SUPER STONIC? (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

The improved version of Kia's Stonic offers small SUV buyers yet another tempting choice. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 44

Kia continues to build its share of the market for small compact Crossover SUVs with this car, the Stonic. This revised model showcases the brand's fresh, more charismatic styling approach and offers buyers an affordable but still quite trendy-looking choice in this growing segment.

Backgroundword count: 212

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 - the original version of 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. But the Soul proved to be too much of a niche product to allow Kia to properly cash in on the last decade's explosion in demand for fashion-led Juke and Puma-sized B-segment SUVs, hence the need for the Stonic. This car's 1.0 T-GDi petrol engine was updated in 2020 with a pretty ineffectual 48V mild hybrid system, tech that was then taken away again shortly after this facelifted model's introduction in Autumn 2025. Now you're up to date. As before, the Stonic is priced at the budget end of the small SUV segment, as is the other Hyundai Motor Group small crossover it shares all its engineering with, the Hyundai Bayon. And the Stonic slots into Kia's combustion range just below the more crossover-like Seltos SUV.

Driving Experienceword count: 405

It's a long time now since Kia discontinued the car on which this Stonic is based, its Rio supermini, but if you happen to be upgrading from one of those, you'll find the fairly vanilla driving experience here to be pretty much the same. This is the kind of car from which you'll emerge remembering almost nothing about the journey you've just taken; which is probably the way potential owners will want it. Most small SUVs roll a bit more than the small hatchbacks upon which they're based but this one doesn't, it's Macpherson strut front and torsion beam rear axle suspension set up with lengthened springs and dampers to properly compensate for this crossover model's slightly higher centre of gravity. So you can carry a reasonable amount of speed into the corners, though thanks in part to rather vague though quite precise steering feedback, navigating the turns is nothing like as fun as in a rival Ford Puma. Despite a subtly incorporated torque vectoring system that gives you extra traction at speed through tighter bends. Not too many models of this sort are sold here these days without some form of electrified powertrain but the Stonic is one of them, Kia having discontinued the 48V 113bhp version of the 1.0-litre three cylinder mild hybrid unit it originally promised to customers when the updated version of this model was first announced. What's left is the brand's older T-GDi unit, also three cylinders and 1.0-litre in size but in this form developing 98bhp. To be honest, it's all you really need, developing a modest but sufficient 172Nm of torque in 6-speed manual gearbox form, enough to propel the car to 62mph in 10.7s en route to 115mph. The alternative 7-speed DCT auto version (which you have to have if you're to get drive modes) gets a bit more pulling power (200Nm), but still takes a second longer to reach the 62mph benchmark en route to 109mph. All models are front-driven: there's not much appetite in this segment for 4WD. In town, the relatively stiff body shell and fairly firm suspension together combine to acquaint you with small bumps and tarmac tears a little more keenly than is the case with some rivals. It's nothing you couldn't live with though and suspension smoothness improves the faster you go. Thanks to this and very reasonable levels of refinement, the Stonic is a surprisingly able partner for longer trips.

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