KIA PRO_CEE'D (2012-2015)

By Jonathan Crouch

Models Covered

3dr coupe (1.6 diesel, 1.4, 1.6 petrol, 1.6 petrol turbo)

Introduction

Whether you see it as a smart coupe or a sleekly-styled three-door hatch, Kia’s pro_cee’d offers a sensible spin on sporty motoring and is a smarter proposition in second generation guise. It's also well built, aggressively priced and comes with almost bullet-proof reliability. Sensible then, but with a little sexiness thrown in.

The History

Flair and desirability weren’t words really associated with Kia in the early years of this century. But that was before the brand brought us a stream of new models delivering just that – the funky Soul supermini as well as more dynamic versions of the Sportage Crossover, the cute Picanto citycar and before those, this car, the pro_cee’d.

Today, the temptation is to see it as little more than a three-door version of the Focus-class cee’d family hatchback, but back in 2008, this was a shocking departure for Kia dealers used to the dull family fare offered across the rest of the South Korean maker’s range. Styled and positioned as a stand-alone affordable sports coupe, it was a key component in Kia’s progression to their current place amongst the mass market’s most forward-thinking brands.

In 2012, the launch of the second generation cee’d range gave Kia an opportunity to refresh the pro_cee’d proposition and it’s the early version of this MK2 model that we’re going to look at here. This original design sold until the Autumn of 2015 when it was replaced by lightly updated facelifted model.

What To Look For

The pro_cee'd has proven an extremely reliable car, with both petrol engines and the diesel motor scoring well in reliability surveys. Customers have noted that some of the interior finishes can get scratched quite easily and the alloy wheels fitted to top models are quite easy to kerb. Other than that, it's a clean bill of health. Kia's brilliant seven-year warranty arrangement means that these vehicles very rarely fall into premature neglect.

On The Road

Slip behind the wheel of a pro_cee’d and you might begin to doubt Kia’s claims that this is a stand-alone, sportier model. Save for a grippier four-spoke steering wheel, there are, after all, few interior differences between this car and any ordinary family five-door cee’d. It’s a slight surprise after the stylised lines of the bodywork but one you quickly come to terms with on the road. Here, as with the cabin, only small detail changes differentiate the pro_cee’d from its five-door stablemate but in this case, they’re enough to make more of a difference. A thicker anti-roll bar, uprated dampers and re-programmed power steering.

The pro_cee’d won’t be first choice if yours is habitually a dynamic driving style. And the main reason why is tinged with irony: a lack of feel through the steering. If you were familiar with the technical spec of this car, you might think that would be dealt with by the Flex Steer system Kia developed for this second generation model. Wrong. For a start, that feature couldn’t be specified on entry-level pro_cee’d models. Those variants that do have this set-up offer their drivers a button on the wheel that enables selection between ‘Comfort’, ‘Normal’ and ‘Sport’ modes. Given that ‘Comfort’ is rather light and ‘Sport’ artificially heavy, you end up leaving it in ‘Normal’ all the time, which rather defeats the point.

Engine-wise, the mainstream line-up is based around two engine sizes – 1.4 and 1.6. The smaller unit comes in petrol form with 98bhp or as a CRDi diesel with 89bhp. More sophisticated though, are the 1.6s, fitted as they are with the ISG ‘Intelligent Stop & Go’ system that makes both the 133bhp petrol GDI and the 126bhp CRDi diesel impressively green and frugal. There’s a bigger difference between the two petrol variants though, the direct injection 133bhp GDI petrol unit in the cee’d 1.6 making sixty in 9.8s, over two and a half seconds quicker than the petrol 1.4, on the way to 118mph. At the top of the range, Kia announced its first really sporting model, the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol pro_cee’d GT, which boasted 201bhp: it offered a lot of performance for the money.

Overall

Is this a sports coupe? Or merely a three-door family hatch? Your answer to these questions is key in determining how you’ll view this car. If, as Kia says, it really is an aspirational sports coupe, then it’s not only extraordinarily practical but also fantastic value for money. If, on the other hand, you see this car as nothing more than a Kia cee’d with two fewer doors, it’s clearly less desirable – though even then, those key attributes still apply. As of course does this brand’s industry-leading warranty.

True, you might not think that practicality, peace of mind and price would rank very highly amongst the priorities of sports coupe buyers, even in this very affordable sector of the market. And for real enthusiasts, that might be the case. But real enthusiasts aren’t the only people who buy cars of this kind. Take for example, young buyers who want a racier look but don’t want to be saddled with high insurance premiums. Or older customers who like the idea of a sporty coupe but don’t want one with an uncomfortable and impractical low-slung feel. Both will find a pro_cee’d to be a perfectly sensible proposition – but one with a touch of flair. Just as we’ve now come to expect from Kia.