THE DOOM and gloom of our economic malaise is starting to bite. Price hikes at petrol pumps, supermarkets and corner shops are eating into our ever-diminishing incomes.
The days of loose money are coming to an end. We're no longer prepared to pay €100 for the privilege of standing in a field listening to a bad rendition of a mediocre tune from a haggard artist on a stage half a mile away. Nor are we going to splash out €10 on a bottle of sparkling water to go with an already overpriced - and poorly cooked - meal. And we're not going to pay over the odds for a car that doesn't serve any other purpose than to devour yet more of our savings than is necessary.
These are chastened times. They've even started using the r-word - recession - in polite company.
The morbid outlook is taking its toll on the car market like everywhere else. Dealers gripe about forecourts bulging at the seams with used stock. The industry lobby group, SIMI, claims that used-car prices are down 11 per cent for diesels and 15.5 per cent for petrol models. Understandably then, few dealers are in a very giving mood when it comes to trade-in values.
Frustrated buyers, in turn, are opting for private sales to shift their depreciating metal. Even then, they find that prices are not as high as they had hoped.
As for the thousands of motorists in the commuter belts who have little choice but to drive, they believe they're being fleeced every time they fill up at the petrol pumps.
The end result is that the Irish motoring populous has become more value orientated. Change is afoot. The new emissions-based tax regime is causing many motorists to question not only their choice of fuel option, but also the brand they buy and the vehicle format.
One implication is that there are signs that estates - or wagons as they are known to our continental cousins - will record a post-SUV boost as people start to recognise the value of their proposition.
Take this Kia cee'd SW, for example. It's not the biggest estate in its market and yet it has more rear storage than any of the new fashionable small SUVs on the market. Initial sales since launch suggest many family motorists are tempted by the likes of the VW Tiguan or Nissan Qashqai. Yet both have less bootspace than the cee'd SW.
Drop the rear seats down and the loading space increases to an impressive 1,664 litres. That's actually more than you get in a Skoda Octavia Estate. Only the Renault Megane Tourer offers more rear-load space in this class, tipping in at 1,800 litres.
In practical terms, estates offer plenty of space for the paraphernalia of modern life along with the daily storage needs of prams and the like. They certainly make more sense than the five-seater people carriers that have strangely become popular. With two childseats in the back, the cee'd SW still leaves you with nearly 540 litres of bootspace - significantly more than the likes of the Opel Meriva or Renault Megane.
In fact, these ever-practical estates make a mockery of those high-roofed, school-run wagons. The estates have a low-loading floor, just like the people carriers but with more space; they have ample rear seat space for children and everything up front that the driver of the people carrier or ordinary hatchback can expect. The only difference seems to be that there is little space wasted above your heads and more space available in the boot.
The one significant gripe people have had with estates is over their design. That is increasingly no longer an issue. Previously, they were just hatchbacks with a bit of extra glass and metal welded to the rear. These days, however, driven by increased demand from our practical European cousins, car firms have paid a lot more attention to their design. The cee'd SW, for example, might not be as "sporty" as Kia would like us to believe, but it's a darn sight more fetching than the previous generations of estate models in this class.
In many ways, the SW highlights just how much Kia has embraced Europe more rapidly than many other Asian manufacturers.
Kia has gone all out to adapt to and adopt European trends. A glittering new European headquarters in Frankfurt and state-of-the-art production plant in Slovakia are the physical manifestations of this attempt to follow a more European direction. It's accompanied by a European styling studio led by designers poached from brands like Volkswagen and Citroën.
Its efforts are starting to bear fruit. Where once they were characterless Korean metal boxes, today many of their models have style, comfort and practicality.
Throw in its seven-year warranty deal - the only offer of its kind in Ireland - along with a list of standard features that is only matched by mid-range competitors and you see why Kia is quietly confident. It's dealers might be suffering as much as the rest when it comes to used stock, but the brand is looking like it can weather the storm.
And sneak previews of some of its future models suggest that the success of the cee'd range is not a one-off phenomenon.
So, to the practicalities of life with the sporty wagon. Starting up front, the 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine is a decent workhorse; nothing too sparkling and a bit gruff around the edges. The cee'd's handling is also quite sedate, with the usual tendency to understeer in faster bends and a light, rather uninformative feel the rest of the time. It's functional motoring, without offering the sort of positive, fun driving some European rivals can muster - and even the three-door hatchback pro cee'd achieves. There is certainly nothing "sporty" about it.
Interior styling is the same as in the rest of the cee'd range and that's a boon. Kia's styling has been strong in recent models and they got it right with the cee'd. Unlike several of its better-known European rivals, the Kia interior isn't simply a monochrome lump of moulded plastic. Rear-seat legroom is ample for adults and more than able for school runs.
At the very back, there's the aforementioned boot. Under the sizeable floor, there are separate cubbyholes for yet more stowage and the relatively low loading height makes it ideal for shopping and buggies.
The list of features on the cee'd SW is rather impressive. One unfortunate omission, however, is stability control. For a car that's longer than some SUVs and aimed at the family market, ESP should be a standard feature on all cars in this class, just as you can expect seat belts and airbags these days.
The c'eed "Sporty Wagon" could also be more competitively priced against established European rivals.
In its defence the seven-year warranty has a big attraction for family motorists and should help bolster resale values, one of the great unknowns in the Kia cee'd range.
In estate format, it offers as much practicality for small families as any five-seater people carrier. Certainly, anyone considering such a vehicle should test one of these estates before taking the purchasing plunge.
Kia's offering on the Irish market can no longer be ignored. As with Skoda several years ago, its product line-up has evolved into proper European fare. Its new, improved model range also comes at a time when buyers are no longer going to burden themselves with yet more debt for a car that's got little more to offer than a fancy badge up front.
The economic climate means we are more open to newcomers who offer a good deal.
It's a value proposition that doesn't mean compromising on quality and is now giving the established brands a run for their money.
Factfile
Engine: 1582cc common-rail turbodiesel engine putting out 115bhp@ 4,000rpm and 255Nm of torque @ 1,900rpm
Specification: ABS with EBD; Dual front, side and curtain airbags; 16" alloys; front foglights; roof rails; radio/CD with four speakers; 60:40 split-rear seats; air-con; electric windows. Metallic paint is €350 more.
L/100km (mpg): urban: 5.9 (47.9); extra-urban: 4.3 (65.7); combined: 4.9 (57.7)
CO2 emissions: 129 g/km
Annual road tax: €150
Price: €22,495 (€24,395 prior to July 1st)