KIA K4: The Wheels Verdict on Kia's Cerato replacement

Quick. Give me the elevator pitch for a Kia Cerato. I'm guessing it would go something like: reliable, inoffensive, fairly cheap, great warranty.

That set of attributes would have been more than enough for old Kia. But today's Kia? It has some loftier ambitions, and it became fairly clear that launching a new Cerato would merely create a link to the past when it's instead laser-focused on future aspirations.

To that end, say goodbye to Cerato, and hello to the Kia K4.

The Koreans hesitate to call it all-new, because the engines and some suspension components are carried over – but not a whole lot else is, so if you expect the K4 to look and feel like a Cerato, well, it doesn't.

A big reason for that, for the time-being at least, is down to where the car is built.

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We're used to Ceratos being built in the Hwaseong plant in Korea, but this K4 hails from the Monterrey plant in Mexico. Because of this, at the moment, the prime export market for the K4 is the US – and if there's one thing we know about Americans, it's that they love a boot (or trunk) on their small cars.

Yep, the K4 will be a sedan only, right through to the tail end of 2025 when the factory is set to start building hatches.

It's also a fairly big sedan: through a quirk in the way the FCAI categorises cars, the hatch version just squeaks into the 'small car' category, which applies to all K4 variants.

Nevertheless, at 4710mm long and 1850mm wide, it casts a bigger footprint than any pre-VN Commodore. Or, for a more contemporary reference, a Tesla Model 3. So it's a sizeable hunk, more resembling a slightly shrunken Stinger than an upscaled Cerato.

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JUMP AHEAD

• What’s on offer
• What does the Kia K4 cost?
• A look inside + safety
• What’s it like to drive?
• Space and storage
• Warranty and servicing
• Specifications

What’s on offer

The 2025 Kia K4 range starts at $30,590 for the entry-level S that virtually nobody will buy, as fleet managers will be drawn to the far better equipped K4 S Safety Pack at $32,690.

Above this is the $35,190 Sport, followed by the $37,590 Sport+.

All are powered by the same carryover 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated engine, good for a rather breathless 112kW and 192Nm, sent forward through a six-speed auto. The car's posterior is kept off the bitumen by a comfort-tuned torsion-beam suspension.

Kia expects the most popular version with private buyers to be the flagship $42,990 GT-Line, and this one's a very different kettle of K4. Instead of the 2.0-litre wheezer, it sports a turbocharged 1.6-litre four, which develops a more satisfying 142kW/264Nm and upgrades its hind quarters to multi-link suspension for a tauter, more dynamic handling bias.

The old seven-speed dual-clutch 'box is consigned to history too, with this new GT-Line one getting an eight-speed auto instead.

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What does the Kia K4 cost?

Prices have been bumped up considerably.

Naturally, Kia will point to the fact that the K4 is a bigger, safer and better-equipped car than its predecessor. The argument is not without merit, but it still means you're expected to find at least an additional $3500 at the entry level and around $6000 at the top of the range when trying to align Cerato and K4 prices.

It's worth something at least that these are national drive-away prices, rather than regional RRPs to which you'd need to add things like CTOP, stamp duty and registration.

Clear White is the only non-cost colour, and there are seven other paint finishes including Honeydew and Wave Blue which are new to Kia's palette.

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Rivals?

If you're cross-shopping, you might also be looking at the related Hyundai i30 Sedan, which not only offers a hybrid option but also delivers the 1.6-litre turbo engine from $36k.

The Mazda3 sedan is also worth a look if sheer space is not the overriding criterion, while the quietly lovely Skoda Octavia Select ought to also appear on your shortlist for test drives.

The big hitter at the pice point is the Toyota Camry, which features a 170kW 2.5-litre hybrid engine for $39,990 in Ascent trim or $42,990 in Ascent Sport guise. That's hard for the K4 to counter.

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A look inside + safety

Jump inside the K4 and much will be familiar if you've been exposed to recent Kia, Hyundai or Genesis fare.

