Australians tend to hoover up high-end variants of just about every vehicle at a disproportionate rate globally. That means that sometimes excellent entry-level variants like the 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan get overlooked. While hatches still outsell sedans in the small car segment by some margin, Trent Nikolic takes a look at a value-packed and space-efficient small car that even works well on a long road trip.
- Value and warranty are excellent
- Ride even on country roads is fantastic
- Second-row space is a highlight despite the compact exterior
- Base model’s four-star safety rating should be improved
- Hatch is still slightly more space-efficient for luggage
- Might be time to lose the steel wheels
Introduction
The small car segment is an enduring one in Australia. Despite a preference for larger vehicles – and SUVs specifically – small sedans remain popular with buyers for a number of key reasons.
Value is high on the list of course, if not the primary driver for purchase in this segment. There’s more to it than just the numbers on the bill of sale though. Space efficiency, fuel efficiency, value for money, and city-focused practicality ensure small cars never really went out of style.
The 2022 Kia Cerato is a compelling entrant, too. The brand’s excellent seven-year warranty remains a focus for budget-savvy buyers, even against stablemate, the high-quality Hyundai i30. The interesting part of this test though is actually twofold. First, you’ve got the fact that it’s a sedan we’re testing, in a segment where hatches dominate. Secondly, the S is the base model in a range that rolls right up to the turbocharged Cerato GT, which starts from $37,770 drive-away.
The GT Turbo is sharpish performance-wise of course, but our Cerato S, starting from $27,490 drive-away is a comparative bargain. Add Kia’s ‘Safety Pack’, and you’re starting from $28,990 drive-away.
We’d advocate ticking that box, too, given the current focus on safety regardless of segment. In fact, the Safety Pack brings the – otherwise four-star – ANCAP safety rating up to a five-star rating from 2019. It does make a tangible difference and for the extra $1500, we’d be ensuring it’s on the Cerato S we buy.
Standard features include 16-inch steel wheels with hubcaps, LED DRLs, electric heated side mirrors that also fold, halogen headlights with high-beam assist, single-zone AC, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, cruise control, and a trip computer. It’s a basic specification sheet, certainly compared to the more expensive Cerato variants on offer, but the cabin feels well-executed and comfortable.
| Key details | 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan |
| Price (MSRP) | $27,490 drive-away |
| Colour of test car | Steel Grey |
| Options | Metallic paint – $520 Safety Pack – $1500 |
| Price as tested | $29,526 drive-away (Offer pricing, not the total of base price plus options) |
| Rivals | Toyota Corolla | Hyundai i30 | Mazda 3 |
Inside
The first thing you’ll notice about the cabin is how much room you have. This is a genuinely spacious cabin, despite the fact the Cerato is very much a small car outside.
The other factor is that, despite the lack of leather, ventilated and heated seats, and fancy cabin embellishments, the Cerato S doesn’t really feel downgrade. It feels sturdy, robust, and well put together. Just the thing for family buyers who like to put their car through its paces.
We found the front seats to be spacious even for six-footers on long road trips, with the right amount of adjustment to get comfortable. I can also sit behind my own driving position with enough room.
You can fit three adults across the second row, but two tall adults will be comfortable on long runs. Headroom is also solid in the second row unless you’re overly tall.
The seats are comfortable, too. I spent a few hours running up and down the highway in the Cerato S, and the seats never generated any aches or pains. While small cars spend most of their time around town, buyers who might be a one-car family will need them for some long-haul work, and the Cerato S can tackle that task with ease.
Cabin storage is another strong point for Cerato in general, regardless of spec. Two cupholders sit out of the way in front of the gear shifter, and there are large door pockets up front, which take a bottle easily, as well as other small items. The bin in the center console is useful for keeping items out of sight, and there’s a clever shelf in the lower section of the center console which kept my large smartphone safe.
