New Kia K4 hits the UK market, and it’s cheaper than a VW Golf
The new Kia K4 effectively replaces the Ceed as the Korean brand's family hatchback
Pricing for the new Kia K4 has been revealed, with the Korean firm’s rival to the Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Golf kicking off at £25,995. Customers can order the new K4 now, with Kia saying first deliveries should be expected by the end of the year.
We’ve already driven the Kia K4 over in the US where it’s been on sale in saloon form since 2024, but the UK will get the hatchback variant. We were impressed by the K4’s looks and the way it drove, and now we can add value to its attributes, as it’s priced £2,155 cheaper than a Golf.
That’s for the entry-level K4 Pure trim level, while the mid-range GT-Line starts at £29,995 and the highest-specification GT-Line S starts from £33,995.
As the K4 name – rather than EV4 – suggests, this new Kia will be powered by a handful of combustion engines and will not offer a pure-electric powertrain. Kicking off the range is a 113bhp mild-hybrid 1.0-litre turbocharged triple paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, while a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic (DCT) is also available for an extra £1,500.
The GT-Line and GT-Line S have that same engine with only the automatic transmission, but the GT-Line also comes with a 147bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine mated to a DCT (adding £1,300 to the price) while the GT-Line S has the same unit tweaked to 177bhp (costing £2,200 extra).
If the K4 doesn’t spark your interest, you can still get your hands on the XCeed. You can buy a new Kia XCeed for just over £25,000 through the Auto Express Buy A Car service.
Kia K4: equipment and technology
Every Kia K4 gets automatic LED headlights, rain-sensing front wipers, automatic air-conditioning, a faux leather steering wheel, a six-speaker sound system, twin 12.3-inch screens on the dash with a 5.3-inch climate control screen (the same as the EV3 and EV4) and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The K4 in Pure guise gets 16-inch alloy wheels, silver window surrounds, black cloth upholstery and manually-adjustable seats. The only standard exterior paint is White Pearl, with four ‘premium’ colours (Midnight Black, Fiery Red, Steel Grey and Azure Blue) all costing an additional £620.
The GT-Line adds 17-inch wheels, sportier styling inside and out, front heated seats, a three-spoke steering wheel, alloy pedals and blind-spot collision assist. Sparkling Yellow and Moonlight Mint are two extra paint options on GT-Line.
GT-Line S comes with 18-inch wheels, a faux black leather interior, an electric sunroof, front ventilated seats, heated outer rear seats, a heated steering wheel, an upgraded Harman Kardon sound system, a wireless smartphone charger and forward collision avoidance.
Standard safety kit on the K4 consists of rear parking sensors with a reversing camera, lane keep assist, cruise control, speed limit assist and hill-start assist. All Kia K4 models come with Kia’s seven-year/100,000-mile warranty.
Kia K4: design and practicality
You certainly won’t miss the K4 in showrooms – or on the road. The basic shape isn’t unusual (even if a new conventional family car is, given the market’s trend towards SUVs), but like other recent models from the brand, the K4 is packed with bold styling details, similar enough to its stablemates (especially the similarly-sized EV4) to look like a Kia, but different enough not to blend in with other traffic.
The K4 stretches 4,440mm long by 1,850mm wide, so it’s actually a full 249mm shorter than an Octavia, but longer than a 4,284mm Golf, and identical in width to the latter. Within this footprint Kia claims class-leading rear legroom of 964mm, and 973mm of headroom. The boot capacity, meanwhile, is 438 litres, eclipsing the 381-litre Golf but looking a bit poky next to the 600-litre Octavia. The rear seats also feature a 60:40 fold-down split with a ski-hatch in the middle – folded down, the boot capacity expands to 1,217 litres.
Kia K4: power and efficiency
With the base 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and manual gearbox, the K4 has 113bhp and 200Nm of torque - enough for a 12.2-second 0-62mph time (the DCT adds 0.1 seconds to this). The combined efficiency figure for the manual and the automatic stands at 50.4mpg.
The 1.6-litre with its 147bhp and 250Nm can complete the 0-62mph sprint in 9.1 seconds, while the 177bhp variant takes 8.4 seconds. This model offers claimed efficiency of 41.5mpg.
The Kia Ceed is dead: Long live the Kia K4
The new Kia K4 serves as the replacement for the Kia Ceed – formerly the Cee’d – that was axed recently. The humble hatchback was part of the brand’s line-up for nearly 20 years, with the first model arriving back in 2006, which made us curious why the household name hadn’t been passed down to its successor.
In an exclusive interview with Auto Express, Kia’s marketing director for Europe, David Hilbert, explained why it was sticking with the K4 name: “It’s the global naming convention and this is a global vehicle. It will not be sourced from Zelena, Slovakia [where the Ceed was built]. It’s coming from Mexico, hence why it’s going to be called a K4.”
He added that the K4 isn’t a like-for-like replacement for the Ceed, because of the way the new model blurs the lines between the C and D-segments.
However, this doesn’t mean that other models in Kia’s line-up will be adopting the K-based naming strategy used in other markets, such as the US – at least not for the time being, according to Hilbert.
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