Kia's route: more car, less money

It's a three-letter badge that many Irish motorists probably haven't heard much of yet but now the people behind it are promising…

It's a three-letter badge that many Irish motorists probably haven't heard much of yet but now the people behind it are promising a lot more familiarity.

Kia, which last week launched its new Picanto small car on the Irish and British markets, is taking the tried and trusted route of other Korean manufacturers, giving more car for less money. Irish prices haven't been fixed yet, but the Picanto is likely to sell from around €11,500 in entry-level form.

As for Kia, it should be third time lucky in its efforts to gain a foothold in the Irish market. Two previous Irish franchise holders didn't have much success, most recently a company controlled by Pino Harris of Iveco and Hino truck fame. Kia Motors Ireland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kia Motors in Britain which in turn is owned by the Kia Motors Corporation, part of the Hyundai automotive group. When Kia collapsed in a sea of debt some years ago, Hyundai came to the rescue just like General Motors took over another troubled Korean maker, Daewoo.

What of Picanto? We drove it for around four hours on highways and byways near Manchester. The 1.1 litre top-of-the-range SE version came with impressive specifications including air conditioning and a six speaker audio system. But even the entry-level 1.0 litre GS has disc brakes all round with ABS and EBD and 60:40 split folding rear seats that give it a hint of MPV versatility. The in-between 1.1 LX offers air conditioning, while all three versions have a tilt adjustable steering wheel and front seat belts and front and rear head restraints that are height adjustable. Irish customers, incidentally, will enjoy the same specification levels as in Britain - the only difference is our higher pricing.

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The 65bhp 1.1 felt distinctly - and surprisingly - vigorous on stretches of Lancashire motorway. It was pleasant too, to find that Picanto wasn't that vocal when the foot was down. The official figures, however, indicate its performance modesty: from 0 to 62mph in 15.1 seconds and top speed of 96 mph. Kia says combined fuel consumption is 57.6 mpg and with a 35 litre fuel tank, that should mean 440 miles between fuel stops.

That sort of frugality and a value-for-money five-door package that doesn't exude the "cheap and cheerful" notion, are the strengths of Picanto. About 400 sales are projected for the rest of this year, a figure which Kia Ireland boss Chris Haughton thinks will be more than trebled next year.

Picanto is officially an A or baby segment car where sales are relatively small but Haughton sees it also meeting the needs of the lower end of the high volume supermini segment. Kia is this year celebrating 60 years of manufacturing but although it has only been making cars for 30 years, it is still Korea's oldest automobile manufacturer. The Irish operation has 29 dealers and sales in the first four months of this year are up 44 per cent on the same period last year.