pro_cee'd GT. Hmm... as car names go, it's an odd one.
From the lower case first letter to the pointless underscore and the baffling apostrophe nestling between the final 'e' and the 'd', it's a bewilderingly punctuation-heavy moniker. The standard five door hatchback, the Cee'd, is bad enough, but when you factor in the pro_cee'd GT's woeful pun on the word 'proceed', you're left with one of the oddest car names since Isuzu decided to call one of its SUVs the 'Mysterious Utility Wizard'. It's no surprise that the pro_cee'd just sneaked on to our list of the ten worst car names of all time.
Anyway, it would be a waste of column inches (not to mention your time) if I dwelled on the pro_cee'd GT's badge for the next 800 words, so let's take a look at the car.
Based on the Kia pro_cee'd hatchback, a three-door version of the Cee'd five-door hatchback, the pro_cee'd GT is Kia's first stab at building a proper hot hatchback. The thing is, there are primary school children old enough to remember a time when the idea of Kia building a hot hatch would be met with an awkward silence and ten minutes of painful shoe-staring, so the question is, is the pro_cee'd GT any good? Well, that's what we're here to find out.
As it's a hot hatch we're talking about, we'll start with the engine. It's a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol lump which develops 201bhp and 195lb-ft of torque. Although that's some way off the likes of its key rivals, the VW Golf GTI and the Ford Focus ST, the pro_cee'd GT still has a decent amount of shove, cracking the 0-62mph run in 7.4 seconds and accelerating all the way up to a maximum speed of 143mph.
At low-to-mid revs, the engine does everything expected of it, providing the sort of punchy acceleration you'd expect from a turbocharged petrol engine with only a whiff of turbo lag. Take the pro_cee'd GT up to the redline though and it also goes a bit pear-shaped. At the top end the engine sounds strangulated and the performance drops off noticeably above around 5,000rpm.
This is a common trait amongst the latest batch of turbo petrol engines and, since the EU emissions regulations preclude the return of larger, naturally-aspirated units, it's something we're going to have to get used to.
On the road, the pro_cee'd GT is a mixed bag. It's a competent handler, gripping well through the corners and staying relatively flat thanks to its beefed-up suspension; however, the driver feels a little disconnected from the driving experience. The steering, while precise, lacks feel, and the brakes feel a little lifeless. On the plus side, the close-ratio gearbox is a joy to use, offering precise and direct shifts.
So, is it game over for the pro_cee'd GT? Has Kia's first foray into the hot hatch market been a miss? Well, no, actually. You see, what the pro_cee'd lacks in dynamic sparkle, it makes up for in other areas.
For starters, just take a look at the styling. The standard pro_cee'd is a good looking car but by adding an aggressive front bumper, replete with a sporty red stripe, side skirts, a rear diffuser with twin exhausts and two-tone 18-inch alloys with red brake callipers, Kia has managed to avoid that common hot-hatch pitfall by bridging the gap between the gauche and the bland. It is -- no arguments please -- the best-looking car in the class.
It's a similar story on the inside. There's an all-pervading sense of genuine quality to the interior, from the soft-touch plastics to the excellent faux-suede Recaro sports seats. The leather steering wheel lends the cabin a pleasingly-focussed air while the floor-hinged accelerator pedal adds to the sporty feel. One criticism we would have of the cabin, however, is the fairly poor rear visibility, which is hampered by the thick C-pillars and the upward curve of the beltline aft of the front windows.
Two versions of the pro_cee'd GT are available: the GT we have here and the GT Tech. The lower-spec GT model comes with air-conditioning, a six-speaker radio, cruise control, automatic lights, rear parking sensors, Bluetooth and an impressive LCD instrument binnacle which shows both turbo boost level and torque output.
Upgrading to the GT Tech model costs a further £2,500 and adds a touchscreen seven-inch sat-nav, a reversing camera, heated front seats and steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, keyless start and rain-sensing wipers.
We were less than impressed with the car's economy. Kia claims the pro_cee'd GT will manage 38.2mpg and 171g/km of CO2, and while that isn't too bad for a hot hatch, it falls short of the benchmark set by some of its rivals. What's more, on a relaxed motorway jaunt from Birmingham to Milton Keynes, I struggled to coax more than 33mpg out of it.
You should be able to squeeze a couple of six-footers in the back and, thanks to a generous 380-litre boot there should be space for their luggage too. One thing we were less impressed with, however, was the pro_cee'd GT's key. Our press car had covered less than 9,000 miles when we got our hands on it but the key was giving us the distinct impression it was about to to fall to bits.
Thankfully, like all Kias, the pro_cee'd GT is covered by the firm's impressive seven-year warranty, so any reliability worries you might have should largely be put to rest.
So, should you buy one? Well, if you're looking for a car which can match the likes of the Focus ST, the Renaultsport Megane and the Golf GTI, then no. However, while the Golf GTI costs more than £26k, the entry-level GT starts from just £19,995. That's more than £6,000 less and, whichever way you cut it, that's a lot of moola.
But I don't want to give you the impression that the pro_cee'd GT can only compete by virtue of its bargain-basement price -- far from it. Dynamic shortcomings aside, it's more than a match for the far more expensive class-leaders and if Kia solves this issue with its next hot hatch, VW, Ford and Renault should be very, very worried indeed.
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| The Carsite Verdict | |
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Kia's first hot hatch is a credible all-rounder, if not quite a match for the class best. |
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Kia pro_cee'd 1.6 Petrol T-GDi GT
Engine: 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol
Price: £19,995
Power: 201bhp
0-62mph: 7.4 seconds
Top speed: 143 mph
Fuel economy 38.2mpg (combined)
CO2 emissions: 171g/km
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