KIA

One of the best vehicles you can own if you’re parenting a large family. Looks better than most other vans, too – because it’s a Kia.

No luxury SUV can compete with the safety and convenience of Carnival’s sliding door access. That means no door dings or small kids tripping when stepping out of an SUV’s raised ride height.

Second- and third-row seating is highly adaptable and comfortable. Carnival’s 2.2 turbodiesel engine keeps fuel budget in green, too.

Cheaper EX grade is the better buy. It rolls slightly smaller wheels with larger wheels, for better ride comfort and performance when Carnival is fully loaded.

Looks uncharacteristically uninspiring for a Kia. Budget design that’s true to purpose: a high-mileage, low-maintenance fleet or ride-hailing sedan.

Has some purpose in South Africa, where a lockable metal boot is still a big security win for laptops or expensive work equipment when travelling. At 475 litres, boot capacity rivals that of many large SUVs.

Pegas has an unspectacular but reliable 1.4 petrol engine. Unlike many South African budget family cars, it has four-wheel disc brakes, but strangely, no ESP. And only two airbags.

Best buy is the cheaper LX 5-speed manual, with steel wheels for superior pothole strike survivability. And yes, it comes with a 7-inch touchscreen featuring standard Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.

Kia’s hugely influential design director (and former Audi TT designer) Peter Schreyer, was involved with the Picanto. So despite being a tiny hatchback, it looks terrific.

Lots of high-grade reinforced steel in the Picanto’s structure make it credibly safe in a collision, too. Especially for such a small car.

Outrageously easy to park and thread through the worst Cape Town or Sandton traffic. But also very stable at highway cruising speeds, without the ‘lane wandering’ nature that often afflicts compact city cars. But you need the 1.2 over the 1.0 at Highveld altitudes, for highway driving performance.

Expensive but classier than a larger Swift or Vivo. Always in demand as student or retirement cars, hence solid residuals. Available as a panel van spec too, if you want to be sneaky with your VAT.

Kia’s mid-size crossover offers something most of its rivals, especially Chinese and Japanese ones, don’t. A diesel engine option.

Seltos combines an edgy design with a very economical, reasonably torquey 250Nm 1.5 turbodiesel engine. Long-distance cruising range, if you keep speeds sensible, is outstanding.

True to its Korean heritage, cabin UX and digital interfaces are good, without being screen-function-saturated like many Chinese crossovers. Luggage capacity is tight, though.

The Seltos LX trim diesel is a very smart buy if you drive a lot.

Compact crossover that is also available as a panel van spec if you want to be clever with your VAT.

Like any Korean vehicle, the Seltos pairs seamlessly with your devices, and Kia’s UX remains class-leading in many respects.

Seats are underpadded for large South African drivers who regularly spend hours at the wheel. Luggage space is very impressive for a compact crossover.

Kia’s 1.5 petrol engine makes more power than Suzuki’s 1.5. There’s 85kW in Sonet versus 77kW in Suzuki’s crossovers. And in a compact vehicle, those few kilowatts make a performance difference. There’s a 1-litre turbo, boosting 88kW, which is what you want at highveld altitudes, but it’s heavy on fuel for such a small engine.

Three gearbox options. The CVTs feel lazy but are the most fuel-efficient. The Sonet 6-speed manual has the lowest future maintenance burden, and the 7-speed DCT is terrifically responsive but mechanically complex.

The thinking person’s alternative to Fortuner and Everest. If you live in a city.

When you need 7 seats and a powerful, economical turbodiesel engine. But don’t want the ungainly handling and refinement compromises of a bakkie-based SUV. You choose this Kia.

Sorento has one engine option – the right one. Kia’s 2.2 turbodiesel has excellent overtaking performance and is terrifically light on fuel at constant cruising speeds.

If you don’t need the hardcore gravel travel ability or tow rating of Fortuner or Everest, the Sorento is better in every way.

But it is expensive. Chery’s has much cheaper 7-seaters with the same kit – but none of the Chinese offer a diesel engine. The Sorento best buy is a front-wheel-drive EX Plus grade.

Kia’s Rav4 rival that offers something Toyota and the Chinese don’t: diesel engines.

Daring design makes Sportage distinctive in a very crowded market segment. Cabin digitisation and UX are great, balancing physical control with digital intuition.

Kia’s 1.5 turbodiesel engine delivers an excellent balance of outputs (100kW/320Nm) and economy. This is a true 5l/100km highway cruising vehicle. Excellent for interprovincial road trips.

Expensive in the more feature-rich trims. But the combination of bold design, slick cabin digitisation and diesel power makes it an appealing alternative to much cheaper Chinese models.