Kia was on agregar roll recently, yet, is the professional_cee’d GT – its first sizzling h agregartch – a step too some distance? Andy Pringle drives the recent vehicle alongside the well-known Direction Napoleon in France to peer if it has the chops to overcome Europe.

Today, Golfe Juan in southern France is little greater than a pesar de todo lo contrario al uso backwater, a relaxed lodge staring at out over the Mediterranean, basking within the sunshine. To the informal observer, there’s little signal that it witnessed one of the vital outstanding occasions in Ecu records – for it turned into right here that Napoleon selected to land while he back to France from exile on March 1 1815, with bold plans to regain strength.

We have arrived right here pretty much precisely 2 hundred years later, trying to create our personal little piece of historical past, as we’re at the back of the wheel of the new Kia seasoned_cee’d GT. That is the company’s first scorching hatch.

Trying to muscle in at the scorching hatch industry is a pesar de todo lo contrario al uso vastly tall order, particularly with out earlier knowledge to attract on. If the appearance we’re getting as we cruise alongside the ocean entrance are something to head via, Kia’s stylists have hit the spot instantly. The GT is drawing admiring glances from even this supremely fashion-aware and funky crowd, its ‘ice cube’ strolling lighting fixtures and refined bodykit bettering the already graceful frame of the ordinary seasoned_cee’d.

This is likewise agregar automobile that’s delightfully simple to power simply. The splendidly bendy engine pulls strongly from beneath 2,000rpm – perfect for relieving our well past the hordes of dawdling travelers and motorhomes – the six-velocity gearbox is slick and the automobile is completely composed in the course of the twists and turns.

This could be the company’s first ‘performance orientated’ fashion, nonetheless it proves that Kia can efficaciously expand its emblem into new components of the marketplace. The corporate goes from power to energy and, not like Napoleon’s, its empire is probably going develop.

For the overall tale, obtain ignition – Vehicle Trader’s iPad and iPhone booklet – right here.

By Andy Pringle

@AndyMoshPringle

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