Kia Seltos review & buyer's guide
It's one of the tidiest not-so-small, small SUVs available - offering great dynamics and solid support. If you’re thinking about buying a Kia Seltos, here’s exactly what you need to know.
So, just off the bat here, if you are merely the habitual reader/viewer of road-test porn, this report might not be for you. It might be a bit long, and not fun enough. See, I’ve really made it for that other category of consumer: The punter with cold, hard cash, debating internally about actually slamming it down and buying a Seltos.
I’m going to address what I see as the major considerations for you - if that’s you. And there’s a couple of hilarious observations about Seltos-this and Seltos-that at the end.
Time-poor? Just read the next paragraph.
Executive summary: After attending the launch last week and driving a few hundred kilometres in both powertrains I can tell you Seltos is fundamentally a very good SUV - for the right customer. Definitely on the ‘recommended’ list. It depends what you want, obviously. But Kia is a good company with a strong warranty and excellent customer support here in Shitsville.
Seltos -Vs- Sportage
If you’re wondering what the future holds for Sportage, with the rise of Seltos, you are not alone:
I’ve been getting this question a lot lately - and no, Seltos is not a Sportage replacement. There’s no diesel in the Seltos range, and less tow capacity. Substantially less - but, perversely, more towball download limit for the Seltos.
So, depending on your trailer, you might actually be able to tow a trailer with Seltos that you could not tow with Sportage. It’s 130 kilos download on Seltos with up to 1250 kilos outright tow capacity, versus 100 kilos download, with up to 1900 kilos’ tow capacity on Sportage.
Tow capacity for both Seltos and Sportage varies with powertrain
The tow capacity varies with the powertrain in both vehicles - so check the specs and know what your trailer weighs before buying.
Biggest problem Seltos causes for Kia is that its closest competitor is Sportage. They’re going to have to do something pretty clever to ensure Seltos sales don’t cannibalize Sportage - but that’s their problem. You just got more choice.
Comparing the pair: Sportage is 115mm longer than Seltos - call it four-and-a-half inches - it’s 55mm narrower (that’s two-and-a-quarter) and about 40mm shorter (an inch and a half). Wheelbase - a good baseline for passenger space - just 40mm different as well.
So it’s a good thing they have different hair and makeup, these vehicles, because otherwise only their mother would be able to tell them apart.
Seltos -Vs- Car (and: keep the change)
If you’re considering Seltos, you’ve gotta ask yourself: Would you in fact be better off in a Cerato? (Kia’s gunna hate me saying this … like I care. This is how you know this reports ain’t sponsored.)
The awful truth is: most people queueing up to buy Seltos now would be better off in a Cerato or an i30 - or a Mazda3. Cars like that. But let’s keep it in the family, just for the sake of devil’s advocacy. Cerato hatch has slightly more wheelbase and more overall length, than Seltos.
People always go: We’re about to spit out a kid; we need an SUV. It’s like the friggin’ 11th commandment: Thou shalt breed and procure an SUV. It’s such bullshit (like the other 10). A Cerato hatch has equivalent accommodation and 428 litres of boot space. Seltos has 433. Are we really going to argue the toss over half a shopping bag in the back? The two vehicles are functionally the same at accommodating people and luggage.
But if you buy a Cerato GT over a Seltos GT-Line, you will save $6000. Six grand. If you’re about to spit out a kid, that’s not a trivial sum. Equipment levels are similar. Same 1.6 turbo petrol engine - but in a different state of tune - so, you get 20kW more peak power in the Cerato, all at the top end. And the Cerato is lighter, because, less metal, no AWD system.
So you get almost 25 per cent more power to weight in the Cerato GT. If you’re overtaking a truck, or having a punt out of a bend, I know which one I’d rather be in.
So, objectively, if you need the AWD system, OK. There’s a case for Seltos. If you need slightly more ground clearance, OK. If you have a bung knee and/or a bad back or some other orthopedic compromise, and the extra seating height is going to help, ergonomically: OK. Buy the Seltos. It’s a good SUV.
Otherwise, pocket the $6000. Buy the Cerato and enjoy. It’s really not going to be a sacrifice. Two-thirds of people buying SUVs today would be better off in cars - and not just financially.
Seltos powertrain options
There are two powertrains - a 2.0-litre atmo four with a CVT (continuously variable transmission), and a 1.6 turbo four mated to a seven-speed DCT (dual-clutch transmission).
