Kia Picanto S 1.0

Reece_1 · 06-12-2006, 22:35

Had the Picanto as a courtesy car while my other car is undergoing accident repairs and this was a last minute replacement as the Corsa I was supposed to have but someone had cracked the windscreen!

This is the base model so there’s no air con, central locking etc.

Inside

The dash and inside of the doors are made of cheap style plastic, part of the dash with the radio is angled towards the driver. Dash instruments include rev counter, speedometer, and fuel gauge. There is no temperature gauge, something I would prefer as I like to have visible check on engine temperature, its done by warning light – a blue thermometer type light comes on when the engine is cold (Quote ‘below 60 degrees’ from the handbook) which vanishes once the normal running temp. is reached. Clock located bottom of the rev counter and odometer on the bottom of the speedo.

Radio is from JVC and has CD player only. The controls are tiny and a bit difficult to change while driving – some form of steering wheel based control would be welcome here. Sound quality was not as good as the Symphony radio from Skoda, not helped by having the speaker’s right at the base of the front doors. Flimsy aerial may have caused the reception to break up at times on FM even in stronger signal areas. Reception on AM was fine taking in account of the usual interference you get on this band. When the radio was set in traffic news mode, it occasionally got stuck in that station that was doing the traffic news announcement, so you had to re-tune it back, a bit annoying at times.

On the right hand steering column control stalk is the indicator and light settings, the left hand stalk for the front and rear screen wipers. This took some getting use to as the controls are opposite to what been use to!

Comfort

It took quite awhile to get the seat into a reasonable position and even then it’s not 100% perfect. The seat is right back on its setting and there’s no height adjustment. It’s ok for short distances but wouldn’t want to travel more than 30 miles in this sort of car. The seat itself is not very supportive and is a bit on the soft side.

Safety

Driver and front passenger air bags as standard. Ncap rating of 3 isn’t brilliant, and the body needs to be beefed up more especially in this age of suburban tractors and monster trucks.

Driving

Easy to drive around and park. Suspension doesn’t handle rough surfaces well and it’s terrible over those awful square road humps. At times the first gear was rather stiff, not sure if this was through design or the hire car had some prior abuse. Will do 60-70 mph ok but the engine starts to get a bit noisy at 60; it’s relaxed at around 55mph. It will tackle steeper hills with some gear work, and it did well when I took it up a local 1 in 8 at the weekend.

Engine

Under the bonnet is a 1.0 litre 4 cyl. inline engine, most of the fluid containers are in cluster on the left – coolant, power steering, screen washer. Brake fluid reservoir is located more to the centre of the engine bay. On the right side is the battery and air filter box, all easy to access. Radiator has a retro looking radiator cap, something not expected to be seen on modern cars.
The owners handbook details routine maintenance quite well and covers things like oil/filter and coolant changes, complete with torque values, it puts the Skoda one to shame and it appears Kia believe owners are quite capable of doing their own servicing!

Build Quality

To sum up :cheap and tinny. Plastic around the ignition switch was heavily scratched, looking at it you wouldn’t think it was a 06 registration. The left hand rear passenger door had a small dint, and there was couple of chips on the front driver’s door and also on the bonnet. You can hear how tinny the car is when small road stones and grit hit under the wheel arches.

Practicality

Boot is too small especially for the kind of bulky type items I carry occasionally, and putting the rear seat down all the time would be a pain. The car will seat two passengers ok but with the current seat setting I have, there’s no room at all for a passenger behind the driver.

Economy

Fuel consumption was estimated to be something like 45-50 mpg. When the fuel gauge reached half way it did seem quickly to go to quarter.

An interesting first time experience of a Korean city type car, maybe ideal for a second ‘run around car’, and maybe I could be in the market for one next year, but I wouldn’t want it as a main car – its not solid or big enough. I didn’t like the car at first but have grown to like it a bit, so on Friday will say goodbye to it, but as it’s a hire car I don’t expect it will have an easy life.

Tom_vRS · 06-12-2006, 23:26

Hmmm, nice little review.

Its nice to hear they put info on basic servicing in the handbook though!

20VLIL · 06-12-2006, 23:44

You summed it up very well IMO. Kia generally are nothing but cheap, unsafe, flimsy, generally expensive in the long run pieces of s**t.
They will never make like Skoda has through its image.
SWMBO used to have a Rio and it was truly awful in every respect. Servicing (by the main dealer) was expensive and parts even small parts were incredibly expensive. She had the top of the range one and eventually it drove her to tears.
Never will or would I consider a Kia again, they all deserve to be scrapped.
Even the dealer selling them didnt rate them.
Soon there will be thousands of Picantos clogging up forecourts for little or no money. No one will want them as there will be no value in them. You certainly can not polish a turd.
Nice review though, and no offence to yourself. I have a VERY strong hate towards these supposed cars.