On all but the base S model, the fascia features two widescreen 12.3-inch displays with a five-inch 'climate control supervision' screen between them. The screen in front of the driver, which houses the clocks, is multi configurable so you're able to select analogue-looking virtual dials or a more contemporary digital readout.

This ccNC architecture supports over the air updates and will also work with a Kia Connect app for your smartphone. Go for the entry-level S and there's a smaller, more basic instrument binnacle.

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While wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are part of the deal as standard, Kia has only seen fit to equip the range-topping GT-Line with a wireless charging pad – which means you'll probably need to plug your phone in to charge with a cable anyway. Call it a rare instance of shortsighted cost-cutting in an otherwise well-judged cabin.

Given that the lack of safety gear on the base S means it'll probably only net a four rather than a five-star safety score when ANCAP tests the car, we'd skip this one. The S Safety Pack is a far better proposition, adding the dual screens, dual-zone climate control, enhanced automated emergency braking with junction crossing detection and oncoming lane change detection. That's an extra $2100 well spent.

The Sport swaps out the 16-inch alloys for 17-inch rims, adds native sat-nav, auto de-fogging for the climate control, lane change-assist and 'level 2' autonomy for the adaptive cruise control suite.

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Don't fancy cloth seats? In that case, you need to step up to the K4 Sport+ with its grey synthetic leather trim, and heated front seats too. It also features an auto dimming rear mirror, an athermic windscreen, rain-sensing wipers, and some upgraded trim details inside.

The GT-Line can be identified by its 18-inch wheels, high-gloss exterior styling, bigger brakes and glass sunroof, along with eight-speaker Harmon Kardon audio, black embossed synthetic leather seats with heating and ventilation up front, a heated steering wheel, ambient interior lighting, an alloy pedal set and a 10-way electric driver's seat with memory function.

The front passenger still has manual controls, though, which seems a miss when you consider the price tag.

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What’s it like to drive?

We got to sample the naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre Sport and the 1.6-litre turbo GT-Line on Australian roads. The 2.0L is an engine you'd probably describe as just about adequate.

It's a shame that Kia never saw to apply the more modern turbocharged unit across the range, because it would make the K4 a far easier car to recommend. As it stands, the 2.0-litre is loud when pressed, not particularly economical, and its torque shortfall vexes the six-speed automatic's drive logic to such an extent that on any sort of open road, it starts mooing, unsure of what gear it should be in.

There's a reason it sounds like a CVT. Kia's 'Intelligent Variable Transmission' is a version of a CVT with artificially mandated gears. It's adequately refined in low-demand scenarios, but drops its bundle somewhat when you ask a little more of it. That's a shame because there are many other aspects of this K4 that are excellent.

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The chassis is well up to the task, and the torsion beam rear end is well calibrated and forgiving, while the front end offers resolute grip.

The steering takes a moment or two to key into once you've managed to dial out the perpetually intrusive lane-keep function, but you quickly adapt to its slightly odd on-centre feel.

The 1.6-litre turbo GT-Line is a far more dynamic proposition, delivering the torque to drive the K4 out of corners convincingly. The ride is slightly compromised by the lower profile of its 18-inch tyres, although not unacceptably so.

Unlike the 2.0-litre, it also gets wheel-mounted shift paddles if you'd rather take over the gear-changing duties yourself. Fortunately its Sport mode seems to do a pretty good job of selecting a gear by itself.

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It's a genuinely fun car to pedal up a challenging road and, were you looking for a car that could do the family duties and entertain, it's a very presentable choice.

But, after driving both powertrain options, I reckon Kia has missed a trick: the chassis setup of the 2.0-litre offers the better everyday ride and handling balance for most target buyers, so a more cohesive line-up would have been to have started with a 2.0-litre S Safety Pack, and topped out with the existing 1.6 turbo GT-Line.