They both drive like conventional autos (I mean - you put them in ‘D’ and you drive) but they’re very different internally, and characteristically.
Bottom line: CVTs are good for fuel efficiency but are probably the least engaging transmission for outright driving enthusiasts.
DCTs are also decent for economy, and they’re excellent for sporty engagement, but they lack low-speed refinement. And occasionally the computer gets a bit confused and has to play catch-up.
Everything is a compromise. Conventional autos are thirsty as hell on fuel (6-10 per cent worse).
So basically, you get 2.0-litre CVT to save on fuel. The 1.6 turbo DCT in the top half of the range for superior performance.
Atkinson cycle: Huh?
The 2.0-litre atmo engine has a party trick - it runs on the Atkinson cycle, which is a thermodynamics hack that boosts fuel efficiency. It’s a real thing, not marketing bullshit.
I’ll do a separate video on this, because we’re going to be seeing more of the Atkinson cycle as carmakers strive to meet higher fuel efficiency standards. It’s been widely used already - by Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Subaru and Hyundai-Kia as well as Ford and Chrysler.
Basically it tweaks the inlet valve timing so the mixture expands through a greater range than it would in a conventional engine. This delivers better thermal efficiency and you save on fuel.
But because thermodynamics is something of a zero-sum dominatrix, you don’t get the efficiency for free - the cost is reduced peak power delivery, because you’re limiting the engine’s inle air consumption.
Also note what Wikipedia has to say about modern Atkinson cycle engines.
Ride & handling: Big tick
As usual, Kia conscripted its on-call dynamics wizard to do his mad, Jedi voodoo and turn the conventional vomit-spec South Korean suspension into what is actually an outstanding platform to drive on our preposterously crap ‘Strayan roads.
The drive program on the launch was on mainly these B and C roads around Noosa, and I’d have to say the body control and steering feedback is excellent. So, big tick there.
There was probably 90 minutes of freeway driving as well - it’s quiet and composes at 110.
Interestingly enough - this vehicle has a next-generation motor driven power steering assistance system. That means an electrical servo motor provides the steering assistance. It detects input from you, and a computer tells it how much to help. That’s when you’re turning in.
But when you’re on the way out of a bend, MDPS typically defaults to ‘off’ and the self-centring steering effect you feel (If any) is just mechanical control feedback.
But in this system, the motor also provides self-centring feedback assistance. It’s really excellent. It’s a real step up from previous MDPS systems, which sometimes feel as if there’s insufficient self-centring.
The Seltos model range
Here’s the range. You get S, Sport, Sport+ and GT-Line in order of increasing appeal and price. 2.0-litre CVT only on S and Sport. 1.6 Turbo only on GT-Line. But you can have either engine in Sport+.
So the fuel economy powertrain is available in the first three variants. The performance powertrain on the top two. They overlap at Sport+.
Here’s how you tell the four variants apart like an automotive ninja. (This is gunna help at the dealership when they jam one under your snout for a test drive - if you know this, you cannot be bullshat to about which one you’re driving. And before you say it in the comments: ‘bullshat’ is the past participle of the verb ‘to bullshit’.)
The poverty S model rolls on steel wheels. That’s dead easy to spot. If you’re looking at a Seltos with alloy wheels and a folding key - like, a key that you actually stick into an ignition barrel, it’s a Sport.
If it’s got 17-inch alloys and a pushbutton start it’s Sport+ and if it’s got 18-inch alloys (with a bright red highlight around the hub) and a head-up display, it’s a GT-Line. Just remember to drive the one you’re thinking of buying.
There’s more safety gear on Sport+ and GT-Line, but you can get that on S and Sport for $1000 as an option.
So, I’m not going to bore you with the spec sheet - because that really will induce narcolepsy - but the salient observations arising from the spec sheet are:
S is a real poverty pack. Anything that can be removed to cut costs basically has been, and this is done primarily to appease the great cheapskates of the automotive universe: Fleet managers.
These people are the beancounters who decide what to buy using a spreadsheet, not their hearts.
It’s a big step - $3500 - to go from S to Sport, but it’s well worth it for a private owner. You get alloys, a full-sized spare, the big centre infotainment screen, SUNA live traffic and 10 years of free mapcare updates (and, I’m assured, there are no strings attached to that - you just get the updates when they’re available).
Sport+ is probably the pick of the range - because you get adaptive cruise and the better safety gear standard. Plus front parking sensors, nicer interior, proximity key. And it’s $5500 cheaper than GT-Line, which is loaded with all the nice toys, certainly, but do you really need all that stuff? Probably not.
