Author:
ROBIN ROBERTS
Business users are specifically being targeted with the new Kia cee’d Sportswagon on sale this week.
The cee’d Sportswagon is exclusively for European markets and with the company car market so dominant, the cee’d Sportswagon will be sold in the UK with turbodiesel engines.
With their high torque outputs and low operating and running costs, they are ideally suited to the heavy loads and high mileages often inflicted on estate cars by business operators.
The entry-level 89bhp 1.4 CRDi engine develops 220Nm of torque from just 1500rpm, while the 126bhp 1.6 CRDi raises the torque output to 260Nm from only 1900rpm. Both transmissions, including the automatic offered with the 1.6-litre engine, are six-speed units, while manual-gearbox models are fitted with Kia’s Intelligent Stop & Go (ISG) fuel-saving, emissions-reducing engine stop/start technology.
As a result the 1.4-litre cee’d Sportswagon is capable of 67.3mpg and has CO2 emissions as low as 109g/km, which means a Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) company car taxation rate of 15 per cent in 2012-13. Manual 1.6-litre versions, with CO2 emissions of 116g/km, fall into the 17 per cent BIK band, and are almost as sparing in their use of fuel, with official combined economy of 64.2mpg.
The cee’d Sportswagon was revealed alongside the cee’d hatchback at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, and matches it throughout for style, quality, technology, equipment and safety.
Like its predecessor, it was designed and engineered at Kia’s Frankfurt design studios and technical centre, and is made at the company’s Zilina plant in Slovakia.
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At just over 4.5 metres long the cee’d Sportswagon is more compact than its major European rivals, and just 15mm longer than the cee’d SW. Yet it offers greater luggage capacity than the majority of the competition – 528 litres up to the load cover with all seats upright and 1642 litres up to the roof with the 60:40 split rear seats folded flat. Ease of loading has also been taken into consideration. The boot floor is flush with the tailgate opening and 60:40 split rear seat bases and backrests fold to ensure a completely flat load deck.
Every version of the cee’d Sportswagon has an under-floor storage compartment and side load areas, a retractable luggage cover, load-securing net hooks, a boot light and a 12-volt boot-mounted power socket.
Higher-specification models also have sliding aluminium luggage area rails and straps plus a high-level luggage barrier net to secure objects and prevent them from falling into the passenger compartment. Roof rails are standard on every model so that extra cargo can be carried outside the car. The cee’d Sportswagon has a payload of up to 500kg and can tow a braked trailer of 1500kg (manual versions).
