Kia does a sporty number on their baby Picanto, reports Cathy Parker.

The GT Line certainly looks the part with its more aggressive lower grille, side skirt, twin exhaust pipes and rear bumper plus some subtle extra detailing and interior trim upgrades, but it sits in the dress up rather than rev up category sporting the same mechanicals as the rest of the Picanto range.

Kia’s Picanto fits into the micro class, a step below bigger brother Rio and the size difference is noticeable both visually and inside the car. Leg room for the driver is tight – my legs felt a bit squeezed into the space even with the front seat right back and that left almost no legroom between the rear of the driver’s seat and the front of the rear passenger seat. The driver would have to move forward more to actually carry a passenger so you can pretty much regard the Picanto as a two-seater with the ability to carry two more a short distance (unless there is a short driver!)

Apart from the leg room issue the driving position is well set up and the seat is comfortable with great side support on the cushion, the dash is well laid out with a fairly standard two dial layout for the main instruments, while the touch screen sits at the top of the centre stack and projects above the dash line. Equipment levels are generous with full proximity key functionality, seven-inch touch screen multimedia with reversing camera, navigation and CarPlay or Android Auto integration, climate air, cruise control, hill start assist and auto lights.

The GT Line gets a sportier interior with artificial leather seat covering and black gloss trim. With only a small 1.25-litre motor connected to a four-speed automatic gearbox the GT Line has to work fairly hard, despite tipping the scales at under one tonne weight. Performance is reasonable round town but hit the motorway or open road and acceleration is definitely leisurely and the engine is turning over at a fairly high 3,000 ish revs at 100km/h making progress feel a bit busy. Definitely a car more suited to round town use with only occasional highway driving. The four-speed auto certainly does not help the equation here matched to the small engine as it doesn’t let it stay in the optimum speed range as much.

Road noise is well insulated but the ride is a bit choppy over bumps with quite a bit of movement transmitted to the cabin. Whilst the handling appears competent the narrow stance and overly light steering that gives minimum feedback don’t invite the driver to try and test the limits.

Luggage space is reasonable given the size of the car with the 255 l capacity with the rear seats up being similar to some cars a class higher and the 1010 l with seats down again competitive with larger vehicles.

For fleet users the four-star ANCAP safety rating is also likely to be a factor when evaluating the Picanto. 

So overall an attractive looking vehicle that would suit round town running best, the slightly less well-equipped LX versions come in at a very attractive $18,490 for manual and $18,990 for auto making for a cost-effective package.

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Specifications: 

Body type        5 door hatchback
Drive        FWD
Engine type        4 Cylinder inline petrol        
Engine capacity    1.25-litre
Max power        62kW@6000rpm
Max torque        122Nm@4000rpm
l/100km (Combined)    5.8 l/100km
C02 emissions    134 g/km
Boot capacity    255/1010 l
Spare tyre        Space saver
ANCAP rating    4 Star

Price        $21.490

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