Between those two bookends could have been an intermediate comfort-spec trim with the 1.6 turbo engine, eight-speed torque-converter auto and the cheaper torsion-beam rear-end on 17-inch alloys.

Were that car to exist, it'd be my automatic pick of the range – and this line-up would likely have netted the K4 an across-the-board five-star ANCAP rating.

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Space and storage

The K4 ticks a bunch of boxes in the practicality column, albeit with the caveat that it is a sedan.

The boot's claimed to measure 508 litres, which is vast, and beneath its rather flimsy-feeling floor there's a space-saver spare.

Be a little careful if you're ramming gear into its rear end, though, because the absence of a plastic trim panel on the upper section means bulky suitcases have the capacity to damage the rear speaker cones if they start moving around in the boot. There are a pair of pull tabs in the boot that can drop the 60:40 split rear bench for even more space.

The cabin features a decent amount of oddments space, with a generously sized pair of cupholders in the centre and a deep lidded console that's flock-lined. The glovebox is a fair size and the door pockets are big enough for a fairly specifically-sized drinks bottle, and the rear door pockets are even smaller.

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There's decent headroom in the rear, and knee-room has gone up by a hefty 56mm over the old Cerato, thanks to a longer wheelbase. Rear passengers get a pair of USB-C ports to power their devices, but not a whole lot else in terms of amenity.

Materials quality is good throughout the cabin, but in the front there's a fairly obvious bifurcation between the softer touch materials on the dash-top and the harder, scratchier plastics lower down, with the cheaper materials running across the top of the glove box.

The door handles are also very susceptible to smeary fingerprints, and a one-touch electric window is only fitted to the driver's door.

All models get seven airbags, rear seatbelts are now fitted with pretensioners, and all models also get a driver attention monitoring system.

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The steering wheel is an intriguing shape on the 2.0-litre models with a flattish top and bottom, a bulging centre boss with offset Kia logo and some nicely integrated controls.

The GT-Line gets a sportier-looking three-spoke wheel with the drive mode dial incorporated into the vertical spoke.

Visibility out of the car is helped by the rear-quarter windows, but the rear-view mirror peers back through a very shallow rear screen, making it necessary to rely on the camera system when reversing near obstacles.

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Warranty, servicing and ownership

As with all Kias, the K4 carries a seven-year warranty, and there's a capped-price servicing deal on offer too.

Should you want to run that deal through a three-year / 30,000km ownership period, that would come to around $1200 for the 1.6-litre models and $1350 for the 1.6-litre turbo GT-Line.

Prefer a seven-year 70,000km deal to match the warranty? That'd tot up to around $3200 for the 2.0-litre and $3850 for the GT-Line. At the time of publishing, these figures are still subject to review from Kia, but don't expect the final numbers to differ greatly.

Fuel consumption

As noted above, the turbo version of the K4 may be a little more expensive to service, but you could well claw that premium back through improved fuel economy.

Whereas the 2.0-litre engine will return 7.4L/100km, the 1.6-litre gets 6.7L/100km. Over 70,000km, those numbers would equate to 4690 litres of fuel consumed for the 1.6 versus 5180 litres for the 2.0-litre.

At a nominal $2 per litre, that's a $980 difference, more than the $650 variance in servicing costs between the two engines.

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VERDICT

The Kia K4 emerges as a likeable and capable addition to the range, albeit one with a slightly spotty spread of talents – which is a little frustrating.

The underwhelming and outdated 2.0-litre engine is a miss, and you need the firmer-riding and more expensive GT-Line flagship to get the engine and transmission that the K4 deserves. Maybe that'll change when the inevitable hybrid version appears.

Until then, the K4 remains endearing and broadly capable, but ultimately underachieving. When the old Cerato comprised 20 percent of all Kia's sales in Australia, that could be a short-term issue, at least until the hatch arrives.

As it stands, the K4 sedan is good enough to earn a recommendation for those who don't demand too much – but, as we've seen time and time again, Kia is capable of so much more.

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