2013 Kia Rondo Si and SLi Review
What’s hot: Seven seats in a neatly-styled compact package; beaut diesel option.
What’s not: Upper-end pricing, petrol engine may struggle with a seven-up load.
X-factor: A “bigger hatchback” with neat styling and handling, three-across middle seating and a third row.
Vehicle style: Compact seven-seat people mover
Price: Si $29,990 (plus $2500 1.7 litre diesel); SLi $33,990 (plus $2500 diesel)
Engine/transmission: 2.0 litre GDI petrol or 1.7 litre diesel / 6-speed auto
Power/torque: 122kW/213Nm (petrol) | 100kW/320Nm (diesel)
Fuel economy l/100km listed: 7.9 (petrol) 6.4 (diesel) | tested: 8.3 (petrol) 6.3 (diesel)
OVERVIEW
It’ll carry your three kids and their clobber, no problems.
Press the third row into service and you’ll just about squeeze in the whole ‘Tiny Titans’ basketball catastrophe - and it’s no bigger than the new Corolla.
That’s Kia’s new, smarter, sharper seven-seat Rondo. But while compact SUVs are selling up a storm, is the market now ready for a compact people-mover?
That’s the question on Kia Australia’s lips. And, sure, it’s a seven-seater, but realistically the third row is for garden gnomes, pre-schoolers or young primary only.
The new Rondo’s schtick is compact versatility, and it dovetails the small wagon cum hatchback cum people-mover thing pretty well. It's also greatly improved over the model it replaces.
Perhaps, most importantly, it doesn’t look like a ‘butterbox’. In fact, its lines are neat - not chic, but, like Citroen’s Picasso, not without charm.
For the family market Kia is shooting for, the neat styling, long list of standard features, smart ‘three-across’ middle seating and occasional rear third row will certainly win friends.
But the price? We’re not so sure.
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