You get a full-sized spare, too … except in the beancounter-appeasing poverty-pack S. So that’s nice.
I’d strongly suggest you buy the 1.6 turbo if sporty engaging driving matters to you. The CVT that goes with the 2.0-litre is a little bit frustrating for enthusiastic driving. It displays this noticeable re-engagement lag, getting on the gas when you clip an apex and want to start feeding the power on smoothly.
If you don’t know what that means, the 2.0-litre will be fine. It’s totally adequate for normal driving - just like a Subaru XV.
Seltos hilarity, part 1
There’s a lighter side to Seltos, of course. Kia says Seltos is aimed at the young and tech-savvy buyer. They actually said this one billion times in the press conference. It kept me awake, for God’s sake.
Young and tech-savvy. It’s a marketing code-word. It means - counter-intiutively - that we all know fifty-something-year-old women are primarily going to buy this car. This happens all the time. Getz. Veloster. Kia Soul. Young and tech-savvy, 50-year-old chicks. It’s reverse-ageism.
I love marketing because it’s like drinking the Penfolds Grange of bullshit. Marketers know it’s going to be 50-year-old chicks. But they have to be politically correct…
...and because they’re rat cunning they know a 50-year-old chick won’t mind buying a vehicle with youthful, tech-savvy aspirations. But if they tell the truth about this, they also know how hard metrosexual tech-savvy Muppet will recoil from the idea of buying a car aimed at his mother. So there’s that.
So if you’re 50 and female, and you find yourself oddly drawn to this vehicle apparently targeting people half your age … it’s not you, it’s them. It’s really aimed directly at you. They just can’t say that.
Seltos hilarity, part 2
And of course, it’s beyond hilarious that the first Powerpoint slide of substance in the Seltos press conference said this:
I think we can all agree that S-type words are generally associated with more positive connotations, compared with the usual ‘C’ bombs.
But frankly the rest of this mythological nonsense reeks of being the most hastily contrived automotive naming bullshit I have ever witnessed. Do we even really need a story for this name? What’s wrong with ‘We just made it up. It doesn’t mean anything.’
I’d be happy with that.
Small ‘etymology’ problem: Hercules is the fake Roman son of a fake Roman god (Jupiter). Hercules is not Greek. He never was Greek. He never even visited Greece… I mean, he might have stayed a night or two at an Air B&B in Athens after slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra. He had a couple of days in lieu after that...
Hercules versus Heracles on Wikipedia…
Heracles was the Greek one. He had 102 kids to 35 different women. #Legend (Kinda like some of the bogans I’ve met at the Summernats.)
One of them actually was named Celtus. (Children of Heracles, not burnout bogans.)
Verdict: You Kia dudes need a better Seltos back-story than that, or none.
Conclusion
Seltos is emphatically not one of 102 illegitimate mythical children of fake sons of fake gods from Greece or Italy (we always get mixed up; they all look the same). It’s a really tidy SUV with an absurd name that’s actually not that small, and which doesn’t do very much wrong at all, and handles our crap roads really well indeed.
It’s safe, and it’s got a lot of gear, and you don’t play ‘options rip-off bingo’ when you visit a Kia dealership. So that’s nice. Seltos could be just right for you if you are sufficiently [SIGHS] young and tech savvy.
And if you are a real man, sporting a big, swinging complementary set of wedding vegetables - buying a Seltos is quite OK too. Especially in the 1.6 turbo - which, let’s be clear, goes somewhat harder than any Sportage. So, you won’t be forced to race home and download the Village People’s back catalogue, or get any supplemental waxing done … down there. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
It is a big jump in price to go from the 2.0-litre to the 1.6 Turbo: $3500. Just bear in mind that’s not just for the engine - you’re also bolting on an AWD system, and that sportier (and more expensive) dual-clutch transmission. If it was my cash, with a gun at my head I would choose the Seltos Sport+ 1.6 turbo, but I’d have a hard time justifying it against the Cerato GT (even though they’re around the same price). I’d just get more of a kick driving the Cerato GT.
In the interest of making an informed choice here - take a look at that Cerato hatch and the Sportage while you’re there at the Kia dealer, and also check out: Hyundai Kona and Tucson (seven year warranty there between now and Christmas), plus Mazda CX-3 and CX-5, and Subaru XV and Forester.
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Most people I speak to don’t actually enjoy that. Go figure.
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