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Kia Stonic GT-Line 2022 review: long-term

It's so-long to the Stonic, my pandemic partner during lockdown (image: Andrew Chesterton)

It might be Kia's smallest SUV, but the Stonic GT-Line is big on personality. But is that enough to put it at the top of your micro-SUV shopping list? Our man Chesto puts it to the urban family test to find out.

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Part 1: July 2021

Ok, so it's fair to say that it's a strange time to be running a long-term vehicle in Sydney. Road-trips are a distant memory, our very best driving roads are sitting lonely and empty of traffic, and the concept of a long-distance test has been shrunk to a 5km circle around our homes. 

But there is another way to look at it, and that is that I've never depended on a vehicle quite so much as I have the Kia Stonic GT-Line. 

When you can only go to the shops, getting their and back has been critically important, plus it's taken me to my vaccination appointments, piped the ritual 11am press conference through its in-cabin speakers, and – perhaps most important – been responsible for picking up more take-away pizzas, Thai food and bottles of wine than I had ever thought possible.

Short version? We might not be travelling far, but I find myself bonding with my little Kia like few cars before it. Plus, I managed to wrack up some kays before lockdown really set in.

Kia's smallest SUV is barely bigger than a city car. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton Kia's smallest SUV is barely bigger than a city car. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton

But first, what the hell is it? Kia's smallest SUV, the Stonic stretches the very definition of SUV, with dimensions barely bigger than a city car. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for with a seriously stylish exterior design and a mostly well-equipped cabin, especially in this GT-Line trim level.

The Stonic measures 1520mm in hight and 1760mm in width, which makes its marginally taller and wider than the Rio hatchback, which is 1450mm high and 1725mm wide. So in SUV terms, the Stonic is no giant.

Unsurprisingly, it's front-wheel drive, and there is seating for five (though more likely four if you're transporting adults), and there is 352 litres (VDA) of space in its clever little boot. 

Our car, the GT-Line, sits at the tippy top of the Stonic family, above the entry-level S and mid-spec Sport, and it's the only model in the family to make use of Kia's most-clever engine.

The GT-Line, sits at the tippy top of the Stonic family. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton. The GT-Line, sits at the tippy top of the Stonic family. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton.

While the lesser grades get a 1.4-litre, four-cylinder petrol paired with a six-speed auto or six-speed manual, the GT-Line gets a clever 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol that not only makes more power (74kW and 172Nm versus 74kW and 133Nm), but also requires less fuel (5.4L/100km versus 6.0-6.7L/100km).

But... you do have to pay for it. The Stonic range kicks off with the S for $21,490 (manual) or $22,990 (auto), before stepping up to the Stonic Sport for $24,990 (manual) or $25,990 (auto). Our car, the GT-Line, is then a fairly sizeable jump to $29,990.

The Stonic measures 1520mm in hight and 1760mm in width. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton. The Stonic measures 1520mm in hight and 1760mm in width. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton.

But for that, you do get a fair bit of stuff. There's the engine and gearbox, of course, as well as the range-wide 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

You also get the best of the Sport model's kit, including 17-inch alloys, a proximity key with push-button start, sat-nav, digital radio and a more upmarket-feeling cabin.

But springing for the GT-Line also unlocks some of its own features, some of which seriously improve the street appeal, like the GT bodykit, the LED lights, DRLs, and fog-lights, and the massive sunroof. 

You also get a sportier-feeling steering wheel, better-feeling seats and on-board climate control, as well as three driving modes (Eco, Normal and Sport).

The GT-Line has a sportier-feeling steering wheel. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton. The GT-Line has a sportier-feeling steering wheel. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton.

All of which is why the Stonic GT-Line does a pretty good impression of a premium vehicle for front-seat riders, even if some of the cabin materials (and especially on the door panels and centre console that divides the seats) are a harsh plastic that is unforgiving to the touch.

Still, there are two cupholders, which match the big bottle holder in each door, and connecting your device is easy and intuitive. 

However, those in the less-than-massive rear pews make do with a more basic space, free of air-vents, cupholders and power outlets, and with just a single USB port to share.

That said, I reckon I’ve got a fair handle on the Stonic’s buyer. If yours is a bigger family, you’re no-doubt shopping further up the Kia tree. Same if you have lots of people or stuff to cart around regularly.

Those in the less-than-massive rear pews make do with a more basic space. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton. Those in the less-than-massive rear pews make do with a more basic space. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton.

The Stonic, I reckon, is aimed pretty squarely at my wife and I: a city-dwelling couple with no kids, one dog, and a penchant for the kinds of adventures that rarely see us leaving tarmac roads.

And for us, the space has proved ample to date, with the not-massive boot still able to swallow all the shopping, picnic gear, tennis stuff and everything else we’ve thrown at it to date — save a trip to Bunnings in which the items were too long to fit in, even on an angle, so ended up thrown across the backseat instead.

So, the size is right (for us), and I do swoon a little when I catch a glimpse of its exterior styling, but that’s not to say there haven’t been a couple of queries to date.

The Stonic is a small family car for those with a penchant for adventures that rarely leave the tarmac roads. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton. The Stonic is a small family car for those with a penchant for adventures that rarely leave the tarmac roads. Image Credit: Andrew Chesterton.

The engine/gearbox combo is undoubtedly clever, and I love the way the three-pot sounds, but it hasn’t proven the smoothest combination I’ve driven so far, and there’s plenty of lag on set-off that you need to contend with, or at least get used to. 

One other thing, and this is an annoyance rather than a problem, but the Stonic auto-locks every door once you start moving, which makes sense, but to unlock them you don’t just need to put the vehicle in park, but also kill the engine. Which means if you stop to pick someone up, or run into a shop to grab something to throw into the boot, you find yourself locked out and looking a bit of a dill. 

