First drive: Kia Proceed GT prototype 2018

Kia’s other research has found that owners of cars like this don’t use their rear seats any more often than 5dr hatch owners, but they do use the boots a lot. So the Proceed has 40/20/40-split, one-touch-fold rear seats and a fairly big 594-litre luggage volume with the rear seats in place. That's only 11 litres shy of the Volkswagen Golf Estate’s, although here there is a high load lip. 

So far, we’ve driven only a disguised Proceed, but by the time you read this they might have taken the wrappers off. If so, it looks quite good, doesn’t it?

The variant we tested is a GT, meaning it has a 1.6 petrol making 201bhp and here driving through a seven-speed dual clutch transmission – although you can have a six-speed manual. 

It’s as premium as Proceeds get, then, right down to the optional Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber (225/40 R18), which I can’t imagine too many Proceed owners insisting on getting, or certainly replacing like-for-like down the line, regardless of how much Kia says it has worked on the car's ride and handling. 

Which, to be fair, it has. The 5dr Ceed is among the three nicest cars in the class to drive, and the Proceed isn’t so different to that. The ride’s flat and reasonably compliant, with only harsher potholes causing it any particular trouble. The car steers pleasingly too: it's medium weighted, it's linearly responsive and it has the ‘right’ amount of self-centring and torque build-up as you move away from straight. Kia hasn’t chased being too ‘sporty’ or too dynamic; it’s just a pleasingly judged compromise between comfort and control. That aspect of this late prototype car was finished.

Less finished, I think, was the powertrain. It’s fine, but it feels like it needs more tweaking to smoothen the throttle response. There’s a good amount of torque through the rev range, but a gravelly tone to the engine note, which hardens and booms if you press the Sport mode: there’s a flap in the exhaust and a bit of electronic amplification.

The overly sharp throttle response at that point makes steady inputs difficult, and if you assume control of the gears yourself via the paddles, while shifts are quick, the car’s desperate to tell you what gear it thinks you should be in for maximum economy, but that overlays the display of the gear you’re actually in, unless you’re at full throttle or full lift-off - which is odd. There’s a bit of work to do still, then.

Ditto with the interior, but only because of the untextured surface of a few unfinished production tools on our test car. The Proceed’s interior is otherwise pretty good: sensibly laid out, with softer touch materials where you’d expect them. There’s no great amount of flair inside, but the driving position is good and, despite the rakish roofline, there’s decent space in the back, too.