Kia Cee'd Sportswagon

With its powerful and efficient diesel, plus useful storage features, the Kia Cee’d Sportswagon is still a strong class contender – even though it trails the Skoda on outright space. As always, Kia’s seven-year warranty gives peace of mind.

In the past, you would never have considered Kia to be a leader in the style stakes, but the Cee’d Sportswagon looks smart in this company. The large headlamps with LED running lights flank a smart grille that gives the car a distinctive appearance.

As with the Auris, the Sportswagon is longer than the Cee’d hatch – by 195mm, to be precise – and this has all been added at the back. The narrowing window line makes it look a little slab-sided, and the rounded rear is rather bulbous, but that means there’s a decent boot with a wide tailgate.

• Kia Cee'd Sportswagon review

Climb aboard, and it’s clear that the Kia and Toyota are a close match for fit and finish. The Cee’d dash is angled towards the driver, the switchgear feels precise and the touchscreen sat-nav is a doddle to use. It can’t match the Octavia for quality, but it’s a good effort nonetheless. Access to the back seats is just as easy as in the Skoda, thanks to large, wide-opening doors, while rear space is closer to that of the Skoda than the Toyota.

Open the wide tailgate, and you’re greeted by a boot that’s similar in size to the Touring Sports’, at 528 litres. The false load floor lifts to reveal a row of handy storage trays, but the clever part is that the trays are built in to the false floor, so they can be removed, giving you access to even deeper storage underneath. It’s just a shame the rear seats don’t fold as easily as in rivals – there are no levers in the boot that let you drop them quickly – and to get a fully flat floor with the seats down, you need to flip the bases forward and out of the way first.

Fire up the 126bhp 1.6 CRDi diesel, and it’s clearly a more modern engine than the Skoda’s, as it’s not as noisy. It has a 22bhp power advantage, too, although despite this and the six-speed gearbox’s extra ratio, the Cee’d delivered similar performance figures to the Octavia at the track. This can be put down to the Kia’s heavier kerbweight, and the fact it has only 10Nm more torque, at 260Nm.

Still, in real-world driving, the extra ratio means it doesn’t feel as if you’re working the Cee’d as hard as the Octavia to keep pace with traffic, although the gearlever itself has a rather notchy shift. The rest of the driving experience is fairly uninspiring. While the ride isn’t as harsh as the Skoda’s, it’s still firm, and the steering is lacking in feedback, too. There are three steering modes that are supposed to increase resistance, but the differences are barely perceptible. At least the wheel never feels as light as the Toyota’s.

Looking at the figures, the Kia is a tempting choice. You can get a £1,000 discount on the £21,095 list price if you buy before the end of September, plus the option of a great-value £329 service pack that covers maintenance for three years. Fuel economy of 47.4mpg was the best on test, so despite poor residuals and higher emissions, the Kia looks a sound buy.

Next: Toyota Auris Touring Sports