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WIN AND STONIC? (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_kiastonic_2017

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 83

Launched in 2017, Kia's Stonic offered buyers of small SUVs yet another tempting choice. The looks can be eye-catching and it's good to drive in comparison to most obvious rivals. In addition, this car is reasonably spacious and pretty affordable to run, especially in diesel form or when fitted out with the brand's impressive 1.0-litre T-GDI petrol engine. Plus prices are pitched keenly. It is, in short, a very competitive proposition indeed. Here, we look at the earlier 2017-2025-era versions of this model.

Modelsword count: 15

5dr SUV (1.4 MPi, 1.0 T GDi, 48V 1.0 T GDI / 1.6 CRDi [2,3,4])

Historyword count: 405

By 2017, Kia had become a very significant player on the market for compact crossover SUVs. But the company had back then never really had a product of this sort to directly target the smallest section of this segment. That was the brief assigned to this Stonic model and, on paper at least, it seemed to be almost everything you might want a car of this kind to be. The name's interesting isn't it? (apparently a combination of the words 'speedy' and 'tonic'). As is the back history here. It's tempting to think of Kia as a late-comer to this sector - this contender wasn't launched until the Autumn of 2017. Actually though, the company could claim to be one of the originators of this class, first at the turn of the century with earlier smaller versions of its Sportage SUV and again in 2009 with the funky little Soul model. By 2017 though, the Sportage had been moved up a size to compete with larger Qashqai-class family hatchback segment SUVs, which should have freed up the Soul to directly target profitable little B-segment SUVs like Nissan's Juke and Renault's Captur. It didn't work out like that. The Soul proved to be too much of a niche product to meet that need, prior to 2017 leaving Kia without a really effective presence in a market segment due to double in size by 2020. That was a problem for the brand, hence the speed at which this particular model was designed and brought to market. It shared almost everything with the maker's Rio supermini and rolled down the same Sohari production line in South Korea. A little surprisingly, it didn't share those same underpinnings with sister company Hyundai's Kona model - their entry in this exploding sector - though the two manufacturers did use the same engineware, most notably in this case the 1.0-litre T-GDi petrol unit that Kia rightly expected the majority of Stonic buyers to choose. The other two engines initially offered (but rarely chosen) were a feeble 1.4-litre MPi petrol unit and a 1.6-litre CRDi diesel, both units discontinued in 2020. In 2022, a 48V 1.0-litre T-GDi mild hybrid unit was introduced. Then in 2023, the range was solely centred around a 1.0-litre T GDi 98 unit. The Stonic sold in this form until early 2026, when it got a mild facelift. Here, we look at the earlier 2017-2025-era versions of this model.

What You Getword count: 318

Back in 2017, the Stonic was one of the most strikingly Kia models we'd seen, though the shape incorporates several of the brand's key recognisable signature design elements. Styled in Europe in collaboration with Kia's Korean design studio, the body aims to blend sharp horizontal feature lines with softer sculpted surfaces. Inside, this Stonic doesn't really seat you much higher than you would be in the ordinary Rio supermini model it's based on. You'll also miss out on the kind of jaunty cabin finishing you might expect from a car of this kind if you don't stretch to a high-grade trim level that brings inside the contrasting roof and mirror colour chosen for the exterior. And in the rear? Well it's best not to get your hopes up too high here given that the wheelbase of this Stonic - or in other words, the space on offer between front and rear wheels - is no different from the length available in the little Rio supermini. On the plus side, the body shell's slightly wider than it is in a Rio, though not by enough to make the prospect of sharing the back seat with two other adults a particularly comfortable one, despite the low centre transmission tunnel Still, that's the case with all other models in this class and what's on offer back here is a big improvement on the cramped quarters provided by a rival Nissan Juke. Let's finish with a few words on boot space, which thanks to this Stonic model's longer rear overhangs, rose by 27-litres over what you'd get in a Kia Rio. The tailgate is light to lift and reveals a 352-litre luggage area that's class-competitive but unremarkable by current SUV B-segment standards. Push forward the 60/40 split-folding rear seat and you'll reveal a relatively flat loading floor with as much as 1,155-litres of total fresh air if you load to the roof.

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