the wheels and a big chin coming to this GT-Line car. It works in some places – feeling a bit less like it’s going to melt into the background – but it also feels like it’s trying to have two grilles at once, which looks a little odd when you take a second glance.

At the back the changes are even more minor. The rear vent-ish reflectors are now more aggressive, the lights have become insect-like multiple LEDs and there’s – sadly – a pair of fake exhausts melded into a single line across the lower bumper. It’s a car with an awful lot going on but, other than the odd one or two elements, it does just about work.

This particular Kia Ceed has a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine. That’ll give you 253Nm (186lb ft) and 160PS (118kW). With a relatively unsubstantial kerb weight of 1,330kg that means the Ceed will toddle along to 62mph in 8.4 seconds before topping out at 130mph.

It’s one of those modern engines that feels like there’s no real torque at the very bottom, so expect a rev happy launch, but once it’s into the range (peak torque comes at 1,500rpm) it feels perfectly adept for most occasions. Motorway cruising speeds are reached with reasonable speed and you won’t feel you’re too likely to absolutely ping the valves off the bonnet if you merely try and change lanes.

Actual performance wise, it’s not an engine that will excite. However at certain lower to medium ranges it does provide a thrummy little noise that’s ever so slightly evocative of the old twin-cams of the ‘60s that regularly race at Revival – a tenuous link, but it’s just about there. Don’t expect to zip around town, but also don’t worry about struggling from a junction. The six-speed manual gearbox is easy to use and lightweight and the steering is perfectly good at its job of varying the angle of attack of the front wheels. Both of which are their jobs, which they do with the aplomb of something truly middle range but nothing to quicken the pulse.

The ride is comfortable, covering even the worst potholes and jarring lanes around the South of England without causing much of a shock to those inside, and on a longer distance jaunt it becomes really rather pleasant. The engine quietens down to barely noticeable at a cruise, to the point that you can, at times, hear the whistle of the wind passing the mirrors.

This is the biggest win for the Ceed. Its innards do absolutely nothing fussy, they don’t try to be anything more than a nice place for a family to spend its travel time. The design is dark – our car was black on black with extra black – and most of the functions have been tidied away into the 10.25-inch touchscreen perched in the middle. But the higher up plastics are at a good quality in our GT-Line car, with soft touch faux leather at the top and piano black lower down. Reach into the centre console and you’ll find cheaper scratchy plastics straight away, but the door cards, for example, are almost entirely fitted with higher quality materials.

Despite the screen, all of the functions for the climate control have retained individual buttons and the Ceed has not adopted the EV6/Sportage’s single giant screen unit. In fact, the instrument binnacle retains a rather pleasant set of almost Alfa Romeo-style rounded clusters and what feels now like a rather old school small, 4.2-inch screen for the trip computer functions.

Rear space is significant, although surprisingly the centre console eschews any kind of rear vents, and boot space sits at 395 litres, or 1,291 with the rear seats down. Altogether it is a nice, if unflashy, place to be.

Kia’s seeming MO is to make affordable cars that are slammed with the kind of technology that adds an extra 10k to an Audi. This GT-Line spec car starts at £25,250 and comes as standard with some nice 17-inch alloys, the LED lights all around, auto wipers, folding mirrors, auto lights with auto dipping headlights, heated front seats and steering wheel, DAB radio, USB sockets, folding rear seats, the 10.25-inch touchscreen, reversing camera, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth connectivity. It also fits driver attention warning, lane keep assist, cruise control, forward collision avoidance and more.

The touchscreen may not stretch to the full width of the EV6 and co. but it has the latest version of Kia’s software, which is extremely easy to use. It is, at times, a bit slow to start up, but once going its intuitive and the quick search touch buttons in a row along the bottom work well, especially for non-haptic touch sensitive buttons.

The Kia Ceed does being a comfortable family hatchback very well. There are definitely bits of its interior that feel like they have been a cost saving to help bring it down to that £25,000 price point, but the buckets of tech loaded into it seem to make up for that. The engine and drive are absolutely nothing to write home about, but we managed a real world 50mpg+ in our time with it, and it acted as a perfectly handy load-lugger.

The Ceed certainly doesn’t bring anything new to the party, and its interior could be described as dour, but if its job is to provide affordable, comfortable, family mobility, then it does exactly that.