by Amanda Mfuphi (@mfuphi)

The year is drawing to a close and university completions are looming. This means that the 2018 workforce will be joined by young graduates who will be in the market to purchase vehicles. This is great news for car manufacturers as they can tap into this market by making a cool but affordable car available for these young graduates. I use “cool” intentionally because we are in the era of the “Kool Kids” who are trendy and love the finer things in life. A consistent theme in our reviews has always been Affordability – we want consumers to choose an option that is affordable and best for their pockets.

Speaking of trendy cars, on 12 July 2017, the team attended the launch of the new Kia Picanto in Cape Town. Subsequently, we got to sample the 1.0 Style Manual Kia Picanto. The Picanto came with a lot of expectation as it is currently a finalist for the South Guild of Motor Journalists Car of the Year. The mechanics of the car have already been explored by my team member Sala, who attended the launch, and I will not dwell much on them. Just some highlights for me included the infotainment system (for its price), Bluetooth connectivity, daytime running lights and auto light control.

I was thoroughly impressed with the Kia Picanto and the way it drives. When I first saw it I had no doubt in my mind that it belongs in the trendy Jozi and Braam streets and that is exactly where I took it for a spin. I must say, it really did fit in with the trendy urban living of Braam life as it is stylish and compact. The Kia Picanto is definitely for the city drive lifestyle space-wise. Although generally on par with competitors in the segment, the boot is virtually non-existent. I recall having to pick up two friends from the airport who were coming from Thailand with two big bags, we simply could only fit one bag (barely) in there. In its defence, the Kia Picanto has never claimed to be a family car but simply appeals to the young stylish city person.

I drove the Kia Picanto to and from work for the duration of its stay with me and I was impressed with how it handled itself on the road. The Kia Picanto has enough power to quickly overtake another vehicle if the need arises but I must admit, I struggled a bit on steep hills and I found myself having to change down all the way to the first gear in some instances. The selling point of the Kia Picanto for me has to be its fuel consumption, the car averages 5.4L per 100km on the open road and my city driving averaged around 5.9L per 100km.

I could not find much to fault with the new Kia Picanto except its size if it’s being considered by someone on a tight budget with bigger space needs. Otherwise the vehicle drives well, tells you when you need to change gears (for its price, that’s pretty decent), has a reasonable fuel consumption and looks the part everywhere you take it. The Kia Picanto lived up to its Car of the Year finalist nomination and I would certainly consider it as a potential buy if I was a new graduate looking for a vehicle for my first job.

The prices of the new Picanto at the time of writing this piece were:

1.0 Start Manual        R134,995

1.0 Street Manual      R149,995

1.0 Style Manual        R159,995

1.0 Style Auto             R172,995

1.0 Smart Manual      R179,995

1.2 Start Manual        R150,995

1.2 Start Auto             R163,995

1.2 Street Manual      R165,995

1.2 Style Manual        R175,995

1.2 Style Auto             R188,995

1.2 Smart Manual      R195,995

The new Kia Picanto comes with unlimited kilometre 5 year warranty. Where is the service plan Kia?