Kia Seltos GT-Line 2024 Review

The 2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line is the top model in the Seltos range and costs $45,270 plus on-road costs. The only option is a choice of one of five exterior prestige colours at $520. No-cost colour choices include Mars Orange, a Fusion Black roof over Clear White, or the Fusion Black roof over Pluton Blue as reviewed here. With the two-tone colour schemes, you lose the otherwise standard sunroof.

Warranty is seven years/unlimited kilometres and includes one year of free roadside assistance and up to another seven years provided you go to a Kia dealer for servicing. Capped price servicing is available for up to seven years, totalling $3492. Service intervals are every 10,000km/12 months.

The GT-Line comes with 18-inch alloy wheels (including the spare), leather trim, heated/cooled front seats, heated steering wheel, head-up display and full LED lighting. Power-adjustment is limited to the driver’s seat only.

Infotainment is covered with a 10.25-inch touchscreen display, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, sat-nav, digital radio and Kia Connect – a smartphone app that includes satnav, wired smartphone mirroring and wireless charging. There’s USB-A and USB-C charge point up front as well as a 12V port, plus two USB-C points at the rear.

Well stocked with safety equipment, the 2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line has autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot monitoring and collision assist, rear cross-traffic alert, safe exit warning, lane keeping system, driver attention alert, automatic high beam, tyre pressure monitoring, parking sensors front and rear, rear camera and intelligent speed limit assist. There’s also active cruise control and speed sign recognition.

Front, front side and side curtain airbags are also fitted, and the Seltos has a five-star ANCAP rating from 2019.

The turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine develops 146kW and 265Nm and drives all wheels through an eight-speed automatic.

The 2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line has a bunch of attributes that make this SUV easy live with. It has aged well in a rapidly changing market. The fit and finish are good, the seats are comfortable and there’s plenty of room in the cabin and in the boot. The ride/handling compromise is effective for Australian roads, with good turn-in and grip and a composed ride even over rough, patchy bitumen. The turbo-petrol engine is responsive on the open road and the eight-speed auto does its work without fuss.

The 2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line has what feels like turbo lag when pulling out of slow corners. It feels as though the transmission is holding a higher gear than necessary, and so the revs aren’t sufficient to get the turbo working at its best. Plonk it into the ‘Sport’ mode and it’s no better than ‘Normal’. It’s also a shame you can’t have the sunroof if you really like the two-tone paint. Although for buyers who just see a sunroof as a potential source of leaks and sunburn, that’s perhaps no bad thing!

While fuel consumption averaged 8.7L/100km over mixed urban/highway use, around town it climbed to over 10L/100km. It’s not terrible, but clearly the Kia is not the fuel miser of the class.

Lastly, and perhaps the most difficult to deal with, is the Kia’s speed warning system. It flashes a warning and gives an audible alert when exceeding the speed limit, even if by just 1km/h. It does this about five times before going quiet and leaving you alone. The irony is, when once passing a 40km/h school zone, the dash icon showed it as a 70km/h school zone.

Equally, when there’s a change in general speed limit, the Seltos doesn’t always catch on and still registers you’re in the old speed zone. Cue the flashes, bing and bongs, if you’re trying to reach the (higher) speed limit.

Even though you can turn the warning off, it resets on every ignition start. Surely a Kia software engineer could tweak the system to offer a permanently ‘off’ setting, or so that it just gives visual warnings?

There is plenty of fresh competition to choose from, but the Kia is still a strong pick in its segment. For interior comfort, strong performance, great dynamics and ride, a long warranty and a generous features list, the 2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line strikes high notes. However, with its fussy speed warning system, it perhaps has more bells and whistles than you bargained for.

2024 Kia Seltos GT-Line at a glance:
Price: $45,270 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 146kW/265Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 175g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (2019 ANCAP)

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