The boot is an interesting one. Offering up 502 litres of space, I actually prefer a regular boot in a sedan to a hatch, but I also acknowledge that many buyers prefer the flexibility of the hatchback design.
The hatch actually has less space – 428 litres – but works better for some buyers with larger, bulkier items with a larger opening and the ability to remove the parcel shelf to free up additional space. Still, as with the cabin itself, the Cerato sedan offers plenty of useful carrying capacity even for family buyers.
| 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan | |
| Seats | Five |
| Boot volume | 502L |
| Length | 4640mm |
| Width | 1800mm |
| Height | 1440mm |
| Wheelbase | 2700mm |
Infotainment and Connectivity
Cerato S gets a smaller 8.0-inch touchscreen compared to the more expensive variants, but you do get wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless and wired Android Auto. You also get Bluetooth phone connectivity and audio streaming, AM/FM radio with no digital provision and six speakers.
It’s a basic system, but it works well. I don’t love wireless smartphone connectivity and would prefer the wired option, but on test, aside from one drop out, we had no ongoing issues.
The graphics are clear in any light and the screen responds snappily to inputs making simple commands easy on the move. I’m more than happy with a smaller screen if it works. We’ve tested plenty of big screens that can be painful to use, so don’t let the size of the Cerato S screen concern you.
There’s also a 4.2-inch display between the main gauges for the driver. Here you’ll find the digital speedo, which is a good inclusion, along with the drive mode you’re opting for, and live fuel consumption data. There are two USB outlets and a 12V socket up front, but there’s only one USB outlet in the back, so the kids might have to tick tack for device charging on road trips.
The Cerato S is a subtle reminder that tech doesn’t change the world simply because it is there. In place of haptic touch and sliding digital controls, regular rotary dials and switchgear do a perfectly acceptable job of controlling the various systems. The AC is a perfect example. It couldn’t be any easier to control on the move, in comparison to convoluted touchscreens.
Safety & Technology
The Cerato’s camera-only AEB system means it misses a five-star ANCAP rating, but there is an asterisk here. Add the Safety Pack as fitted to our test vehicle though, and that moves to a full five-star result.
It adds cyclist detection to the AEB system, as well as blind spot monitoring, rear-cross-traffic alert, a safe exit warning to let you know if it’s not clear to open the door, adaptive cruise control, an electric handbrake, folding exterior rear view mirrors and a higher quality steering wheel.
Also standard beneath the safety pack are AEB with pedestrian detection, lane keep assistance, rear-view camera, parking sensors front and rear, and a rear occupant alert. Airbags include front and side for the driver and front passenger, while side curtain airbags cover both front and rear seats.
There’s an interesting discussion to be had that structurally, there is nothing to fear in a four-star Cerato, however ANCAP puts a premium on potentially life-saving technology like rear cross-traffic alert, and it’s hard to argue against having such technology available.
| 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan | |
| ANCAP rating | Five stars ( with Safety Pack – tested January 2019) |
| Safety report | Link to ANCAP |
Value for Money
Starting from $28,990 drive-away with the Safety Pack before on-road costs, the value credentials of the Kia Cerato S are fairly robust. You’re getting a lot of metal for the money, even in a segment that punches above its weight in that sense. Kia’s seven-year warranty is another strong point, along with the brand’s competitive capped-price servicing schedule.
| At a glance | 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan |
| Warranty | Seven years / unlimited km |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Servicing costs | $1083 (3 years), $2015 (5 years) |
Against the ADR claim of 7.4L/100km, over nearly 1000km of testing, we averaged an indicated 7.6L/100km. That’s pretty efficient by any measure, and evidence that the 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated engine can get the job done on the highway without having to work up too much of a sweat.
Around town, you’d expect that number to creep into the 8s, but the Cerato S is going to be a frugal car to run, even in congested city traffic. The fact it takes regular unleaded is a bonus at a time when fuel prices have been climbing.
Keep in mind that the 2022 Kia Cerato S won our Best Value category in the 2022 Drive Car of the year Awards.
