Car Blog Review: Kia Pro

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Kia Pro_Ceed

Family expansion

The World Premiere of the new Kia pro_cee’d three-door hatchback, at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in Germany 11 September in production form, marks the latest expansion of the popular Kia cee’d family.

Longer, lower and lighter than its five-door hatchback sister car, the three-door pro_cee’d brings more style and more sportiness to the C-segment marketplace and is destined to broaden the appeal of the cee’d to a new group of European consumers and achieve thousands of ‘conquest’ sales for the Kia brand.

“The new Kia pro_cee’d offers consumers sensationally stylish looks with a truly sporty feel to the driving experience, while also retaining most of the attributes of the popular cee’d five-door hatchback – including excellent practicality and versatility,” enthuses Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe.

“With performance, ride and handling that is even more responsive than the five-door, the pro_cee’d will be available with the same wide choice of engines and specifications as its sister car. I think pro_cee’d is truly a great looking car and we know for certain that it will delight existing Kia customers and attract numerous European consumers who find three-door cars particularly attractive and who have not yet considered our brand.”

Despite its sporty appearance and lower roofline, the 4.25-metre long pro_cee’d has an unusually long wheelbase and will offer class-leading passenger and luggage space, plus highly competitive levels of equipment and state-of-the-art active and passive safety. Customers in Europe will be able to choose from a line-up of 19 pro_cee’d cars, with three equipment levels (LX, EX and TX), five engines, with manual or automatic transmissions, and an extensive range of optional equipment (depending on individual markets).

Kia cee’d family – exterior dimensions (mm)

	Length	Wheelbase	Width*	Height
Kia cee’d 5-door	4,235	2,650	1,790	1,480
Kia cee’d Sporty Wagon	4,470	2,650	1,790	1,525**
Kia pro_cee’d	4,250	2,650	1,790	1,450

*excluding door mirrors. **including roof rails

Distinctive styling with a cee’d family theme

Thanks to its early conception in the cee’d family creative process, the pro_cee’d has ‘stand-alone’ good looks despite a large degree of commonality with other cee’d models, beneath the exterior skin.

“It is a completely resolved design, with only the bonnet and front wings carried over from the five-door, and features unique exterior panels to create its own distinctive style,” comments Gregory Guillaume, Kia Motors Europe Chief Designer. “We wanted to make pro_cee’d as ‘sporty’ as a cee’d could possibly be, while still remaining a member of our cee’d family.”

Because the Kia cee’d family of three models was conceived simultaneously, the new pro_cee’d three-door hatchback has the same in-depth engineering integrity as the five-door hatchback and the wagon. A total of 15 mm longer than the five-door, the pro_cee’d has longer overhangs – by 10 mm at the front and 5 mm at the rear.

Although the pro_cee’d roofline is 30 mm lower than its hatchback sibling, the 2650 mm wheelbase is retained, so the cabin has most of the cee’d’s proven practicality and versatility, with generous legroom and shoulder room. The new roofline and sloping C-pillar design bring about a small reduction in headroom – down 30 mm in front and 40 mm in the rear, but two 1.70-metre adults can sit comfortably in the rear.

Kia cee’d family – interior dimensions (mm)

	Head room F/R	Leg room F/R	Shoulder room F/R
Kia cee’d 5-door	1,020 / 980	1,105 / 900	1,410 / 1,385
Kia cee’d Sporty wagon	1,020 / 995	1,105 / 900	1,410 / 1,385
Kia pro_cee’d	990 / 940	1,105 / 900	1,410 / 1,360

Luggage capacity is also generous for this type of vehicle, totaling 340 litres – loaded up to the bottom of the rear windows and including 55 litres of storage in moulded trays beneath the floor, fitted as standard – just like the hatchback and the Sporty Wagon. The total capacity with the rear seats folded is class-competitive and only slightly down on the five-door cee’d hatchback.

Kia cee’d family – luggage capacity (litres)

	Seats upright	Rear seats folded
Kia cee’d 5-door	340	1,300
Kia cee’d Sporty Wagon	534	1,664
Kia pro_cee’d	340	1,130

Three models introduce the ‘qualitative revolution’

The launch of the Kia cee’d family (five-door hatchback, five-door Sporty Wagon and three-door pro_cee’d) marks a major turning point in Kia’s history. The bringing of this trio to the marketplace is the start of a new era. They are the first-ever Kia cars designed and manufactured in Europe and are already introducing a qualitative revolution for the brand.

The highest standards of engineering and the European-style aesthetics have been applied to every aspect of the cee’d creative process। Such is the quality and durability of cars manufactured at the new purpose-built Kia factory at Zilina in Slovakia, which every cee’d sold in Europe is backed by a 7-Year/150,000 km warranty.

Source: Kia Motors