We've got it all wrong. We've been so far off the truth all this time. You see for years I have been in numerous pub discussions where the conversation has involved something along the lines of "if you drive a Kia, you drive a washing machine," or "Korea can't make cars." Well I've got news for you pub go'ers, Kia don't make washing machines, and Korea can make cars. I know because I've driven one, a special one. So special that it's been seen by tens of millions of people and met Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. The Kia I'm talking about is the ex Top Gear Reasonably Priced Car, one of the 3 manual ones that know nothing outside of being thrashed ruthlessly on track by A list celebrities.
Well one sunny Thursday, it was my turn. I was given the keys to the world famous C'eed, which the Kia event girls told me was standard, barring a roll cage and bucket seats. So essentially, I was climbing into a 5 door hatchback that competes with the likes of the Ford's Focus and Vauxhall's Astra. Unsurprisingly then I didn't expect it to be much of a thrill, plus this was a Kia, the boring washing machine makers that don't make washing machines.
Now I had ridden in a 400bhp Evo X FQ400 earlier, plus I'd thrown my far quicker Clio hot hatch around the track all morning, but for some reason after just a few corners the car I loved driving the most, was the Kia. And this was strange, because if you were beside me in the C'eed, you'd see 3 fairly generous sized rear spaces for passengers, a full working selection of electronic luxuries including a radio, climate control and steering wheel buttons, and that impossibly unsporty Kia badge staring me in the face.
Yet as I flicked the car into the flat out banked left of the Rockingham straight, the car felt nimble and eager. The engine didn't provide tonnes of neck snatching power, far from it actually, but it was more than happy to rev freely all the way to just shy of a cheeky 7000rpm. And the nose, what a nose. The C'eed was one of the most compliant and nose happy cars I had ever driven, with every turn of the wheel seeing the front point sharply at the apex like an excited puppy jumping at a thrown stick. The rear was more than happy to just about hang on, seeing me 4 wheel drift a 5 door family hatchback through Rockingham's high speed turns, with unbelievable commitment and the biggest grin on my face.
What was I experiencing, why was this happening? How could this car be so happy away from what I thought would be its comfort zone, parked outside an OAPs house? I still don't fully have the answers for that, but I do know that I have now completely changed my opinion of Kia. The chuckable car, the chatty event girls and the lack of washing machines in the line up all tell me one thing, Kia is a modern, fun car maker with high ambitions set towards taking on more established European brands. They're so set on doing this, they're prepared to offer their brand new cars to Top Gear with inevitable deathly fates awaiting them. Who can forget the Kia bloodbath at Twickenham only a couple of seasons ago? It made the Kia girls very sad, as they stood on the sidelines and watched their "babies" being smashed to bits. But full credit to Kia, they do it all in the name of good fun.
And it's doing wonders for the brand, because people like me step out of their Reasonably Price C'eed and say "Can I have another go?" What a great thing for a manufacturer to hear about their car. Plus with the sportier ProCeed now on sale, Kia have firmly entered the hot hatch market competing against far more established European and Asian names.
So yeah this brand Kia, they don't make washing machines apparently, but they're up for a bit of a laugh and make some pretty fun cars. Not what you expected right?
If you fancy grimacing at some awful commentary, as well as giggling at some interesting shots of my knees, here's my onboard footage from Rockingham where I sampled the ex Top Gear Kia at racing speeds.
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