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Road Test

Kia Cee'd

Test date 24 January 2007  Price as tested £14,395

Kia wants to be more than just a bit-part player in the European car market. To achieve this aim, it has invested in a new factory at Zilina in Slovakia. It’s an audacious move, but one rooted in common sense. One of the great barriers of acceptance to the European market is the notion that cars built in distant, eastern lands are in some way inferior.

The first offering from this new production facility is the Cee’d family hatchback. Its intended market penetration in the UK isn’t huge (around 10,000 units, or a two per cent market share) but the ramifications of this European-designed and built Korean hatch will be felt for years. Because this is a car that comes with a seven-year, 93,000-mile warranty.

Other than the abject irritation of those intending to use its name in print on a regular basis and a poorly constructed pun, there is no real meaning to the name Cee’d. In fact ignore both the model designation and the company’s name and simply look at this car as a nameless machine. Not a bad looker, is it? The proportions are right, the styling attractive. Kia has never achieved these two goals before.

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