The Kia K4 Sport+ starts from $37,590. Photo: James Coleman.
The Kia Cerato is most likely one of the reasons the Korean car brand still exists.
This little sedan and hatchback has done a lot of the heavy lifting for Kia – raking in more than 200,000 sales over the 20 years it’s been on sale here, making up more than 20 per cent of all Kias.
In 2024 alone, more than 15,500 new Ceratos were registered here, making it the brand’s second best seller behind the Sportage SUV, and the nation’s second most popular small car behind the Toyota Corolla.
You’d think this would not be the sort of track record you’d interrupt by, say, completely changing the name and styling. That’d be like redoing the layout of the iPhone’s Photos app (oh, wait …).
And yet, the low-slung piece of futuristic, cartoonish, Back-to-the-Future-vision-of-2015-looking metal you see here is the new Kia K4 – the Cerato’s direct successor.
At its launch in January, Kia Australia said it expected “the transition to [the K4] should be pretty seamless” and it hoped to sell between 8000 and 9000 this year alone.
And I expect it to be right. Because it is genuinely brilliant.
The K4 costs more than the Cerato, by between $4000 and $6700 depending on the model. The base S starts at $30,590 while the burger-with-the-lot GT-Line starts at $42,990 (my mid-range Sport+ starts at $37,590).
For too long, sedans have been the cars no-one bothers with. A nip here, a tuck there, and it’s sent out into the world again as a ‘new model’. Not here.
Kia has completely redone the looks, with the same long headlights we’ve seen on the EV9 SUV and Carnival people-mover brought to bear here – and with striking effect. I also love the squared-off haunches in the rear and somehow the sheared-off window line works too.
Inside continues the theme, with its glossy grey-coloured leather, AC vent running as a line across the whole dash, and old-fashioned gear lever. The ‘KIA’ font is even off to the side of the steering wheel, like it’s 1984 again. It’s incredibly roomy too – you could hold a party in the back seats.
Going back in time – in a good way. Photo: James Coleman.
I spent a few days driving a Cerato some years ago. And I was left whelmed – neither over, neither under – by the experience.
The K4 is similar. As a sedan, it has the laws of physics on its side in the way a higher-spring SUV doesn’t. And it is nippy, but only in little bursts once you’ve persuaded the six-speed automatic gearbox to change down by stamping around in the footwell.
It gets a bit annoying how economical it tries to be, which is why I spent most of my week in Sport mode – where the gearbox allows the engine to actually rev to the point you can get places.
All the lower grades, including mine, make do with a 2-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine, which consumes a claimed hip-pocket-pleasing 7.4 litres per 100 km of fuel.
Meanwhile, the GT-Line scores a turbocharged 1.6-litre and Kia Australia is still lobbying hard to get a hybrid version here – currently only available in overseas markets. Either of these would do the job better.
As with all its siblings, Kia Australia’s engineers have gone over the suspension to make sure it can handle our shoddy roads – and they’ve done good work. It’s maybe a little jittery over small bumps, but everything major is soaked up with aplomb.
The steering wheel might be plastic in mine, but it also feels really good and surprisingly weighty for an around-town car.
The usual complaint is the beeping and bonging safety tech. But thanks to a recent update, you can at least silence the speed limit alert by holding down the mute button for two seconds. A morning frost over the windscreen-mounted camera also helps.
And maybe it was just my seating position, but the touch AC controls – to the right of the main touch screen – tend to hide behind the steering wheel. I also rediscovered why my family recently decided to defer to the dark side and buy an SUV – getting kids into and out of such a low car makes the lower back twinge slightly.
Kia could have gone down the basic route with its Cerato replacement. But it didn’t – and for that, I wish it all the best.
The Kia K4 makes every other sedan look dull. Photo: James Coleman.
2025 Kia K4 Sport+
- $37,590 plus driveaway costs
- 2-litre 4-cyl petrol engine, 112 kW / 192 Nm
- 6-speed automatic, front-wheel drive (FWD)
- 7.4 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption (combined)
- 1355 kg
- Not yet rated for safety
Thanks to Kia Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with Kia Australia.
