After having been seen undisguised last week, the Kia Cerato facelift has made its debut in its home market of South Korea. The C-segment sedan boasts a new look, a more economical 1.6 litre engine and some tweaks to enhance the driving experience.
We’ve seen the new exterior design before, but let’s have a more in-depth look this time around. The more angular front end design incorporates a broader, slimmer “tiger nose” grille that’s mounted lower, while the headlights have also been made wider and sleeker. Lower down, the air intakes and fog lights have been streamlined, and BMW-esque air curtain intakes as seen on the new Optima also make an appearance here.
At the rear, there are redesigned tail light graphics for both bulb-type and LED units (with the indicators and reverse lights that sit on the bottom edge instead of on top), along with a new, simpler black rear apron design. New two-tone wheel designs complete the aesthetic.
Fewer changes are apparent inside, with a flat-bottomed steering wheel, revised instrument cluster display graphics, redesigned switchgear, new faux carbon fibre pattern around the air vents and a smattering of chrome and gloss black highlights being the only discernible updates.
More can be found under the bonnet – the domestic market 1.6 litre Gamma GDI four-cylinder engine is slightly less powerful than before (132 PS vs 140 PS, 161 Nm vs 167 Nm), but promises improved fuel economy of 14.3 km per litre, 0.3 km per litre better than before. It remains to be seen if our range of 1.6 litre and 2.0 litre MPI models will see similar improvements.
The six-speed automatic gearbox now includes a drive mode selector with three modes (Sport, Normal and Eco), while the processing unit of the speed-sensitive motor driven power steering (MDPS) has been upgraded from 16 bit to 32 bit, bringing increased steering responsiveness. Pricing of the new Cerato in South Korea starts from 15.21 million won (RM56,100), rising up to 20.95 million won (RM77,200).
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I prefer the pre facelift front but with the facelift end.
Interesting..
I prefer the new front that looks like the previous Forte
With the preface lift’s rear lava lamp tail lights
The dashboard still looks cheap and awful
The rear leg and headroom is still unacceptable
I drive my gf’s kia forte btw
Her six speed auto has weird ratios and slow
Hope the new one improves
Kimchi no need so expensive lar. Buy from me better. Don’t waste your money on depreciation. As I always said, as long as it is kimchi, it will not have RV.
bodoh Malaysian Govenment. Our GDP per capita so many times lower than South Korea. South Korea PPP and GDP Per Capita is so much higher than us, yet, they pay so much cheaper for this car.
Kampung people still say BN Prihatin and blind
My gf’s Kia Forte is RM75k and cheaper than Toyota Vios and comes with a lot of comfort creature kits and safety equipments.
Most of all I know she is safe because the car got airbags, ESP traction control and solid build quality – solid besi and not tin milo.
I value life more than car resale value. Money can find, life how to find?
I will give Lexus to my girlfriend, you work harder kimchi driver. I am getting my 4th Lexus next month.
Good luck when the car breakdown in the middle of the night
If u dun know RV, dun talk abt RV. Altis RM110k and Cerato RM80k. This funny Sam is dumb enough to happy about his Altis have RV RM30k higher then Cerato. RV is the $$ you pay upfront to the Toyota.
Malaysians kena tipu puas puas. The price here is way more than the actual price of the car. All this to feed Najis and his fancy lifestyle
For you to consider:
1. Brandnew Aphard 2.4L(similarly low spec as Starex) at RM340K. After 5 years, to be sold at rm190K, depreciation RM150K.
2. Brandnew Starex Royale at RM170K. To be sold at RM50k after 5 years (you hope there is a buyer for your mpv). Depreciation RM120k.
So the brandnew Alphard is only RM30K more expensive than the Starex, just that you need to fork out more upfront.
In Malaysia, your branded used vehicles have good RV which partially offset their high purchase prices. You cannot get such good RV in US and Japan, please study the good-grade recond car prices.
RM56k-77k price ? Bullcrap.
No thanks to crazy car tax in the name of protecting Jaguh kampung.
Both Jaguh kampung and the Koreans practice protectionism tax structure to shield their local automotive industry from direct competition during the initial stage.
Decades later, the Koreans succeeded, selling millions of cars globally. Jaguh Kampung can’t even penetrate its neighbour Thailand, selling 6, only 6 cars from Jan – Nov 2015! Don’t believe? Have a click and see how pathetic jaguh kampung in Thailand! : http://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/salesfig_thailand_2015
Meanwhile, jaguh kampung has long tutup kedai in Europe, coz that stupid Cam tak Pro is never in compliance to Euro 6 standard. Even in such dire stage, jaguh kampung is still on relax mode, making lousy junk quality hampeh car day in day out, business as usual. Jaguh kampung never care about creating value, its “bini and crony” business philosophy manifested in its junk quality cars is very much evidence.
