KIA Cee'd SW - Following the huge success of the Kia cee’d earlier this year, Kia decided to plant another cee’d. However, this new cee’d is out to impress and consequently has grown more than its previous cee’d s. In fact, it has stretched by 235 mm and grown 100mm taller thus transformed itself into an estate and re-named the cee’d SW.
Now, estate cars have rather fallen by the wayside over the past years as MPV’s and SUV’s become the cooler option. But under fire from the government to ‘go green’ coupled with heavy taxes and moaning credit cards at the petrol stations, estates are making a comeback rather like Pink Floyd.
Estate cars are the work horse of the motoring world not just for small businesses or salesmen but also families whose children may have grown and they now don’t want a ‘mumsy ‘ looking car, yet they still need the space and versatility a larger vehicle provides.
Enter the SW cee’d with one of the most accessible load areas in the competitive C-segment. By a clever tailgate design, that not only looks good, it makes it easier to load up the car for the holiday, day out, or simply the shopping trip.
The top hinges have been moved further forwards thus extending the tailgate into the roofline meaning the shopoholics can stand much closer to the car causing less tension on their backs as they load in the bags, and the best bit of all, is that the tailgate can be opened in restricted parking spaces or even garages at home.
With Christmas looming ahead, what a great cunning plan to hide all the children’s presents - oh and a few for yourself as well especially as there is 534 litres of space and 55 litres in hidden trays beneath the load floor, 200 litres more than the cee’d hatchback.
The new Cee’d SW comes with a choice of three 1.6 litre engines, one being petrol, the other two diesel along with a duo of trims, the GS and LS which in fact, are the top two trims taken from the cee’d hatchback variants. Prices start at an extremely competitive £12,995 for the 1.6 petrol on the GS trim rising to £14,995 for the flagship 1.6 litre diesel CRDi mated to the LS trim. Guess what my test car was? Yes, you really are getting to now me well, top of the range of course. We are very fortunate at Female First to have this car on long term so will be reporting each month on how it is getting along in various scenarios.
Estate cars can sometimes be rather uninspiring to look at but in fairness, Kia have done a great job in making the cee’d SW kind of attractive using body coloured bumpers, body coloured electric and hearted door mirrors, contrasting with the silver roof rails and 16 inch alloy wheels.
Inside, the interior is bright and airy thanks to the use of lots of glass, as well as roomy due to the larger dimensions meaning the SW has plenty of room for five adults without being too intimate.
The semi-bucket lumber adjustable front seats have wide cushions and firm support which is appreciated on longer journeys while the drivers also comes with height adjustment which, with the two way adjustable leather steering wheel with remote audios, means every size of driver will find a comfortable driving position. The centre stack appears to float beside the driver and comes with one of two different finishes - black or silver. Equipment is arranged in logical layers and includes an integral tailor-made hi-fi with RDS radio, developed in conjunction with Siemens. USB and auxiliary ports are fitted, allowing an MP3 player, iPod or USB stick to be connected. The LS comes with full climate control plus front and rear electric windows with anti-traps for wayward fingers.
Securing all items are numerous storage solutions including cup holders, pockets behind the front seats, a 12 volt power outlet in the centre console and boot, a reasonable sized glove box plus an armrest with deep concealed binnacles underneath. Any surplus can easily be accommodated in the large boot area secured by luggage net hooks and concealed from prying eyes by a security screen.
At the heart of the cee’d SW is a 1.6 litre turbo diesel engine taken from the hatchback mated to a five speed manual gearbox, although a four speed automatic is available but only on the petrol variant. The result is a respecatable11.7 seconds to reach 62 mph, a top speed of 116.8 mph and fuel consumption a whopping cost saving 57.6 mpg on a combined cycle, CO2 emissions are right down at 128 narrowly missing the exemption bracket.
Kia's latest motor-driven power-steering system is standard to help save fuel while delivering maximum low-speed assistance and higher-speed feedback plus responsiveness. The result is not just easy peesy steering but the Kia engineers have calculated that it reduces fuel consumption by 3% compared to a conventional engine-driven system. The Kia cee’d SW uses a fully independent suspension system resulting in a pretty impressive ride and handling made even more pleasurable by the excellent levels of refinement thanks to the efforts taken to curb noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), meaning I can listen to my favourite music without the road noise interfering.
Safety is a key element in the Kia camp so it is not surprising that they have estimated a five star Euro NCAP rating for frontal accident protection using their own computer-simulated tests as the SW has numerous safety features that prevent the car from going out of control along with a rigid bodyshell that deforms progressively to reduce the risk of injury. In addition, standard across the whole range, are driver and passenger airbags with a de-activation switch for the passenger, along with twin front side and full-length curtain airbags. Both driver and passenger have seat active headrests and height adjustable seatbelts with pre-tensioners and load limiters while the rear have three point seatbelts, height adjustable head restraints and ISOFIX top tethers plus lower anchor points. In case these pesky children undo their seatbelts, the SW has the all round seatbelt reminder so even Mum will be found out if not wearing her seatbelt. ABS with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution is also standard while the LS goes on to have ESP.
Securing the cee’d SWis a Thatcham approved alarm with immobilisers, deadlocks and speed sensitive auto door locking. Just in case an accident does occur, there are impact sensors to automatically unlock the doors. As a result, the SW 1.6 falls into insurance group 6. Would you believe it, another cost saving attribute.
As you can see, despite a low price tag, the SW cee’d has not been compromised in any way from exterior look, interior comfort/ convenience, great performance, excellent safety and security features, but that is not all. Oh no, the best is yet to come ensuring even the most sceptical of buyers will be appeased. For the cee’d SW comes with Kia's sensational seven year or 100,000 miles warranty that covers every part of the car, from front bumper to rear, from road to roof plus it is transferable to subsequent owners, hence a major selling point for anyone trading in the car before the warranty period has expired. The only stipulation is that all servicing and repair work has to be undertaken to Kia specified standards, using original factory parts.
How does Kia do it? Well don’t question, just enjoy the cee’d SW basking in the knowledge of how much money you have just saved and the fact you are very very safe.
FemaleFirst - Jackie Violet
KIA Cee'd SW - Following the huge success of the Kia cee’d earlier this year, Kia decided to plant another cee’d. However, this new cee’d is out to impress and consequently has grown more than its previous cee’d s. In fact, it has stretched by 235 mm and grown 100mm taller thus transformed itself into an estate and re-named the cee’d SW.
Now, estate cars have rather fallen by the wayside over the past years as MPV’s and SUV’s become the cooler option. But under fire from the government to ‘go green’ coupled with heavy taxes and moaning credit cards at the petrol stations, estates are making a comeback rather like Pink Floyd.
Estate cars are the work horse of the motoring world not just for small businesses or salesmen but also families whose children may have grown and they now don’t want a ‘mumsy ‘ looking car, yet they still need the space and versatility a larger vehicle provides.
Enter the SW cee’d with one of the most accessible load areas in the competitive C-segment. By a clever tailgate design, that not only looks good, it makes it easier to load up the car for the holiday, day out, or simply the shopping trip.
The top hinges have been moved further forwards thus extending the tailgate into the roofline meaning the shopoholics can stand much closer to the car causing less tension on their backs as they load in the bags, and the best bit of all, is that the tailgate can be opened in restricted parking spaces or even garages at home.