Kia K4 review

Really quite weird. The steering and pedals feel like they’re from completely different cars. The front end tells you next to nothing about what the wheels are up to, and the lack of feedback means you’ll have no confidence (or desire) to explore what the car will do in corners. All that plus frequent correction equals no sense of satisfaction for you. Ever.

Actually, the K4 feels quite portly – correct us if we’re wrong but at 1,850mm this is the widest hatch on sale, not helped by the chunky steering wheel. Hope you don’t live near any width restrictors.

The brake pedal travel is long and spongy, and feels better suited to heavy stops from speeds that – let’s be honest – aren’t really the K4’s forte. But you’ll learn to live with it. Ride quality is lumpy at low speeds, although the suspension (MacPherson struts up front, multi-link behind) does at least chamfer the harshness off potholes fairly well. The comfy seats help. There’s lots of vertical movement, but not much side-to-side.

Anything else?

The droney engine note is a chore, although it’s not overly loud and eventually gets lost amongst road and wind noise, which is intrusive on motorways and dual carriageways.

Ergo, you’ll refrain from hustling the accelerator so the car is even slower than the numbers suggest: the mid-ranking 147bhp version should cover 0-62mph in 9.2 seconds but you’ll never get close for the sake of your ears.

Worst of all though is the throttle response. It’s woeful, and always a step behind what you want it to do. So pulling into gaps is more perilous than it ought to be and even something as simple as a three point turn will rile you up because the throttle is so fussy and dim-witted. A hatch should make life easy, and this doesn’t.

We’re yet to test the manual and we’re praying it makes up for the auto’s shortcomings, even if it does turn out to be slower than Eeyore.

Ouch. What will it do to my bank balance?

Not too much damage. Our test car returned 46.5mpg on a mixed route against a claim of 43.6, so there’s a good chance you’ll improve on the official numbers. Woo hoo!

The 1.0 engine is rated at 49.6mpg (manual and auto) while the 177bhp 1.6-litre claims 42.2mpg. So if you’re frugal get the former; if you’re running late buy the latter. Bosh.