You buy a car, you spend hard earned cash and you are proud of what you have bought?
Right?
You want to stand out in the crowd and get a reaction.
Right?
Well buy a KIA Stonic, and trust me, you will stand out in crowed and you might even get pointed at few times, even few chuckles might be thrown your direction.
However, don’t let those unjustified laughters and belittling get you down, Stonic is an handsome car.
There I said it, to me it doesn’t have the hate and hate look of Nissan Juke, and you even get to choose 17in wheels and various roof options, and it’s around £600 cheaper than the Juke.
According to KIA, 60% of the buyers will opt for the Petrol version, which will have a 1 litre turbocharged three cylinder engine, but you do get the option of 1.4 or the 1.6 litre Diesel engine too.
Those of us that mainly drive around town won’t experience the stiffness of the diesel, and the 1.0-litre three-cylinder is more suited to urban surroundings anyway.
This little engine, also comes equipped with a turbocharger, which boosts the power to around 118bhp, which is around 20bhp more than the 1.4 engine.
In the interior, there is even more good news, the bottoms are all in the right place and easily accessible, even though you are some what perched lower than what it is these days considered normal sitting position for an SUV.
You get a pretty easy view from the front due to the slim front window pillars, and the view from the back isn’t too shabby either. However all Stonics come with rear parking sensor, unless you splash out and get yourself a reversing camera.
You get a decent 7.0in touchscreen and features including a DAB radio, Bluetooth and smartphone mirroring. This means that even if you buy the car without sat-nav, you can link up an Android or Apple phone and display the sat-nav through the car’s screen.
As for fuel economy, the 1.0 T-GDi managed a respectable 41.4mpg You will get more than 50mpg from the diesel Stonic.
No Stonic drops below 100g/km of CO2 emissions; the best performer is the diesel at 109g/km, while the worst is the 1.4 petrol at 125g/km. The 1.0 petrol manages a reasonable 115g/km.