Dr Zoidberg · 07-12-2006, 09:09

My local dealer always has loads of new ones at dirt cheap prices on the forecourt , but as you say the resale will be measured in pence and they seem pretty poor cars to own.

ag.morley · 07-12-2006, 09:43

Nice review.......[Any chance you coukd write a bit bigger, even with glasses it was hard for me to read......

..]

WW_VRS · 07-12-2006, 11:00

SWMBO has a Kia Picanto 1.1 LX, pre-reg so got it slightly cheaper.

My experience is slightly more positive, I agree with most of the comments both good & bad though

Dealer seemed reasonable enough, cost wise I am unsure right now as nothing has broken as yet (recall-related work aside)

Speakers are sh*te for sure, build quality is nowhere near VAG standards but then it is half the price, roughly.

It is a very small car, more like a Rover 100, and compared to that it is MUCH better in many ways. Handling is great for the type of car it is - i.e. drive it like you stole it = no good, drive it like SWMBO = fine.

Speed bumps seem to not be a big deal for it, my Fabia vRS (lowered admittedly) doesn't absorb them anywhere near as well.

The car has aircon. Uprated the bulbs in it to get decent road visibility. Brakes are excellent for the car, discs all round.

It will not be worth anything when you flog it on, but I haven't had the problem with scratches as yet. SWMBO uses it mainly to drive to work & back and it is perfect for that. Shopping wise it will take a reasonable amount but you end up using the backseat quite easily, it is not big for sure.

I've managed to get reasonably comfortable in the car, and done fairly long trips in it (50+ miles) without a problem.

The fairest I reckon is to say it is a basic car, not too noisy (over 80 mph it is noisy), a no-frills A-B vehicle

Reece_1 · 07-12-2006, 19:29

Hello and thanks for the feedback and comments Im no motoring journo just saying from experience !

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20VLIL

Nice review though, and no offence to yourself. I have a VERY strong hate towards these supposed cars.

No problem

I dont blame you if your experience wasn't good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ag.morley

Any chance you coukd write a bit bigger,

I pasted the text from a Word document using Verdana which is shown as the font the forum text is using - well on my browser anyway, but should you so desire a large text version just send me a pm with email and will send you a copy!

NeilS · 15-12-2006, 17:52

Interesting read. Like WW VRS, My wife also has a Kia Picanto and it suits us well bearing in mind what she uses it for and what our expectations were at the time of purchase. Ours is a 1.1 auto, my wife does loads of stop start driving and has a dodgy left knee. It cost £6,300 pre-registered, with metallic paint, air con, electric windows front and back, proper cup holders, MP3 player. Loads or thousands cheaper than a Ka, Corsa, Fiesta, Clio. I agree the perceived build quality isn’t to VW standards, no spare wheel, cheaper plastics, carpets but it has less rattles than my vRS, in fact it has none. The paint is harder than my Fabia vRS and I've had a couple of niggles which meant returning the car for warranty work but none so far with the Picanto.

The engine is quiet around town. The brakes are outstanding, much better than my vRS. It is a slow car and it isn’t that economical – we get mid 30’s but an auto, around town – it’s OK. When it finally gets to motorway speeds it rides pretty well. Tiny next to useless boot. It can seat 4 people OK for short periods.

The supplying Kia dealer was good to deal with – years ago, they had been Skoda dealers until SUK removed their franchise saying they didn’t stack up. Took the Picanto back for it’s first service and Kia had taken the franchise away – same reason. Took it to the next nearest main dealer - very posh showroom, crappy service.

SWMBO hates driving the vRS – first time she borrowed it she found herself doing 100+ on the M25! LOL as she works for the police! I hate driving the Picanto, I don't really fit in it, the dawdling acceleration infuriates me and the brakes are far too powerful (hint of jealousy here). Horses for courses.

IMO and a few others, apart from luxury and sporting marques, the Koreans are about to give the rest of the world an object lesson in manufacturing and selling value for money, decent quality cars and the Picanto albeit flawed was the first warning shot across their bows. The Kia Ceed arriving soon looks great and is supposed to go very well. 7 year warranty! I'll still want my vRS or maybe an Octavia vRS sometime later over anything Kia ever come up with because I enjoy my driving and the ownership experience of running a quick Skoda! Briskia? You're having a laugh

