TIME was, you knew where you stood with the humble family car, writes William Scholes.
Back in the 1980s, if you went to the Ford showroom, an Escort - or more latterly, a Focus - was your lot. The rival Vauxhall dealer would show you an Astra or, if you were after something a little larger, a Cavalier. If neither of those took your fancy, there was the Austin Maestro and Montego, the Volkswagen Golf, Toyota Corolla and various other solid, sensible options.
While those cars’ 2021 heirs still sell in large numbers, what we understand by ‘the family car’ has morphed to include modish SUV and crossover bodystyles, alongside the long-established and familiar five-door hatchbacks.
Visit a Ford showroom today, and the Kuga SUV sits alongside the Focus; Vauxhall’s Astra has its Mokka and Grandland stablemates for company; the Golf has been joined by the Tiguan; and so it goes…
A showroom you couldn’t have visited back in the 1980s was one selling Kia cars. But such is the pace of change that the South Korean marque has gone from slightly jokey buy-a-car-for-a-£1 budget brand to today being not only firmly established as a mainstream and entirely respectable contender but also as a front-runner when it comes to cutting-edge electric vehicle tech.
Kia, with its stylish Sportage SUV model, has done as much as anyone to redefine our expectations of what constitutes a family car.
Yet it also has a strong and highly credible ‘traditional’ family car offering in the handsome shape of the Ceed five-door hatchback and Sportswagon estate.
But there’s even more to the Kia story than that. It also offers further Ceed variants, in the guise of the sleek Proceed ‘shooting brake’ estate - more of which on these pages in coming weeks - and the car that concerns us today, which it calls the XCeed.
Think of it as a Ceed that’s straining to be an SUV. Not as large as a Sportage, the XCeed nonetheless has been treated to a series of SUV-like styling features, including a raised ride height, roof rails, plastic trim around the wheel arches and a generally chunkier attitude than you will find in a regular hatch.
The XCeed is based on the Ceed, but as if to emphasise the manufacturing might that Kia has at its disposal these days, the only body panels shared by the two cars are the front doors. By contrast, Ford offers a similar take on the Focus, which it calls the Focus Active - but it is little more than a Focus with raised ride height and some plastic trim; Kia has gone to significantly more effort.
The different bodywork means the XCeed gets a slightly larger boot - unless you opt for the plug-in hybrid version, in which case the boot is smaller…
From the outside, the net effect is pleasing. This is a fine looking car and, as with many Kia models, one which attracts a great many positive comments.
That, to be honest, is probably enough for the XCeed to count as ‘job done’ for Kia. Cars of this ilk are bought because of how they look - the XCeed expertly walks the line of looking enough like an SUV, but not so different from a regular hatch that it will scare away punters who don’t want something as large as a ‘proper’ SUV.
As already mentioned, the XCeed’s boot is a little larger than the regular hatchback’s, with a useful volume of 426 litres, up by 31 litres from the Ceed.
Still, it’s hard to present that as a decisive practical reason to choose an XCeed over a Ceed. The back seat is roomy enough for a family car, aided by a notably slender ‘transmission tunnel’ hump in the rear floor. The XCeed’s roofline does fall a little towards the back of the car compared to the more level roof of the Ceed, which means ultimate rear headroom is marginally reduced.
Up front, you may as well be in a Ceed - which is a good thing. There’s loads of room, the seats are comfortable and adjustable every-which-way and the driver gets a set of clear, easy to read instruments.
There’s a refreshing straightforwardness to the Kia’s controls. Everything is intuitive and easy to operate, with a well-judged balance between physical controls for functions such as the heating system and a touchscreen for changing radio stations, for example.
As is the way nowadays, many features can be operated from the controls grouped on the steering wheel.
It should be acknowledged that some will find the interior a little lacking in flair. There’s none of the razzamatazz of a contemporary Peugeot, for example, but the trade off is complete clarity about what switch, button or knob does what.
The XCeed also feels superbly well put together. Again, some might complain that it isn’t the most imaginative mix of materials, majoring on dark plastic, but it is solid and feels more than up to the task of shrugging off years of family motoring.
Kia famously offers a seven-year warranty on its cars, and such confidence feels well-founded - there’s nothing remotely flimsy about the XCeed.
As well as its new set of clothes, the XCeed differs over the Ceed in how its suspension has been tuned. A combination of raised ride height, fancy dampers on the front wheels with ‘hydraulic rebound stoppers’ and a pleasing amount of tyre sidewall means the XCeed positively flows over Northern Ireland’s pockmarked roads.
It’s not a fast car, though, and nor does it have the ultimate sharpness that Mazda or Ford bring to the family car market, but I reckon the cushioned ride and emphasis on comfort is exactly what customers will want.
I tried it with Kia’s latest petrol engine, a 1.5-litre turbo which replaces the 1.4-litre unit with which the XCeed was launched.
The 1.5-litre offers more power (158bhp v 138bhp), has a wider torque band and reduced emissions compared to the 1.4-litre.
It’s not a hugely charismatic engine - it just goes about its business without eliciting much enthusiasm from the driver - but its balance of power, performance and running costs probably makes it the sweet spot of the range.
Other engines include a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol turbo and a 1.6-litre plug-in hybrid - on earlier experience, the extra weight of the plug-in hybrid system greatly diminishes the XCeed’s ability to float over the road, and I struggle to recommend it.
Gearboxes include a six-speed manual and seven-speed double-clutch automatic set-up. Despite appearances, the XCeed is resolutely front-wheel-drive, so don’t expect to best a Subaru off-road…
A 1.6-litre diesel with 48-volt mild-hybrid assistance was also offered, but seems to no longer be available to order according to Kia’s price lists and website ‘configurator’.
The XCeed comes in Kia’s familiar numerical grade hierarchy, ranging from ‘2’ to ‘4’. Equipment is generous throughout.
A 1.0-litre ‘2’ is the most affordable way into an XCeed, with prices from £21,255, while a 1.5-litre automatic ‘4’ costs from £30,180. The plug-in is £31,855 in ‘3’ trim and £35,105 in ‘4’ trim.
For me, the 1.5-litre with a manual gearbox in ‘3’ trim makes most sense - it’s priced from £24,755.
The model-for-model premium for an XCeed over a Ceed is around £1,000; I can see many customers feeling that extra is easy to justify because of the way the XCeed looks.
In many respects, the XCeed is the epitome of the modern family car. It does the practical business with ease but also with some considerable style, or at least in the style that today’s buyers demand. If you want something other than a regular hatchback but aren’t after an SUV, it would seem to fit the bill perfectly.
The fact the XCeed is so easy to operate and is backed by a seven-year warranty makes its case even stronger.
The family car has changed, and it is companies like Kia with cars like the XCeed that has changed it.
AT A GLANCE
Kia XCeed ‘3’ 1.5-litre T-GDi
Price: £24,755. As tested £25,335, with metallic paint at £580
Engine and transmission: 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol turbo, front-wheel-drive, six-speed manual gearbox; 158bhp, 187 lb ft
Performance: Top speed 129mph, 0-60mph in 8.7 seconds
Fuel consumption: 44.8mpg (WLTP combined); 36.7mpg (real world)
CO2 emissions: 142g/km
Vehicle excise duty: £220 in first year, then £155 annually
Benefit in kind: 32 per cent
Euro NCap safety rating: Five stars (rating for Ceed, tested in 2019)
