Kia Picanto Review
Published: 25th April 2005
Kia Picanto
How It Drove - Performance
As you would expect from a 1.1 litre engine acceleration is not that brisk, 0-62 mph takes 15.1 seconds, but the engine does output 64 bhp @ 5400 rpm, so not all is lost. The 1.1 Picanto will reach a top speed of 96 mph when coupled to the five-speed manual gearbox.
The 1.1 litre engine is great around town, and those who like to zoom off at the lights are not going to be too disappointed. The gearbox and clutch are well weighted and smooth to operate.
The Picanto is designed for town driving with the deep front windscreen offering excellent forward vision. Venture out of town, and you do have to use the gearbox to keep up with the flow of traffic. The car sits fine with its peers out of town and there is nothing particularly worrying or annoying when driving out into the country.
The Picanto fuel consumption is good returning 57.6 mpg combined, 65.7 mpg extra-urban and 46.3 mpg around town - during our time with the Kia, we averaged 42 mpg which was not too bad bearing in mind that we spent the majority of our time on urban runs.
We took the peeky little fellow for a sprint down the motorway, well more of a spirited drive within the speed limit. It held its own, keeping up with all but the fastest moving traffic. Although we would not like to cover long distances on a daily commute, the odd trip to visit friends would be fun.
How It Drove - Ride/Handling
We found the steering suited our taste and it was well weighted, absolutely no complaints here.
Of course, if you push the car too hard into a bend or around roundabouts it is going to be regrettable and it will lose grip, but you would have to be doing something daft for this to affect you. Even in these conditions, the Kia felt controllable and nothing alarmed us.
The ride is very good at low speeds, it is only at higher ‘A’ road speeds that the car on occasions felt a little unsettled, but with good damping the ride is comfortable. In fact the Picanto feels like a much larger car on the road - very commendable and worth the 4.5 stars that we have awarded it.
