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Car review: New Kia Proceed

When the current Kia Ceed arrived last year I moaned that, worthy as it was, it lacked the personality of the rest of the Kia range, which varied from the mischievously fast Stinger to the downright cute Picanto. Now the company has introduced a new version of the sportier ProCeed, and this has restored the balance.

The new car looks really good – its shooting brake rear end borrows heavily from the Porsche Panamera, and everything from the rear light cluster to the light signature looks to have come straight from the Porsche parts bin. The shooting brake shape slightly reduces the boot capacity from 625 litres in the Ceed to 594 litres, but the ProCeed has a look of distinct quality about it and there are plenty of variants to choose from with more to arrive later this year.

Probably the least appealing is the 1.6-litre CRDi diesel which produces 134bhp and is capable of 124mph and 56.5mpg. This is a slightly gruff engine and with the current anti-diesel feeling it will probably sell in quite small numbers.

The fastest version is the ProCeed 1.6 T-GDi GT, which has some restrained red external trim lines to distinguish it as the range-topper. This model might split opinion in one way. Some people like sound tubes, which lead artificially generated engine noise into the cabin while keeping the volume down outside the car. I hate them.

The ProCeed GT’s sound tube gets really quite intrusive when the car is pushed, although its well balanced handling and grip were reasonably impressive. The 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine produces 201bhp at 6,000 rpm, although the test car I drove had covered only a few hundred miles and didn’t feel as fast as those figures suggest.

The new Kia ProCeed has a look of distinct quality about it (Kia)
The new Kia ProCeed has a look of distinct quality about it (Kia)

The GT is only available with a seven-speed double clutch automatic gearbox, but if you want the same performance with a manual gearbox there is a new GT version of the Ceed saloon.

To my mind the pick of the ProCeed bunch is the 1.4-litre T-GDi GT-Line S, with 138bhp and the same seven-speed auto box. This is a very refined new engine which gels perfectly with the double clutch gearbox and provides easily enough power without the frantic phoney soundtrack of the ProCeed GT.

The interior comes straight out of the Ceed saloon and has clear instruments and well thought out controls. The only thing I disliked was that the angle of the rear view mirror means you can’t see far enough behind you. You can only see the car directly behind. Perhaps, in time, a job for the facelift.

Kia is producing some fine cars with excellent warranties at the moment, and even bucked the trend of an awful 2018 for the motor industry, growing by three per cent. If it goes on producing cars as good as the ProCeed there is no reason why the company’s fortunes shouldn’t continue to grow.

Details

Kia ProCeed 1.4 T-GDi GT-Line S

Price: £28,685

Top speed: 127mph

Emissions: 133g/km

Combined mpg: 42.8mpg