SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.
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First posted 29 May 2008
Known as the Kia Morning in its home country, as Kia Eurostar in Taiwan and Naza Suria in Malaysia, Kia’s recently-face lifted little Picanto (“spicy song” according to its makers) is an inexpensive yet enjoyable city runabout.
Built, depending where you did your research, on either a shortened version of the Hyundai Getz platform or on that of the Atos, (you did know that Hyundai and Kia belong to the same holding company, didn’t you?), the Picanto is available here in three versions, each with the option of manual or automatic transmission.
The plain vanilla Picanto Base manual starts off at R77 995. The LX manual at R89 995 adds a driver airbag and seatbelt pretensioner, a rear window wiper, air conditioning, electric front windows and some trim items, while the EX manual, as tested, adds another airbag, ABS with EBD, front fog lamps, height adjustable seatbelts, a 60/40 split to the rear seat back, electric rear windows and some more trim, for an extra R16 000.
All things considered, each upward step in specification costs far less than the cost of buying the items separately. Automatic transmission adds either R9 000 or R10 000 to each model when compared with its manual counterpart.
With a dry mass of 927 kg in EX form, the 12-valve 1086cc engine pulls the car to the magic 100 km/h in a whisker under 16 seconds and on to a top speed of 151 km/h. The numbers might make it look lethargic, but the experience is somewhat different. It’s like the classic contemporary description of the VW Beetle: “But the volksie goes so much faster at 80 km/h than anything else!”
On the open road, the car feels a bit light at first, but after a couple of days one gets used to it. A trip to Durban and back showed that this willing little Korean is quite able to keep up with the traffic and that hills, provided you are prepared to drop down to fourth occasionally, are taken in its stride.
An aside to this is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the air conditioner does not sap all the punch out of this motor. Switching the cooler on and off while accelerating or climbing did not change the rate of progress at all.
Inside, the quality of materials and assembly is good, with the seats finished in what appears to be a sturdy grade of cloth. Headroom for taller people is plentiful and accommodation for four average-sized passengers is quite adequate – this is a little car after all, so one must accept that a squad of six-footers might find themselves a little cramped on a trip to Jo’burg.
In common with most modern cars, there are plenty of nooks and crannies for storage. I liked the tray under the front passenger’s seat, the open shelf above the glove box and the sunglasses holder above the driver’s door. Another neat touch is the little retaining strap on the fuel cap – no danger of driving off without it.
It’s light on fuel too. While there is no electronic fuel consumption monitor on this car, I can say that I received it less-than-full, travelled 400 km and still left at least enough fuel for the fleet manager to get it back to Durban – all on a 35 litre tank. Car magazine’s fuel index for the Picanto is 6,36 l/100km and this is one occasion on which I have no reason to doubt their findings.
Perky, nicely built and frugal, the Kia Picanto is well worth considering as a personal runabout or for taxiing a young family. Just bear one thing in mind: the service plan for 2 years or 45 000 km is not included in the purchase price. It costs R3 090 extra, but just like the options packages, well worth the added expense.
Test car from Kia SA press fleet
The numbers:
Price at time of writing: R105 995
Engine: 1086 cc 12-valve, inline four-cylinder
Power: 48 kW @ 5 500 rpm
Torque: 99 Nm @ 2 800 rpm
0 – 100 km/h: 15,97 secs
Top speed: 151 km/h
Fuel consumption index: 6,36 l/100 km
Tank: 35 litres
Luggage: 112 – 776 dm3
CO2 gm/km: 148
Warranty: 5 years/100 000 km, including 3 years roadside assistance
Service Plan: Optional extra
We drove an automatic in July 2008
This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.
I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.
If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.
Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles. And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8