Kia Picanto 2015 Review

Small cars equate to tiny profits so you can perhaps sympathise with Kia Australia if it has struggled to make a business case for the little Picanto Down Under, but while it’s hesitated the little Korean city-car has racked up well over a million global sales.

Now it’s coming here.

Known as the Kia Morning in Korea, where it’s produced, the Picanto will come in one well specified trim with indicative pricing kicking off from just $13,900 driveaway for the 1.25-litre manual and $14,990 for the four-speed auto version.

Unlike Europe, we won’t get the little 1.0-litre three-cylinder, nor will we get the three-door version.

Since Volkswagen has killed off the up!, Fiat no longer sells the Panda and Toyota’s never seen fit to dip its toe in the water with the Aygo, Kia’s plan to sell as many as 300 a month sounds reasonable.

Where the Picanto will face stiff opposition is from keenly-priced larger cars like the $12,990-driveaway Suzuki Celerio, whose trump card is more space for your dollar, plus the Mitsubishi Mirage (from $11,990), Holden Barina Spark (from $12,890) and Nissan Micra (from $13,490).

Inside, the little Picanto gets off to a good start against its bigger rivals. The dash might not be a cutting-edge piece of design and lacks expensive, soft-touch plastics, but it makes up for it with a clear, well laid out interior and solid build quality.

A pleasing stylistic touch in the Kia’s cabin is its ‘smiling’ two-spoke steering wheel that looks like it’s been pinched from Mercedes’ S-Class.

We’re not sure what specification our cars will get but none of the Euro models came with either an OEM-fit sat-nav, reversing cameras or modern safety equipment like autonomous braking — but expect all three of those options to come with the third all-new Picanto that’s set to arrive in 18 months’ time.

We began our drive with the little 49kW/95Nm 1.0-litre — we’re not getting it and we’re not missing out on much. The three-cylinder is surprisingly smooth and averages a fine 4.2L/100km, but our car had poor initial throttle response.

Factor in sharp, over-servoed brakes and the Picanto 1.0-litre is surprisingly tricky to drive smoothly at very slow speeds. On the highway, meanwhile, long gearing also exaggerates the lack of performance. Expect to need not one, but two downchanges for meaningful acceleration even at high speed.

Far better is the 62kW/121Nm 1.25-litre engine that shaves a considerable 3.1 seconds off the 0-100km/h time, taking 11.0 seconds flat before topping out at 171km/h.

At the pumps, the larger engine still returns a frugal 4.6L/100km while emitting 106g/km of CO2.

Kia Oz will also bring the four-speed automatic Picanto but we didn’t get a chance to drive it. The auto comes with the same 1.25-litre but the power-sapping effects of a torque converter means the 0-100km/h time drops to 12.9 seconds while top speed is wound back to 163km/h.

On the road, back in the manual, the little Picanto immediately impresses. On the smaller 14-inch wheels, ride quality for such a small car is excellent.

Crosswinds bother the slab-sided city car, but at general highway speeds the baby Kia offers remarkable stability, isn’t too noisy and two-up with the larger engine offers plenty of performance to keep up with traffic.

Peeling off the highway onto backroads and the Kia continues to impress.

Considering the driveaway price it would be unreasonable to expect anything exotic under the skin of the Picanto and sure enough it makes do with struts and a rear torsion bar. That doesn’t stop the Kia from being fun though.

Sure, there’s some roll, but even on the cheap Kumho 14-inch tyres there’s lots of grip to lean on and the Picanto feels agile and fun to hustle along a country road. The gear change is also light, quick and easy to stir along the progress.

The Picanto’s steering ultimately lacks feel but is nicely weighted, precise and quick enough for town use.

Opting for the larger 15-inch wheels makes for a busier ride and but provides for even more grip when you’re pushing on.

For those who have concerns about opting for a car dwarfed by most other vehicles the Picanto still offers enough space in the rear for two passengers while boot space, at 200 litres, is just enough for two weekend bags.

Overall then the Picanto is a well worthy addition to Kia’s existing Australian line-up. It’s fun, efficient, cheap and cheerful. The Volkswagen up! is still the best micro-car money can buy and the Fiat Panda is still far more fun, but since you can’t buy them here the Kia sits at the top of the pile.

Compared to the Barina Spark, which will be replaced early next year, the Picanto is more fun to drive and offers better refinement. Yes, the little Kia struggles to match the space of the Celerio, but if you can live with that the little Picanto is faster, more efficient and, overall, the better car.