06-12-2006, 22:35	#1
Reece_1 Briskodian Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 554 Thanks: 2 Thanked 13 Times in 13 Posts	Kia Picanto S 1.0 Had the Picanto as a courtesy car while my other car is undergoing accident repairs and this was a last minute replacement as the Corsa I was supposed to have but someone had cracked the windscreen! This is the base model so there’s no air con, central locking etc. Inside The dash and inside of the doors are made of cheap style plastic, part of the dash with the radio is angled towards the driver. Dash instruments include rev counter, speedometer, and fuel gauge. There is no temperature gauge, something I would prefer as I like to have visible check on engine temperature, its done by warning light – a blue thermometer type light comes on when the engine is cold (Quote ‘below 60 degrees’ from the handbook) which vanishes once the normal running temp. is reached. Clock located bottom of the rev counter and odometer on the bottom of the speedo. Radio is from JVC and has CD player only. The controls are tiny and a bit difficult to change while driving – some form of steering wheel based control would be welcome here. Sound quality was not as good as the Symphony radio from Skoda, not helped by having the speaker’s right at the base of the front doors. Flimsy aerial may have caused the reception to break up at times on FM even in stronger signal areas. Reception on AM was fine taking in account of the usual interference you get on this band. When the radio was set in traffic news mode, it occasionally got stuck in that station that was doing the traffic news announcement, so you had to re-tune it back, a bit annoying at times. On the right hand steering column control stalk is the indicator and light settings, the left hand stalk for the front and rear screen wipers. This took some getting use to as the controls are opposite to what been use to! Comfort It took quite awhile to get the seat into a reasonable position and even then it’s not 100% perfect. The seat is right back on its setting and there’s no height adjustment. It’s ok for short distances but wouldn’t want to travel more than 30 miles in this sort of car. The seat itself is not very supportive and is a bit on the soft side. Safety Driver and front passenger air bags as standard. Ncap rating of 3 isn’t brilliant, and the body needs to be beefed up more especially in this age of suburban tractors and monster trucks. Driving Easy to drive around and park. Suspension doesn’t handle rough surfaces well and it’s terrible over those awful square road humps. At times the first gear was rather stiff, not sure if this was through design or the hire car had some prior abuse. Will do 60-70 mph ok but the engine starts to get a bit noisy at 60; it’s relaxed at around 55mph. It will tackle steeper hills with some gear work, and it did well when I took it up a local 1 in 8 at the weekend. Engine Under the bonnet is a 1.0 litre 4 cyl. inline engine, most of the fluid containers are in cluster on the left – coolant, power steering, screen washer. Brake fluid reservoir is located more to the centre of the engine bay. On the right side is the battery and air filter box, all easy to access. Radiator has a retro looking radiator cap, something not expected to be seen on modern cars. The owners handbook details routine maintenance quite well and covers things like oil/filter and coolant changes, complete with torque values, it puts the Skoda one to shame and it appears Kia believe owners are quite capable of doing their own servicing! Build Quality To sum up :cheap and tinny. Plastic around the ignition switch was heavily scratched, looking at it you wouldn’t think it was a 06 registration. The left hand rear passenger door had a small dint, and there was couple of chips on the front driver’s door and also on the bonnet. You can hear how tinny the car is when small road stones and grit hit under the wheel arches. Practicality Boot is too small especially for the kind of bulky type items I carry occasionally, and putting the rear seat down all the time would be a pain. The car will seat two passengers ok but with the current seat setting I have, there’s no room at all for a passenger behind the driver. Economy Fuel consumption was estimated to be something like 45-50 mpg. When the fuel gauge reached half way it did seem quickly to go to quarter. An interesting first time experience of a Korean city type car, maybe ideal for a second ‘run around car’, and maybe I could be in the market for one next year, but I wouldn’t want it as a main car – its not solid or big enough. I didn’t like the car at first but have grown to like it a bit, so on Friday will say goodbye to it, but as it’s a hire car I don’t expect it will have an easy life.

06-12-2006, 23:26	#2
Tom_vRS Briskodaholic Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Fenland, Cambridgeshire Posts: 11,034 Thanks: 585 Thanked 373 Times in 255 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 Hmmm, nice little review. Its nice to hear they put info on basic servicing in the handbook though! __________________ 97/R BMW 328i in Boston Green. Don't miss the new DR COLORCHIPS GROUP BUY!

06-12-2006, 23:44	#3
20VLIL Briskodian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Isle Of Wight Posts: 800 Thanks: 2 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 You summed it up very well IMO. Kia generally are nothing but cheap, unsafe, flimsy, generally expensive in the long run pieces of st. They will never make like Skoda has through its image. SWMBO used to have a Rio and it was truly awful in every respect. Servicing (by the main dealer) was expensive and parts even small parts were incredibly expensive. She had the top of the range one and eventually it drove her to tears. Never will or would I consider a Kia again, they all deserve to be scrapped. Even the dealer selling them didnt rate them. Soon there will be thousands of Picantos clogging up forecourts for little or no money. No one will want them as there will be no value in them. You certainly can not polish a turd. Nice review though, and no offence to yourself. I have a VERY strong hate towards these supposed cars. __________________ NIGHTFIRE BLUE SUPERB COMFORT 2.5TDI V6!!! NOW SOLD**

