subject: Kia Picanto - A Fine Marriage Of Economy And Performance [print this page] The Kia Picanto (also known as the Kia Morning) is a compact vehicle that is designed for city driving, along with safety and comfort. It is also a family vehicle that is capable of taking its owner to work and back all week, then transporting the family around to the market or play-date with quiet convenience.
The economical Picanto has many safety features as well as driving enhancements built in at no additional cost to the buyer, making it an extremely popular choice for commuters and family transportation.
Safety & Performance
The Kia Picanto earned three out of five stars in crash tests performed by the EuroNCAP for adults, and four out of five for occupant safety regarding children. The Picanto was built with occupant safety in mind, as it has twin airbags (with passenger side cut-off capability), child seat anchor points, and for convenience when shopping, 60/40 fold-down seating.
Utilising the short platform from the Hyundai Getz, the Picanto comes equipped with either a 1.0 or a 1.1 litre petrol engine. In the European market area there is also an optional three cylinder diesel engine that is direct injected and includes a variable geometry style turbocharger. The diesel is based upon a slightly smaller version of the Kia Cerato's engine, which is a 1.5 CRD engine.
The Picanto is 137.6 inches or 3495 mm long, and is a five door hatchback style vehicle. It comes with a standard five speed manual transmission, which can be upgraded to an automatic in the petrol engine version.
An Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) is another safety item that is standard on these well-equipped vehicles. Stated MPG is given as a combined 57.6, allowing for extra urban or motorway driving at 65.7 MPG. In-town driving should produce 46.3 MPG, which are excellent values.
Among the Amenities
The convenience and ease of rack and pinion power assisted steering is standard equipment for ease of driving on city or country roads; also included are front and rear electric windows. You will find Kia thought of driving convenience when they included a CD player with MP1, MP2, and MP3 (including iPod connectivity) and AUX/USB port included for playability as part of the standard equipment on the Kia Picanto, all this combined with an excellent four speaker sound system. All door handles, mirrors, and bumpers are body coloured for a sleek modern appearance. Included as well are intermittent windshield wipers.
Air conditioning, electric mirrors, and remote central door locking round out this very well-equipped vehicle. For the UK market, they moved the indicator stalk over to the other side and made minor changes in light clusters on both the front and rear of the Picanto.
What to expect in 2010
Subtle changes are all this fine vehicle will need in the new model year. Slight changes to the exterior will include some slight reshaping of both front and back bumpers, restyled tail light cluster, new design in side skirts, and very subtle alteration of the front grille. The interior will also see some minor modifications, which will mostly affect minor design alterations on the steering wheel with trim slightly refreshed.
by: Roger Thurston
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