2021 Kia Rio GT-Line review

Kia’s persistence with small cars in the face of the SUV tidal wave is commendable and shrewd. As other makers – let’s call them heavyweights with a nervous disposition – abandon the segment or go completely berserk with the pricing, Kia stays the course. Staring them down. Growing market share. Selling cars.

Each of its small car offerings – and I’m bracketing micro, light and small under that umbrella – has a performance-oriented version, too, to drag in the [insert preferred gender here]-racers who don’t want that gutless SUV. There’s the Picanto GT I enjoyed quite recently, the Cerato GT that also amused me and the third of the Gangnam Triumvirate (Kia’s head office is in Gangnam, that’s not a lazy, outdated cultural reference) is the Goldilocks Rio GT-Line.

Bigger wheels, firmed-up suspension and the Picanto GT’s three-cylinder, the Rio GT-Line undercuts the Swift Sport by a very comfortable margin while also giving Kia’s small car buyers yet another choice.

Pricing and Features

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The GT-Line lands on your driveway at the drive-away price of $25,990, easily two grand cheaper than a manual Swift Sport and four grand beneath the six-speed auto, both of which are before on-roads. There’s not much else in the segment and really, the two cars aren’t comparable for a variety of reasons. A Swift Turbo is probably closer to the mark, but it’s not as sharp to drive.

Curiously, the Rio GT-Line is also much more affordable than the higher-riding Stonic GT-Line that is quite obviously a Rio in SUV fancy pants, so it’s a bit of a mystery to me as to why you wouldn’t save the money and take the hatchback. If you do, you can feel smug about that.

Rio GT-Lines come with neat cloth trim on slightly sportier seats, climate control, 17-inch alloys, GT-Line body kit, remote central locking, auto LED headlights, reversing camera, rear parking sensors and alloy sports pedals.

Kia’s persistence with small cars in the face of the SUV tidal wave is commendable and shrewd. As other makers abandon the segment, Kia stays the course.

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The 8.0-inch touchscreen hosts wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That’s the good news. While I don’t have Android and can’t comment, the CarPlay connectivity needs some work. Every two or three times I got into the car it just wouldn’t connect and couldn’t be fixed on the fly. Annoying. On top of that, the screen needed a good stab for it to respond, which was distracting.

It’s a nice cabin, though. While not as good as Kia’s more recent efforts, it looks good and feels fine in most places. I quite like the vertically oriented air vents and the big touchscreen throws its tech weight around to lift the cabin ambience, along with the white piping, some nice textured materials and satin finishes.

The Rio’s five-star ANCAP rating from 2017 comes courtesy of six airbags, the usual braking and slippery stuff mitigation and forward AEB (high and low speed), lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, forward collision warning, as well as two ISOFIX points and three top-tether points.

You can choose from six colours but five of them cost a very stiff $520 extra.

Comfort and Space

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It’s a small car, so you don’t have a lot of room to play with. It has five doors, so access to the adequate back row is easy enough but you’ll literally be up against it if the driver has any height on them at all. Three across the back might trigger a trip to The Hague for the driver if it’s for any long period of time, but the seating itself is comfortable. It’s a bit sparse, apart from the USB port for charging.

All four passenger doors have bottle holders but the lack of rear armrest means just the two cupholders up the front. Under your elbow in the front is a small bin and forward of the shifter you can precariously place your phone while it charges from either the two USB ports or the 12-volt port.

The boot is a handy 325 litres – that’s good for this segment – and expands to nearly 1000 litres with the seats down. It’s not a flat floor, of course, but the room is usable. Underneath the boot floor is a space-saver spare.

On the Road

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The Picanto GT’s 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol presents itself here in the same 74kW/172Nm setup, with the former available at 4500rpm and the latter from 1500-4000rpm. Some of you are about to hit the comments with, “This clown hasn’t done his homework, it’s 88kW.” Well, it used to be, but since mid-2020 (I will forgive you for missing this during last year’s absolute cluster), power is down to 74kW for a string of reasons involving Europe, mild hybridisation, 48-volts and, presumably, two priests, one young and one old.

A hot hatch it isn’t, but that’s why it’s called GT-Line, I guess. The firmer damping is immediately obvious and the steering seems a bit more chipper – if still completely lacking in feel – than the basic car’s setup. Because it weighs next to nothing it’s a genuinely chuckable car, with decently sticky Continental tyres holding on gamely before the inevitable, gentle understeer. The ride is a bit rugged over less than perfect surfaces, so you’ll have to think about how much you can cop. It’s better than the just-replaced Cerato GT and no worse than the Picanto, apart from the racket from ridges and rubber speed bumps.

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The tyres and rear torsion beam ensure a fair bit of noise gets into the cabin, but it’s not excessive. There aren’t many super-quiet cars at this level and the quiet ones contain a lot of German words and much higher prices. The best noise that does reach your ears is the enthusiastic growl of the three-cylinder. It’s fizzy and fun and it would be even better with paddle-shifters to keep it where you want it.

And that’s the thing – the engine is somewhat let down by the seven-speed dual-clutch auto. That shouldn’t come as a terrible shock to anyone as it’s not great in any of the Kia and Hyundai cars in which you’ll find it. It dithers off the line and can be a bit clunky when the engine wakes from sleep. I found it indecisive in traffic but once you’re on the freeway, it’s quick to make up its mind.

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Hilariously, I had to give up trying to back up a hill into a parking space – admittedly it was steep – because the dual-clutch transmission just did not want to play ball. It was trying – I could smell it. I’m willing to believe that there was something wrong with this particular car because I’ve never had that before and this is my third run in the Rio GT-Line in as many years. Worth checking if you have a steep driveway or you live in Tamarama or something.

Probably the biggest issue is the propensity for the long front overhang to scrape on even gently sloping driveways. You’re not hitting anything important – Kia has thoughtfully fitted a tough plastic skirt that cops a hammering – but it got old pretty quickly.

Kia rather optimistically says you’ll use 5.3L/100km on the combined cycle. In a week of varied driving I got an indicated 7.2L/100km, which did involve some feverish inner-city searches for a parking space when I was running late for, well, everything.

Ownership

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Kia’s ever-thoughtful and wildly popular seven-year warranty and roadside assist package endures and it’s a genuine reason to buy this car.

You also get a seven-service capped-price guarantee that will last for seven years if you cover fewer than 10,000km per year. The turbo engine is a pricey thing to service, though, with costs moving around from $283 to as high as $704. It seems the combination of DCT and turbo pep is responsible for the high fees. Over the seven services, you’ll pay $4299 or an average of just over $470 per pitstop.

VERDICT

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The Rio GT-Line is good fun and if it’s fun you’re after, it’s fun you’ll get. It will cheerfully stay with its smaller sibling, the Picanto GT, while offering more space, a bit more comfort and a bit more style over the more basic Rios. It’s starting to feel old, though, which it is.

It’s old-school fun though, with a handy chassis that will keep you smiling on a backroad drive or when you round up a dozing SUV in traffic. The character of the engine goes right through the car, keeping you on your toes and watching for gaps and opportunities.

It’s not the best warm hatch – and yes, that’s a shrinking market – but it’s definitely a lot of fun, which is absolutely the point of it.

2021 Kia Rio GT-Line Specifications