07-12-2006, 09:09	#4
Dr Zoidberg Briskodian Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: On the back of an AA truck with a failed turbo Posts: 10,516 Thanks: 21 Thanked 186 Times in 137 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 My local dealer always has loads of new ones at dirt cheap prices on the forecourt , but as you say the resale will be measured in pence and they seem pretty poor cars to own. __________________ Alex "I laugh in the face of danger, then I hide until it goes away" www.drzoidberg.co.uk

07-12-2006, 09:43	#5
ag.morley S60-R wanabee Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: right on track........ Posts: 4,805 Thanks: 9 Thanked 76 Times in 30 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 Nice review.......[Any chance you coukd write a bit bigger, even with glasses it was hard for me to read...... ..] __________________ *I have decided to write nothing in this space* Join Now------>>>>> <<<<<------woN nioJ

07-12-2006, 11:00	#6
WW_VRS Escorted Estate Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Oxfordshire/Berkshire Posts: 9,736 Thanks: 44 Thanked 70 Times in 61 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 SWMBO has a Kia Picanto 1.1 LX, pre-reg so got it slightly cheaper. My experience is slightly more positive, I agree with most of the comments both good & bad though Dealer seemed reasonable enough, cost wise I am unsure right now as nothing has broken as yet (recall-related work aside) Speakers are shte for sure, build quality is nowhere near VAG standards but then it is half the price, roughly. It is a very small car, more like a Rover 100, and compared to that it is MUCH better in many ways. Handling is great for the type of car it is - i.e. drive it like you stole it = no good, drive it like SWMBO = fine. Speed bumps seem to not be a big deal for it, my Fabia vRS (lowered admittedly) doesn't absorb them anywhere near as well. The car has aircon. Uprated the bulbs in it to get decent road visibility. Brakes are excellent for the car, discs all round. It will not be worth anything when you flog it on, but I haven't had the problem with scratches as yet. SWMBO uses it mainly to drive to work & back and it is perfect for that. Shopping wise it will take a reasonable amount but you end up using the backseat quite easily, it is not big for sure. I've managed to get reasonably comfortable in the car, and done fairly long trips in it (50+ miles) without a problem. The fairest I reckon is to say it is a basic car, not too noisy (over 80 mph it is noisy), a no-frills A-B vehicle __________________ WW --->> Project Journal (pic links in first post there) Lummox'/Ross thread on Unit18 Automotive* progress on my car: here

15-12-2006, 17:52	#8
NeilS Briskodian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: South East Berkshire Posts: 85 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Kia Picanto S 1.0 Interesting read. Like WW VRS, My wife also has a Kia Picanto and it suits us well bearing in mind what she uses it for and what our expectations were at the time of purchase. Ours is a 1.1 auto, my wife does loads of stop start driving and has a dodgy left knee. It cost £6,300 pre-registered, with metallic paint, air con, electric windows front and back, proper cup holders, MP3 player. Loads or thousands cheaper than a Ka, Corsa, Fiesta, Clio. I agree the perceived build quality isn’t to VW standards, no spare wheel, cheaper plastics, carpets but it has less rattles than my vRS, in fact it has none. The paint is harder than my Fabia vRS and I've had a couple of niggles which meant returning the car for warranty work but none so far with the Picanto. The engine is quiet around town. The brakes are outstanding, much better than my vRS. It is a slow car and it isn’t that economical – we get mid 30’s but an auto, around town – it’s OK. When it finally gets to motorway speeds it rides pretty well. Tiny next to useless boot. It can seat 4 people OK for short periods. The supplying Kia dealer was good to deal with – years ago, they had been Skoda dealers until SUK removed their franchise saying they didn’t stack up. Took the Picanto back for it’s first service and Kia had taken the franchise away – same reason. Took it to the next nearest main dealer - very posh showroom, crappy service. SWMBO hates driving the vRS – first time she borrowed it she found herself doing 100+ on the M25! LOL as she works for the police! I hate driving the Picanto, I don't really fit in it, the dawdling acceleration infuriates me and the brakes are far too powerful (hint of jealousy here). Horses for courses. IMO and a few others, apart from luxury and sporting marques, the Koreans are about to give the rest of the world an object lesson in manufacturing and selling value for money, decent quality cars and the Picanto albeit flawed was the first warning shot across their bows. The Kia Ceed arriving soon looks great and is supposed to go very well. 7 year warranty! I'll still want my vRS or maybe an Octavia vRS sometime later over anything Kia ever come up with because I enjoy my driving and the ownership experience of running a quick Skoda! Briskia? You're having a laugh

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