SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

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We spend quality time with the Kia Cerato Koup (coupé)

(also known as Kia Forte and Kia Shuma in certain markets)

Pics by author

Competent, enjoyable and economical

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday March 27, 2010

“Looks like a hairdresser’s car,” scoffed this very rude person of my acquaintance. I gather he dismisses all coupés with this particular insult, because it’s certainly not as pretty or as cute as one might expect a stylist’s car to be. It’s very angular, wedge-shaped almost, while the frontal styling incorporates a “Schreyer Line” grille that apparently symbolises the face of a roaring tiger. Don’t know about wild animals, but it’s undeniably bold.

The second generation Cerato is the first to appear in SA, having been released here last September. There are four sedans with 1,6 and 2,0 litre engines and a choice of 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmissions. The Koup (I guess the odd spelling is an attempt to emulate American mispronunciation of “coupé”) comes only as a 2,0 litre with manual transmission.

The 1 998 cc DOHC 16-valve CVVT four-cylinder puts out 115 kW at 6 200 rpm and 194 Nm of torque at 4 300 rpm. While not a shredder of pavement, it’s a competent daily driver, getting up to 100 km/h in a bit over nine seconds and topping out at 200 km/h.

Your money gets you a good package of standard equipment including automatic single channel air conditioning, 17” alloy wheels with a full-sized alloy spare, front and rear fog lamps, heated outside mirrors, audio controls on the steering wheel, a comprehensive trip computer, auto locking, electric windows, height adjustment on the driver’s seat, height and reach adjustable steering, keyless entry, a six-speaker sound system with iPod, Auxiliary and USB connectors, cruise control, leather seats, automatic headlights and rear park assist.

Safety kit includes ABS, EBD, ESC, six airbags, active head restraints and doors that unlock automatically on impact. A tow bar, headlamp shields and satnav are listed as optional extras.

The week during which I lived with the Koup was an unusually busy one for me, with two trips to Durban and back, a family journey to the outer reaches of the Northern Drakensberg and an unplanned tour of some midlands forestry roads – just over 900 km in all. The Koup took the dirt roads in its stride, by the way.

I found the car an easy drive around town; steering and parking easily while shrugging off speed bumps with the contempt they deserve. You may have gathered by now that I am against these things; all they do is crucify the owners of little cars while the speed merchants they are supposed to control simply ignore them. In my youth, the city fathers used a far more effective deterrent; traffic cops actively patrolling on motorbikes. If you as much as thought about doing anything bad, Officer Aggro was there, filling your rear view mirror and simply daring you to try.

On freeways and provincial roads, the car accelerates nicely then cruises comfortably in fifth. Gearing of about 40 km/h per 1 000 rpm in top gives flexible performance while returning surprisingly good fuel economy for a 2,0 litre. This worked out to about 8,5 l/100 km over a fairly even mix of town and freeway driving and 7,1 overall, as this particular week’s travelling was biased towards the open road.

Perhaps unusually, the coupé is a bit smaller that its sedan counterpart, being 50 mm shorter, 10 mm narrower and a full 60 mm lower. This probably accounts for some difficulty getting my 1,85 metre frame into and out of the back seat, especially as the front seats aren’t equipped with the tilt-and-slide facility one expects nowadays. The backs tilt, but it’s necessary to slide the seats forward the old fashioned way.

Once in there, headroom is severely limited although knee space is plentiful. Best leave rear seat access to little people and on an occasional basis, then. The rear seat backs do fold flat onto their cushions, but again unusually, one cannot do this from within the passenger compartment. The release catches are in the boot.

Logic tells us that the reason one needs the seat backs folded is in order to load longer items in from the boot, so that’s where the catches should be. All quite reasonable, I suppose. It’s just that old habits are hard to break.

My rude friend may dismiss the Kia Cerato Koup as being unsuited to the macho, but if your transport needs do not include regular ferrying of rear seat passengers, ignoring it could deprive you of a well-equipped and enjoyable daily driver that’s economical as well.

The numbers

Price: R209 995

Engine: 1998 cc DOHC 16 valve CVVT four-cylinder

Power: 115 kW at 6 200 rpm

Torque: 194 Nm at 4 300 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h: 9,3 seconds

Maximum speed: 200 km/h

Real life fuel consumption: about 8,5 l/100 km

Tank: 52 litres

Warranty: 5 years/100 000 km

Service plan: 4 years/90 000 km

To see our review of the turbocharged 2014 model click here

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax. 

So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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