Kia has released the long-awaited hatchback version of its Cerato small-medium car. Both the original Cerato sedan and five-door hatch were discontinued in early 2009, and while the sedan was replaced immediately by the new model it’s taken until now for a replacement hatch to arrive.

It’s an important release for Kia, firstly because Cerato is the company’s biggest selling car globally, but also due to a marked preference that buyers have shown for five-door models in this market segment.

Styling of the new Cerato hatch follows the current trend towards SUV look-alikes and works well. It’s neat and compact, yet stylish with a new mesh grille, revised foglights and 17-inch alloy wheels in the higher-specced model.

Like most of its competitors Cerato hatch is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol engine although it does steal a march on its rivals by being the only model to provide six speeds with both its manual and automatic transmissions.

The Theta II engine is hardly new but with power and torque are 115 kW and 194 Nm respectively it will satisfy the needs of the majority of owners. We drove it on a return trip from Sydney to the Hunter Valley during the press launch, including a section with four adults on board, and it coped comfortably throughout.

Fuel consumption is listed at 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres (manual) and 7.7 L/100 km (automatic) on the Australian standard test. These are marginal improvements on the previous model. During our 500-odd kilometre test drive we had no problem keeping under 8.0 L/100 km without any serious attempt at economy driving.

Interior space is good with no headroom problems either front or rear. It also passed the four-adult test for rear legroom without any compromise needed. Rear storage volume is 385 litres with a full-size spare tyre underneath.

Two equipment levels are offered: Si and SLi. Both come standard with six airbags, ABS brakes with electronic brake distribution and brake assist, electronic stability control with traction control, MP3-compatible stereo with steering wheel controls, USB, iPod and Bluetooth connectivity, automatic door locking and cruise control.

The SLi adds 17-inch alloy wheels (the SL has 15-inch steel), rear parking sensors, automatic headlights, front and rear foglights, paddle gear shifts with the automatic, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear shift knob and climate control air conditioning.

Many of these new features of the new Cerato hatch will be carried across to the sedan and coupe models which are due here in January 2011. These will include the six-speed transmissions (both the sedan and Koup both currently having five-speed manual and four-speed automatic ratios) and the revised suspension and steering.

The new Kia Cerato five-door hatch is a neat, capable and well-equipped car that offers excellent value for money. It’s well worth a test drive for anyone shopping around through the long list of mid-sized cars on the Australian market.

The complete Kia Cerato hatch range, with prices (excluding dealer and government charges) is:
Si: $20,240 (manual), $22,240 (automatic)
SLi: $24,040 (manual), $26,240 (automatic)