It's a comprehensive facelift rather than a new car, but, really, who among you could resist a pun when a freshly planted cee'd emerges? Sorry.
This is the post-facelift cee'd, which gets its debut in
Frankfurt next month. As you can see it gets a new nose, which to our eyes looks a whole lot prettier than the
current car's not unattractive face. Standard equipment gets a boost too, with a better stereo and dual-zone climate control the two improvements Kia mentions in the bumph accompanying these pictures. The dials are backlit in red too, and the centre console is redesigned.
Kia has overhauled the suspension as well, which should add another layer of refinement to the driving experience, while emissions and consumption reductions across the range are promised. The poster boy for cee'd environmentalism, however, is the new 'Intelligent Stop and Go' (ISG) version, which basically adds start/stop engine technology to the 1.6-litre diesel. We'll be driving that before its debut too, so we'll let you know how it works out.
Mark Nichol - 10 Aug 2009