Kia Seltos review, road test

We put Kia’s first offering in India through our exhaustive test to find out whether it is worthy of the hype.

Published on Apr 04, 2020 06:00:00 AM

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At 433 litres, the boot can accommodate a decent load of luggage.

Gearshift lights in Sport mode lend a racy feel, but DCT feels too snappy for city driving.

It’s easy to accidently press SOS button while adjusting the mirror.

The 1.5-litre diesel-manual is the pick of the lot when it comes to maximising kilometres per litre, averaging an impressive 17.2kpl. What helps is the negligible turbo lag and smooth power delivery – you don’t need to use the throttle aggressively to get moving. The diesel-automatic’s average figure of 15.35kpl is also impressive. The tall-geared 1.4-litre turbo-petrol manual returns 9.4kpl in the city and 14kpl on the highway. With its driving mode set to ‘Eco’, the petrol-automatic managed 8.5kpl in the city; the 7-speed transmission cruises on the highway at low engine speeds, as a result, it achieved 14.1kpl on the highway. Do note that turbo-petrol engines, in general, are sensitive to ambient conditions and idling times; so efficiency will improve while cruising at steady speeds, but the fuel needle will drop rather rapidly while idling in dense traffic.