Fuel Consumption – brought to you by bp
| Fuel Usage | Fuel Stats |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 7.4L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | 7.6L/100km |
| Fuel type | 91-octane regular unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 50L |
Driving
In modern terms, 112kW, and 192N are hardly eyebrow raising, but there’s enough power and torque on offer to get the Cerato moving as swiftly as you will need. If you desire more urge, there’s a more powerful turbocharged version further up the model range. Our real world fuel use figure indicates that the engine certainly isn’t thrashing itself to get the job done in any case.
Up at the top end of the rev range, you will notice a thrum from the engine that makes its way into the cabin, but under most driving conditions the engine is smooth and refined. The only time you’ll really need to give the 2.0-litre a kick up the bum is if you roll onto a freeway on ramp and want to rapidly get to 110km/h or roll on overtake on a country road. At regular urban speeds though, we never had the sense that we were working the engine too hard.
One thing that is noteworthy is the smoothness and refinement of the traditional torque converter automatic. While a dual clutch is snappier especially when you’re revving the engine hard, it can’t compete with the comfortable way an old-school auto goes about its work.
Around town, you barely notice the transmission changing gear, and it doesn’t hunt constantly between its six ratios. It’s another ringing endorsement for the day-to-day capability and driving quality of the old world, especially in traffic when you’re constantly on and off the throttle.
The Cerato S makes its strongest case in town, where it’s a joy to fire down tight city streets, into shopping centre carparks and through traffic. The steering feels light and effortless at parking speeds, but it doesn’t feel dead as the speed increases, working just as well on the highway as it does in stop/start traffic. Despite the Cerato S being more focused on city work, it does the highway thing quite well, too.
The 16-inch steel wheels that we probably think should be replaced with alloys (although I do love hubcaps) do one thing very well thanks to the chubby Nexen tyres that surround them. They insulate the ride beautifully. In concert with Kia’s ongoing commitment to tuning suspension systems on its vehicles to suit our local road conditions, the smaller wheel, bigger tyre combo delivers a comfortable and unruffled ride.
It takes a properly nasty backroad to unsettle the Kia Cerato, even mid corner, which says as much about the hardware as it does the intrinsic quality of the chassis beneath it. It’s a comfortable sedan that remains that way no matter the road surface or speed. In that sense then, it’s neatly suited to one car families who spend most of their time in town, but also need something they can hop into to head on a longer, rural road trip occasionally.
In the modern world of more power and torque, it’s easy to criticise the Cerato S as being underpowered. It isn’t. Rather, it has enough power and torque to do exactly what it needs to do, efficiently, comfortably and effortlessly. After almost 1000km behind the wheel, more than half of it on the freeway, I’d be more than happy living with a Cerato S as my daily driver.
| Key details | 2022 Kia Cerato S Sedan |
| Engine | 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol |
| Power | 112kW @ 6200rpm |
| Torque | 192Nm @ 4000rpm |
| Drive type | Front-wheel drive |
| Transmission | Six-speed torque convertor automatic |
| Power to weight ratio | 84.8kW/t |
| Weight (tare) | 1320kg |
| Turning circle | 10.6m |
Conclusion
The more time I spent with the Kia Cerato S, the more I liked it. I understand that for plenty of buyers, a hatch still makes more sense than a sedan, but for mine, I’d be taking a close look at a sedan in this segment, given the spacious nature of the second row, and the size of the boot space. There’s a lot of practicality on offer from such a compact exterior size.
The Cerato S is an easy cruiser, too, despite the engine not being a powerhouse. Pair that with Kia’s excellent warranty, affordable capped-price servicing and fuel efficiency, and you’ve got a compelling proposition.
There’s no doubt that the more you pay for, the more you get, and as you step up through the Cerato range, you get a real sense of that. However, there’s little to fault the entry-grade Cerato S on, if you’re looking at buying one. Just make sure you add the Safety Pack.
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