Oh man, I haven’t written a car review in ages. I guess it’s because I feel no pressure to produce a new piece often and that is due to the fact that I doubt anyone reads this, alas I shall continue.
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I want to talk about the Kia Cerato two door coupe, known as ‘Koup’ to its friends. Right from the jump I want to establish the fact that it is an excellent car, in fact I think that the only reason you probably don’t think you want one is because it is a Kia. You probably think that Korea doesn’t know how to make a proper car. You may be justified in thinking this however this car does prove many a petrolhead wrong.
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Firstly, the car is gorgeous. I do realise that looks are subjective but in this case any opinion other than mine would be wrong, take that to the bank. The car simply has no wrong angles on its exterior. It has gorgeous curves, a beautiful silhouette and a nice, shapely rear. I do feel that the ‘Koup’ before the current one had a better-looking face and I do think that Kia could have made this one’s face more spectacular but make no mistake, it is a beautiful car. I have to mention that I love a two-door coupe body shape and this one has been executed to perfection. Another thing I liked about the one I drove was that it had a sunroof, the suns rays were hitting me square in the face to the point of making it extremely uncomfortable for me to keep driving with it open but I’m a stubborn Zulu man, ergo I ploughed through the discomfort for the sake of swag.
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On to the business of the powertrain. This stunner is powered by a 1.6 litre turbo engine, the car is pretty potent for it. When you put your foot down flat on the pedal the seat sucks you back and that gives me enormous joy. That’s what you really want in a good-looking car, you want it to be as stunning to drive as it is to look at and the Cerato has that nailed.
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The one I drove was an automatic with flappy paddles to change the gear. I’m a huge fan of flappy paddle gearboxes but I do understand that many others aren’t too fond of them and, as much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m fairly certain that it’s iterations of ones like the one I found in the Cerato Koup that gives them a bad name. I say this because it does take a tad too long to change gear and after the gear change the power hits you like a rock and that does get annoying, slightly.
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I have other criticisms of the car. One critique of it is that when you get it up to ‘proper’ speeds the car gets a bit squirrely and that is as dangerous as it is exhilarating, it requires more concentration from the driver. Another criticism I have is that the car’s dashboard is dull and looks dated and the hard plastic just tops it off to make the entire package of the interior borderline unbearable and that’s a shame because the car feels quite luxurious to drive and to be in but the whole thing is ruined by a dash that’s ugly and looks like it comes from a Kia of the early 2000s.
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Another thing that irks me is the touch screen radio console that showed me total disrespect. The tiny screen makes it difficult to make the multimedia console to do what you want it to do, pairing my phone to it via Bluetooth was a nightmare and some clicks didn’t register so I had to constantly fight with it. The sound quality of the radio is beautiful though.
All in all, the car is a wonderful place to be and a beautiful machine to drive. A few things try to spoil the package, but the good news is that they don’t manage to. Badge snobbery aside, this is a fantastic automobile.
