Kia Motors seems to have permanent status as one of the world’s fastest-growing car makers. Having smashed through the two-million-units-a-year barrier in 2010, however, the firm’s sales continue to grow more quickly in China and North America than they do in Europe.
That relatively untapped potential in European market growth is what the new Kia Rio has been designed to exploit. Unlike its more one-dimensional forebears, this new five-door supermini offers appealing style and tangible quality as well as typical Kia brand value – or so its maker claims.
We’ll be explaining just how much substance there is behind those claims over the next few pages.
Kia can already claim a real coup for the Rio. Fitted with a 1.1-litre, three-cylinder engine, the 74bhp entry-level turbodiesel Rio is the most economical combustion-engined series production car in the world, with 88.3mpg on the combined cycle – again, so they say. However, it’s the more rounded, and likely to be stronger-selling, 107bhp 1.4-litre petrol Rio that’s subject to Autocar’s road test scrutiny here.
