Kia Picanto review

The Picanto is as durable as its price might lead you to imagine. It all looks fairly stylish inside, though, and you won’t be left feeling short-changed.

One nice change for the facelift is that the car comes with five seats as standard, which wasn’t the case before. Whether you can persuade three people to get in the back is another thing. There are two Isofix points back there for little ones. 

Is there decent room?

You’ve got decent space up front, even if the seats aren’t quite as comfortable over longer trips as you might hope they would be. The central part of the dashboard is flexible, with pop-up cupholders or space to drop things in. In the back you’ve got decent enough legroom, though again the seats do feel a bit flat.

And is the Picanto practical? 

Kia claims a ‘class best’ boot size for the Picanto: its 255 litres is certainly very impressive for a city car. It’ll swallow a weekly supermarket shop, but you won’t be volunteering to drive to the airport too often. That boxy shape means the boot extends to a very useful 1,010 litres with the seats down though – great news considering you won’t often have rear seat passengers. 

Does that touchscreen come as standard? 

Kia’s been generous here: all cars get the nav-enabled 8in touchscreen as standard, as well as the 4.2in digital instrument panel. You probably won’t use the satnav too much though, as Apple and Android connectivity also come as standard. So you can pick your mapplication of choice.

You also get things like aircon and all-round electric windows, so you won’t feel like you’re being left out if you do opt for the entry-level car. If you want the best blend of equipment and value then the 3 car has heated front seats and steering wheel, auto aircon, keyless go and wireless phone charging.

Of course, that £17,500 list price does take you £1.5k over the top-spec Dacia Sandero. No heated seats in that though.