MAKE YOURSELF a list of every attractive two-door coupe available now in Australia, brand new, for under $25,000. If you’ve got it right, it’s a list of one - you’ll see the 2010 Kia Cerato Koup there and, well, nothing else.

Stretch the dollars to $30,000 ($29,990 to be exact) and you’ll get the Citroen C4 VTS ‘coupe’. And that’s about where things end until you start getting into serious dollars.

With Toyota retiring the Celica line and Mitsubishi leaving the two-door option off the last few generations of the Lancer, competition for an affordable, stylish, entry-level coupe is very thin on the ground right now.

Kia knows it. That’s why it has responded to the Cerato Koup concept’s positive reception a little over a year ago by putting it into production. And it’s virtually unchanged (at least on the outside).

What better way to dominate a segment than to choose one that everyone else has vacated? Perhaps conservatively, Kia expects to sell around 600 to 800 Koups in its first year on the market.

Whatever the sales story, the thing about the Koup is its visual impact. Because here, Kia has a car with the looks to draw non-believers into showrooms, and have them stay long enough to discover that this Korean upstart can make an appealingly styled and engaging car.

Better than that, a good one.

Styling

The Cerato sedan, already one of the better looking cars in its segment, barely holds a candle to its two-door stablemate. In a way, the Cerato sedan is to the Koup as Mimi McPherson is to her supermodel sister: shapely, certainly, but… well… she’s no Elle.

The Cerato Koup, 60mm lower and 50mm shorter than the sedan, has a sporting style about it absent in the sedan (though the four-door is smart enough in its own way)

Certain elements are common to both cars - one is clearly the two-door version of the other - but virtually every body panel is brand new and only the bonnet is shared.

While drawing a line between the styling of each car is easy enough - the tail-lights, the identical headlights and grille, the character line that follows the bottom sill of the side windows - the most noticeable point of difference (besides the two-door layout and coupe roofline) is that tougher-looking front bumper.

Styled wider and more purposeful, the Koup’s front bumper is dominated by a wide-open air dam, flanked either side by large foglight housings.

The gloss black touches up front, like the black-framed version of the Cerato ‘Schreyer-line’ grille, work well and give a distinctive style to the Koup’s nose.

From side-on, the funky C-pillar dominates the Koup’s lines, and it really is quite unique.

Unlike most modern coupes, the Koup is ‘booted’ -  it’s not a hatch. This gives it an oddly square roofline and C-pillar, but the lines work remarkably well. Stylewise, Kia’s nicely balanced Koup seems to be all about the phrase “point of difference”.

Up back, the shorter tail is highlighted by a protruding rear bumper with faux diffuser and a pair of exhaust tips jutting from beneath.

Above the rear bumper, narrower versions of the regular Cerato’s tail-lights sit almost wing-like, featuring slightly re-styled lenses.

Speaking with TMR prior to the Koup’s launch, Kia’s National Marketing Manager Jonathan Fletcher said: “It’s unquestionably a car that we’re going to be very proud to offer. It will form an important part of the range, and its looks alone immediately stamp it as being something of a halo car for the brand.”

The Interior

Inside the Koup lies a largely unchanged but noticeably tweaked interior compared to the Cerato SLi sedan TMR has on long-term test. The Koup has come in for a number of small but significant changes.

The hard plastic of the 2009 Cerato’s dash has been partially trimmed in a more up-market soft vinyl. The centre stack now features a larger area of glossy piano-black plastic, surrounded by a darker, and classier, gunmetal version of the 2009 Cerato’s silver-finished trim panels.

The air vents either side of the centre stack, previously plain black plastic, are now also finished in the same gunmetal grey. It also features on the steering wheel, door grips and gear-knob and transmission housing.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel, lifted directly from the sedan, features red stitching for a slightly sportier look.

The stylish instrument cluster is large and easy to read, with a centrally-mounted speedometer flanked by the tachometer and fuel gauge. A central, single-colour LCD panel houses the trip multi-function computer display.

Seating is unchanged physically but for more obvious bolstering. It is also trimmed in a flattering suede or Alcantara-like material that is classier than the fabric seats of the 2009 sedan, but perhaps not as stylish as the leather options available in overseas markets. The same red stitching is featured here.

Overseas models can have their interiors optioned with splashes of red, but Kia Australia has opted to stick with a strictly black-on-black (on-gunmetal) look. A smart move, we reckon.

We will be switching our 2009 Cerato SLi for a 2010 model in the coming weeks, so we’ll know then which of these styling updates are unique to the Koup and which will carry over to the sedan.

Retaining the sedan’s 2650mm wheelbase, cabin space in the Koup is virtually identical to its four-door sibling. Rear leg space is only slightly smaller, but three adults will fit as comfortably across the Koup’s rear bench as in the sedan.

Headroom is slightly diminished, but thanks to the square-ish cut to the roof and the relatively steep C-pillar, rear passengers are not badly served. The Koup offers quite reasonable headspace here.

Boot space is an ample 358 litres, losing only 57 litres from the sedan’s 415 litres of storage space. As with the sedan, the rear seats can be dropped to open up more space (although Kia doesn’t specify the capacity with the rear seats down).

Equipment and Features

The 2010 Kia Cerato Koup, available in only one trim level, is fitted out to the same level as the top-of-the-line SLi sedan variant.

As with the SLi, the Koup features an easy-to-use and effective cruise control, climate control, multi-function trip computer, auto-on headlights and rear-parking sensors.

The Cerato Koup has yet to be tested for an ANCAP safety rating (the base sedan was awarded a respectable 4-Star rating), but nonetheless offers the same six airbag package and stability control as its SLi sedan sibling.

ABS, EBD, brake assist, traction control and stability control are all standard and each seat is equipped with three-point seatbelts. Pretensioners are fitted to the front row belts.

As with many Hyundai and Kia models, auxiliary and iPod/USB connectivity is featured, but Hyundai-Kia engineers have once again overlooked the difference between compatibility and integration when it comes to the iPod connectivity.

Motorists familiar with the iPod’s file management will know that once files are transferred to the device, they are given new, randomised names, and placed into similarly random folders.

As the Hyundai and Kia stereos only read files and not playlists, using an iPod via the Cerato Koup’s stereo means, essentially, having the ‘random’ function constantly in play.

Starting at $23,690 for the manual - less than a grand more than the equivalent SLi sedan - and offering virtually the same cabin and storage space in a very nice looking parcel, it’s difficult to argue against the value the well-specified Koup represents.