Kia has a bit of a penchant for spelling words with a ‘K’ , for possibly obvious reasons, so I’m going to make a suggestion to it here, consider adding ‘Konservative’ to the lexicon – at least where it relates to the estimate that it will sell just 3000 of the all-new Cerato small sedan in Australia this year.

While on the one hand the company has been talking up the new Cerato as a contender against the major players in the small car segment here, that’s Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer and Mazda3, the Korean car-maker has also played down the numbers its reckons it can sell.

Let me tell you, the new Cerato isn’t the greatest car in the world, but after a day of driving it on a varied selection of roads around Melbourne, including quite a few kilometres of gravel, it will seriously frighten the opposition and should be right at the top of every buyer’s shopping list.

Forget the old Cerato that was an under-done attempt, firmly stuck in the ‘cheap-and-cheerful’ basket, and a major reason Kia Motors Australia executives are being so conservative about the numbers they believe they can sell of the new car.

To be frank they just don’t seem to believe they can get enough buyers into showrooms to sell this car in its true numbers.

What Australian’s need to realise is that companies such as Kia are marching forward and the vehicles they are now building are up there with the best in class from Japan and Europe.

The Cerato is a case in point; it’s been designed under the supervision of Kia design guru Peter Schreyer, the man who brought us various Volkswagen Golfs and a whole range of Audis, right up to the A5.

His stamp is becoming increasingly evident at Kia and with the imminent roll out of cars like the Soul it will become even more evident.

Kia will bring a range of new and revamped models to the Australian market this year, cars it says will be well-endowed with features, stunning looks and impressive value for money, as Kia claims, in essence, cars that deliver on their promise.

As Kia tells it the first to arrive is the handsome new Kia Cerato, a compact sporty sedan that it says will meet the needs of many Australian car buyers.

The new Cerato is the first Kia released in Australia to feature the new ‘Schreyer line’, a family corporate grille design from the pen of Kia’s global chief designer, Peter Schreyer, who joined the company in 2006 from the Volkswagen Group.

According to Mr Schreyer, it’s no surprise that design is the number one purchase influence but, he says, it is essential that new designs match both the Kia brand value and the vision of the Kia brand.

As head of design, Mr Schreyer has worked to develop a new, more contemporary look for all Kia vehicles.

The new Cerato is the first mass production Kia that embodies his thinking, and introduces a look that is sporty with an element of aggression.

We’ve already told you something about the specifications and pricing of the new Cerato but now we have driven it and while it wasn’t the full week long test to which we will shortly subject both models, the S and the SLi, it was a chance to get an idea of just how this car had moved on from the previous Cerato.

The expression “light years” springs to mind, but that’s not to say that this car doesn’t have its detractions, it’s just that its attractions are much stronger.

A strong, punchy, 2.0-litre engine is one, along with a smooth shifting five-speed manual and a four-speed auto that manages to keep up pretty well given the lack of ratios, a handling and suspension package that sits flat and feels positive and steering that lets you point the car just where you want it to go are all on the list.

Kia Product Manger, Nick Reid, was quick to point out to CarAdvice that the new Cerato has the most powerful naturally aspirated engine in its class, Kia’s new Theta II engine, the first application of this engine in the small car segment in Australia.

The new twin-cam, four-cylinder 2.0-litre, Theta II petrol engine, with Continuously Variable Valve Timing (CVVT), revs smoothly to produce 115kW of power at 6200rpm and 194Nm of torque at 4300rpm to take the mantle of class-leader in the power stakes.

The Euro IV-compliant Theta II engine is mated to a smooth-shifting, short-throw five-speed manual as standard, providing excellent driver control.

As an option, for an extra $2000, there’s Kia’s gated, four-speed automatic gearbox, which has a smooth shift action but does struggle at times to keep up with the action, despite the excellent torque of the Theta engine. The auto gearbox also offers the choice of Sportsmatic manual-shift capability.

The Cerato’s 2.0-litre engine is a lightweight 16-valve unit that seems quite powerful, quiet and economical.

We didn’t see fuel consumption figures that matched the combined ADR efficiency of 7.8 litres per 100 kilometres for the manual or 7.9L/100km for the auto, but we did come close with both manual and auto showing figures of around 8.4L/100km during several hundred kilometres of vigorous driving.

Kia says that mated to the four-speed automatic gearbox, the 2.0-litre Theta II engine can power the Cerato from 0-100 km/h in 10.5 seconds and on to 190km/h, while 0-100 km/h in 9.3 seconds and a 200km/h top speed can be achieved with manual gearbox.

 Article key :  Kia Cerato First Steer, Kia Cerato, Kia, 2009