First Philippine Drive: 2020 Kia Seltos 2.0 Sx

With Director Bong Joon-ho too his movie, Parasite winning large at the Academy Awards, it’s withal but about other visible sign that Korea’s cook for the limelight. Their successful invasion of global pop culture, from gadgets to music to food, too now, to movies has left an indelible score inwards the way people yell back too act. Selling 324 units inwards ii months, the Kia Seltos could real good live that invasive forcefulness inwards the crossover segment.

Boxy too squarish, the Seltos wears its uniqueness on its sleeve. It’s fashionable too contemporary, but similar other models from Kia’s stable; exclusively inwards this case, things receive got been cranked upwards to 11. The playful details from the large headlights to the grille to the roof rails all experience exaggerated, too fifty-fifty needlessly ornamental inwards but about way, but taken equally a whole, plant good to give it head-turning looks.

Also working inwards its favor is its size. Though classified equally a sub-compact SUV, inwards reality it sits somewhere betwixt the Hyundai Kona (which it shares its platform) too the Kia Sportage allowing designs a bigger canvass to piece of work with.

Sadly, that futuristic, exaggerated vision of the hereafter doesn’t quite extend to the Seltos’s interior. There are but about playful elements similar the center-tunnel-mounted conduct take away maintain of grip too the geometric speaker cover, but overall, it reverts dorsum to Corporate Kia, downwards to but about disappointingly difficult plastics on the dashboard too door panels. Nonetheless, at to the lowest degree its straightforwardness agency it’s tardily to understand. Ergonomically, it’s well-polished amongst the chunky steering wheel, nicely-bolstered seats, too controls positioned where you’d await to abide by them.

Now, usually sub-compact crossovers prioritize front end spot comfort over everything else, but the Seltos takes a unlike approach. It offers to a greater extent than head-, shoulder, too leg room inwards both start too instant rows compared to fifty-fifty the Honda HR-V—a crossover that’s mostly considered large for its size. More than that, they’ve managed to sculpt the parent seats equally non to overly punish the mortal sitting inwards the middle. Plus, the parent seats offering adjustable recline (from 26 to 32 degrees), too. If exclusively they’d throw inwards a pump armrest at the back, too hence it’d live complete.

Given Kia’s emphasis on connectivity, the Seltos’s infotainment organization is sublime. The 8-inch concealment size lone is generous, but to a greater extent than than that, it scores high inwards functionality too usability equally well. Not exclusively does it piece of work fifty-fifty direct sunlight (take note, Honda), but it’s the start inwards the segment that allows ii devices to pair via Bluetooth simultaneously. This means, the driver tin usage his mobile phone’s hands-free feature, spell the rider tin psyche to his music playlist on a unlike mobile device. Apple CarPlay too Android Auto are touchstone equally well.

All variants of the local Seltos line-up come upwards amongst but i engine choice: a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine generating 149 horsepower too 179 Nm of torque. If these mightiness figures seem depression for its displacement, it’s because it uses an Atkinson cycle. This especial engine, where the intake valve is held opened upwards longer than inwards a conventional Otto cycle, improves fuel efficiency at the expense of outright power. True enough, it does a combined city/highway figure of 13.5 km/L.

Still, it’s a smooth motor that feels peppy off the work too reasonably fluid at wearisome to medium speeds. At higher speeds, the engine tends to travel to a greater extent than vocal, but remains refined nonetheless. Near the shifter, there’s a rotary knob for selectable driving modes, but given the hectic footstep of this drive, at that spot wasn’t plenty fourth dimension to fiddle amongst it. Kept at Normal, it was well-balanced.

Coupled amongst the engine is what Kia calls, Intelligent Variable Transmission or IVT. Now, it’s difficult to live fond of CVTs because of their rubbery, noisy, too artificial characteristics, but the i inwards the Seltos behaves rather well. Thanks to a chain-link-type belt too an adaptive shift logic, it mimics a conventional automatic transmission amongst none of the drawbacks.

Overall, the Seltos handles good too. It doesn’t fully brand an emotional connector amongst the driver, but it’s genuinely nimble too a flake of fun to toss around. With a 5.3-meter turning radius, it turns on a dime, but weighs upwards nicely at speed. It fends off trunk curl effectively, too tin accept a switchback amongst a flake of gusto. Even better, it rides good on a multitude of route surfaces. On genuinely petroleum roads, it does tend to lose but about sense of refinement, but at to the lowest degree the damping is skilful plenty to quell but about nasty bumps.

It’s difficult to imagine the globe needing but about other sub-compact SUV to select from correct now, but contest breeds quality, too this has sure as shooting helped Kia convey its A-game amongst the Seltos. Whether it tin sustain its early on success is withal to live seen, but the ingredients are there. The political party may receive got already started a brace of years ago, but hot on the heels of a revitalized Philippine distributor, Kia’s finally got a model that knows how to boogie.