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-   -   Kia Sonet : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/226966-kia-sonet-official-review-2.html)

WOW, this is almost up there with an official review.

Is there a bad orange peel effect on the paint? Looks so in this picture. I heard the paint for KIA cars are currently imported and not using the ones made here locally.

Excellent drive review - much more succinct and crisp than all the YouTube Membo-jumbo reviews that have all landed. The Diesel auto looks to be good for most conditions but not quite as enthusiastic as I expected. The Zigwheels review has a 0-100 time of 11.85 seconds but the Motorbeam review has VBox test which says the Sonet Diesel AT does 0-100 in 10.65 seconds, in the Sport mode, which is closer to what I was expecting.

Just one clarification - The Sonet does not come in GT line as GTE, GTK or GTX - there is only a GTX+ top end model in the GT line.

Err there is a mistake in the review. There's only one variant in GT Line and that's the GTX+. The rest are all HT Line going HTE/HTK/HTK+/HTX/HTX+.

A few observations from me today as a 6 foot 3 person:
If a 6 footer is using the front seat pushed all the way back there is no way another 6 footer can get into the rear seat. I tried it and my knees protruded from either side of the front seats. Its uncomfortable.

The front seats for some reason don't feel as comfortable(or supportive) as the ones in the Seltos or Creta.

Headroom is very limited especially with the sunroof up front. There's less than an inch to the roof liner. The headroom in the back is a bit better than that.

It feels like in order to claim the best bootspace in the segment they decided to sacrifice legroom in the back seat. Seats did feel a bit upright. Passengers on long trips may complain. Underthigh support was fair for this class which for me is pretty useless.

Its a good city car and if you're 6 foot or over and want a daily commuter with very rare use of rear seats this is the one you want. Its put together rather well inside and out.

Test drives start next week.

Excellent sneak-peek into the Sonet @Aditya. Rating the thread 5*.

MSIL is now claiming that diesels are not worth it, Hyundai is offering diesel ATs. The customer makes the final choice :)

Front parking sensors make sense in Endeavours and Fortuners, never thought I'd see them in a sub 4-m car. Goes to show to what extent Kia is hungry for success - very cheap to implement and makes customer extremely happy.

Fantastic first drive review. I was stuck between the New Honda City VX AT and either the turbo dct or diesel auto of the Kia Sonet in the top trim. I was waiting only to hear the neutral comments on the ride quality from our very own teambhp forum. Felt the same in the test drive. The Honda city is definitely more plush at low speeds and was about to cancel the booking for the Sonet until the last week rain bashing in Pune seeing the sedan owners struggle to wade through the water. Your review has nailed it. Going to stick with my booking and buy the diesel AT GTX+. Hopefully, I should get my car allotted as soon as it's launched since I had booked on the first day.

The Blue looks smashing but the dealership has already mentioned it is made to order and will have atleast 45 days additional waiting over other colours. I will most likely go for Silver or White with black roof(if it's available in the diesel) since I am currently without a car after selling my 2016 preworshipped Vento Diesel AT. Expected onroad price in Pune is around 15.5 lakhs for the Diesel AT.

Kia is just getting started where Hyundai is peaking. The products are amazing, well finished and how!

They have the pulse of the customer in the perfect sense of the word. Sonet is that perfect city + highway car for the uban small family, or that well to do professional looking for a perfect lifestyle commute. The Diesel-AT, even better (Especially non-DCT). I am sure many top-end small hatch AT buyers for that second car, would also move onto this segment without a hitch! Earlier with just the Venue, there were not many options. But I guess this will open the segment and blur the lines.

I have not driven the car yet, but based on what I see, I really like it !

Here's a slide from the presentation we were given.

Acceleration Figures: (Courtesy Autocar, Overdrive & Motorbeam)

The Diesel AT is indeed an impressive performer. Although in reality, it is probably faster than the Autocar numbers (Autocar admits that it was a "quick test")

I think the Motorbeam numbers are closer to reality since it seems to be better executed - each drive mode is tested as well as it mentions a VBOX test. I would expect the engine+gearbox to be able to do close to 10 seconds to 100.

Overdrive numbers seem iffy. For example, they have the Petrol iMT performing better than the Petrol DCT in acceleration! This has never been the case in other comparative tests of the two engines so far. Also the WGT-equipped Diesel Manual outperforming the VGT Diesel-AT in acceleration is also hard to fathom. So is the lower fuel efficiency of the Diesel Manual on highways as compared to the Diesel AT. The Diesel manual is supposed to be 25% more fuel efficient than the Auto according to ARAI. Looks like Overdrive mixed may have up some rows and columns in production.

I heard in one of the video reviews that a proper manual is not available in the petrol turbo GTX variant. Is that really the case? And if so, is that really a smart decision to push iMT sales over proper manual option?

So a quick shift DCT and a turbo is no match for the higher low end torque of diesel. Guess this battle is lost in the first 4-5 seconds !

So Sonet D AT is 11.48 sec(10.65 in sports mode) vs Seltos' 12.91 in 0-100 with same engine, power to weight ratio in play there.

I plan to book this sometime. Which one would be better - Diesel AT or Petrol DCT?

Still the confusion is not cleared. Attaching the official brochure shared by a Kia representative which shows only GTX + in the GT line header:confused:

He has just reconfirmed only GTX+ in GT line. Seems like a slip-up in the presentation shared by Kia to auto journos.

The brochure will be of variants available at launch however the presentation mentions GT line variants possible which means that in the future could see GTE and GTK. At launch only GTX+.

The presentations do sometimes tell us more than what is there at launch.

Media presentations will very rarely have a slip up. I haven't seen one till now.

My guess is they used the Seltos slide by mistake in the Sonet presentation Aditya attended. The point seems to be to highlight the differences in positioning (in general) between the HT and GT lines of Kia as a company. They seem to make a big deal of it, but this is very vague and poorly defined conceptually as far as product line positioning goes. For Korean companies, marketing has always been an afterthought, they win on the basis of their price, product and bling and not on marketing, so I would excuse this.

For example, the slide says - "HT line is Premium Looking, Family Oriented, Comfort and Technology" while "GT line is Sporty Design, Youth Oriented, Design & Innovative Features, Young at Heart". My marketing professor at B-School would have fainted! There are so many flaws with this relative positioning of the lines:

• Youth cannot afford to spend as much on cars as families. So generally, you start the "youth-oriented" (GT) product line lower in the price range but instead it is the most premium.
• "Young at heart" is generally used to peddle products to the older people, in this case they are targeting the GT line at both "youth" and "young at heart":uncontrol
• "Technology" and "Innovative features" - there is a heavy overlap and these cannot be used to differentiate the two lines
• The HT line is supposed to be more "premium looking" but most premium features are reserved for the GT line in both Seltos and Sonet.

As long as they sell big volumes of the product (which they will), the marketing department will win a lot of awards and be assured lifetime employment.

Yes, the T-GDi seems to be equipped only with the iMT/DCT transmission even on the top end.

Whether that is a smart businesses decision or not will be something that can be understood over the course of the next few months.