No wonder even domestic market is rejecting this jaguh kampung brand, sales dropping every year despite launching one junk after another. Don’t believe? Please click and have a good look, stats and numbers never lies: http://paultan.org/2015/01/16/proton-perodua-market-share-falls-below-foreign-brands/2014-malaysia-market-share/
Oh ya, the Koreans never sell inferior spec cars at a higher price to its local market and ask its own people to subsidise their export market. In Malaysia, jaguh kampung do this to our own people all the time. Fanboys will never get it, no matter how many evidence, stats and numbers you give them, they are practically blind.
Still no clue if it’s with tax or not in South Korea
thats price is for korean..
cerato RM56-77k in korea
preve RM57-73k in Bolehland
both is local c segment in their respective country.
If we all say Preve is overprice, dont u feel KIA is overprice in their own country oso?
Only Perodua overprice
If u look at the spec, u know preve is overpriced.
Of course I will take Cerato over Preve if the price same here.
How about you, hypocrite?
what nonsense are you talking about? Do you know Koreans GDP Per Capita is one of the highest in the world?
Only bodoh people fall for the tricks of the government telling them that other countries are pricey and direct convert the prices to RM.
Pakai hotak lah and see how much they earn
China has lower GDP but their car cheaper than Korea..Japan GDP is even higher than korea but their car even cheaper than korea
In fact, Korea GDP is higher than Japan now..
Is this what they teach you in UiTM?
What is more difficult kzm? S*cking on najib’s d1ck or being a complete moron.
I never said I support bijan..
with that price tag, P1 & P2 will tutup kedai.
UMW and honda will have to reduce price too.
dont u think..Cerato is overprice in their country? Bolehland with high tax preve is around RM57-73k.. korea with less tax Cerato price almost similar with preve in bolehland. i mean local to local pricing.
what nonsense you talking? In their country, work 12 months in normal job also can buy this car outright. No need loan.
Here, you can ah? pakai hotak lah
While Proton does pay excise tax, they got most of it back in terms of tax credits due to high level of localisation. (Meaning Proton’s actual tax bill is lower than other competing brands)
Other cars like Kia Malaysia for example are only assembled here, so they don’t get much tax credits.
But I do agree South Korea protects their local automotive companies strongly. But then again Kia and Hyundai weren’t mismanaged as Proton was, and despite South Korea’s protectionist measures they don’t go all out in saving a doomed company like Daewoo (GM) and Ssanyong(Mahindra).
Actually,Kia is not bad..at least many times better than Protong.
However,Naza in Bolehland is a complete disaster.
They are more interested in property development now.
Look at their dwindling sales.Thats why they chopped 300 poor staff at Gurun.
If the dead tycoon is alive today….he will be very angry cos his pet project is an automotive empire.His empire is crumbling.Even Mazda has overtaken KIA now.
Its high time KIA change their distributor here.No point continuing with a property tycoon here.
BORING. ok next.
Is it with tax, or not?
Sometimes you guys like to mislead on that.
exterior nicely done, but not the interior. overall still nice looking car
They should have done a side-lift as well and correct that rearward-facing Nike tick that makes the car look like it’s rolling backwards while standing still
Maybe the next gen cerato will evolve into a pickup truck since kia has no firm design language
This Celaka trying to be comfy like Altis but failed badly.
Just look at the amount of new Altis on the road compared to the Celaka. Not to say the new Altis only launched not long ago.
Kimchi is still a kimchi that has no RV.
Altis are sh*te. can’t even beat old Opel Manta & VW Golf Mk3
It has beaten for ages, the Corolla is the world top selling car.
If it’s selling at RM50-60k price range here, i would consider Cerato over Preve. Because Japanese is too luxury to own. I can only afford local, korean or chinese brand.
Work harder to reward yourself with a sushi car, else a used sushi car can also drive perfectly fine.
No money. So have to take risk buying a used 2005 Sonata RM6500 (2005 Accord RM35000)
Bolehland PPP earning is less than Korean and yet we pay at least double for the same quality of product locally…what a pity to us..
We have IRIZ for around the same price here…the so-called proud national product, which capitalized on rakyat’s contribution for 20+ years..ends up cronies biggest winner, but all workers, consumers suffered..
Yet, majority think that is ok…since is a “learn to catch fish and given fish” scenario for years, and majority will expect fish to be given…thats why the cronies system will be supported forever…
Get an elantra instead. Trade in price slightly higher at RM30k for a 12 month old unit