Say Hello To The New, Apostrophe-Less Kia Ceed

The new Kia Ceed is here, and no - that’s not a typo induced by wishful thinking. As revealed recently, the weirdly placed apostrophe and lowercase ‘c’ have gone, giving a much simpler name that can’t possibly be mocked.

So what else is new? For one thing, the platform: it sits on Kia’s new ‘K2’ structure. The wheelbase is the same as before, but it is 20mm wider and 23mm lower. There’s now more room for rear-seat passengers, and the 395 litre boot is more capacious than before.

On the engine front, the range kicks off with a revised version of Kia’s 1.0-litre ‘T-GDi’ petrol lump, now good for 118bhp. The 1.6-litre has been kicked to the kerb in favour of a new 1.4-litre that develops 138bhp, and if you want a diesel, there’s a 1.6-litre unit available with either 113bhp or 134bhp.

Nothing exciting thus far, but who knows: Kia is owned by Hyundai, so a certain 271bhp 2.0-litre from a certain hot hatchback could well end up under the bonnet of the new Ceed…

It should come as no surprise that the new Ceed comes with some degree of autonomy. It’s at Level Two on the scale, with a ‘Lane Following Assist’ function available that can control the throttle, the brakes and the steering. It even “identifies appropriate spaces in other lanes to move in to safely to gain more ground in heavy congestion,” which should make traffic jams slightly less painful.

On the inside you can have either a five or eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and yes, it is one of those ‘floating’ tablet-style things that are all the rage. The whole centre console is angled towards the driver, while elsewhere in the cabin you’ll find plenty of soft touch materials and various bits of metallic trim, so you don’t regret buying a Ceed over a VW Golf.

Just to banish any ‘Golf regret’ further, there’s also the usual Kia mega warranty included, covering seven years and 100,000 miles. Should do.

The car will say its big, apostrophe-less hello to the world at the Geneva Motor Show next month, before going on sale during the second quarter of 2018 in European left-hand drive markets. The UK launch date will be announced “in due course.”