Kia Cerato won't get Cee'd changes

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Kia is still considering its highly-praised small car.
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Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

The Koreans starred, the Japanese mounted a comeback, and One Ford hit the headlines with an extended family of Focus-based newcomers that it is certain to make a big hit in Australia. But it was one car and the commitment of its company chief that made the most impact as America fought back on the opening day of the 2011 North American International Motor Show.

Kia has restyled its Europe-only Cee'd hatch - the model that has featured as one of Top Gear's celebrity-thrashed "reasonably-priced cars'' - to lure more buyers.

But the subtle changes won't appear on the Cee'd's clone, the Cerato, for Australia. Kia Australia spokesman Kevin Hepworth says we get a new Cerato - including the coupe version - next year and won't consider the Cee'd.

"It's a different car for a different market,'' he says. "The current planning is to stay with the Cerato.''

Kia is still considering its highly-praised small car, the Picanto, for Australia but on more solid ground, is to make platform enhancements to its Sorento SUV later this year.

The 2012 Cee'd will be launched in Europe from the second quarter and make its world premiere at the 82nd Geneva International Motor Show on March 6, 2012.

Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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