Far from a deal-breaker, I know, but there you have it. 

Still, our early weeks with the Stonic have been mostly sunshine-filled, and I haven’t grown tired of just looking at it yet.

But how will its little engine deal with daily grind of lockdown life? And will its fuel economy really live up to the promise? Tune in next time, friends. Same CarsGuide time. Same CarsGuide channel.

Acquired: July 2021

Distance travelled this month: 453km

Odometer: 2885km

Average fuel consumption for July: 8.8L/100

Part 2: August 2021

If you live in one of this country’s ever-more cramped and confined cities, and you buy a vehicle that offers more space, more seating and more size than you actually need, then I think it’s time we had a little chat. 

Because I must admit, when I first climbed behind the wheel of the bite-sized Kia Stonic, I thought it was going to be too small for me, despite the fact my little urban family consists only of myself, my wife and a cat-sized corgi. 

It’s not that it’s cramped in the driver or passenger seat, mind. But more that we had recently climbed out of the bigger Kia Seltos, and thought that downsizing meant we’d also need to downsize out lifestyles, too. 

We’re of an age now where a super-exciting weekend involves a trip to Flower Power, and another to Bunnings, followed by several hours accidentally killing the plants we’ve just dropped a mortgage payment on. So while we don’t have kids to cart around, boot space is important. 

And, on paper at least, the boot space in the Stonic is a little underwhelming. There’s 352 litres on offer with the seats in place, swelling to 1155 litres with them folded flat, but a fairly high shelf (there's a spare beneath it) means the space isn’t all that deep, making loading taller items (like plants, for example) a little more challenging to squeeze in.

The boot space in the Stonic is a little underwhelming (image: Andrew Chesterton). The boot space in the Stonic is a little underwhelming (image: Andrew Chesterton).

That's less than the Nissan Juke, for example, which delivers 422 litres of space, and marginally less than the Hyundai Venue, which offers 355 litres. It does, however, make the Mazda CX-3 seem tiny, with its 264 litres.

But remember, we’d recently had a Seltos, which delivers around 25 per cent more boot space with the rear seats in place, and even eye-balling the storage area in the Stonic left us feeling like we’d been a littler short-changed. 

But every downside has an up, and vice versa, and having now spent several months behind the wheel of the Stonic I can tell you that maybe - maybe - twice we’ve had to rethink our weekend adventures based on what we can reasonably lug home from the hardware store. 

And on the flip-side, we take advantage of the Stonic’s diminutive dimensions (we’ve covered this before, but the Stonic measures 1520mm in height and 1760mm in width, which makes its marginally taller and wider than the Rio hatchback, which is 1450mm high and 1725mm wide) every time we leave the house. 

The Stonic measures 1520mm in height and 1760mm in width (image: Andrew Chesterton). The Stonic measures 1520mm in height and 1760mm in width (image: Andrew Chesterton).

Don’t believe me? Look at the parking photo I’ve attached. I had smugly watched several large vehicles eye-off the space longingly before continuing their dejected circling of the carpark. But the Stonic? Not a problem. It was in the space with room to spare before you could blink.

We take advantage of the Stonic’s diminutive dimensionse very time we leave the house (image: Andrew Chesterton). We take advantage of the Stonic’s diminutive dimensionse very time we leave the house (image: Andrew Chesterton).

It’s small, light and easy to drive, and while the nine-point-something litres per hundred we’ve been averaging is a little higher than we’d expect — and certainly higher than the claimed combined figure of 5.4L/100km — but it’s liveable, and even more so given our lives have been confined to the city for months (which Kia says should return 6.4L/100km).

We could shop bigger, of course. And we’d pay more money for more space, probably have a higher fuel bill, and — on a bad day — could even find ourselves joining that sad, circling procession looking for a jumbo parking spot. And is that worth an extra package or two from Bunnings? I’m not so sure. 

It’s all relative, of course, and the examples I’m giving are relative to me, and my child-free life. The Stonic is not a family car, nor does it pretend to be. But I reckon the same philosophy applies no matter who you are, or what your family looks like. 

If you’ve got two kids, do you need a three-row seven-seater? If you have only seen pictures of the outback, and if your idea of camping is slumming it in any hotel with less than four stars, then do you need that super-expensive off-roader? And if you’re a young(ish….) couple, do you really need a vehicle bigger than the Stonic?

It’s a bit like the extra-bedroom crisis that plagues our cities. The theory is that big families need big houses, which makes sense, but eventually those kids all move out, leaving just two people rattling around these massive four- and five-bed homes. The problem is that the longer they stay in them rather than downsizing to something that suits their new needs, the longer the next-generation of young families are locked out of them.

So I ask you, CarsGuide readers, what do you really need from your next new car?

Acquired: July 2021

Distance travelled this month: 375km

Odometer: 3360km

Average fuel consumption for July: 9.7L/100

Part 3: December, 2021

I'm going to let you in on a little not-so-secret secret about those of us in the car-review profession: you can begin to take new cars a little for granted.

Now to be fair, that's normally that's a good thing. Because we see so many new cars so often, it takes more than a whiff of that new-car smell or a fancy touchscreen to impress us, and so our scores are always more than skin-deep.

But when the flood of new cars slowed to a trickle during lockdown, and then became a drought altogether, and you tend to look at your wheels as more than a job. You begin to look at them as something of a lifeline.

The GT Line is good looking with it's chunky, nuggety stance. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) The GT Line is good looking with it's chunky, nuggety stance. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

And so it was that the Kia Stonic GT Line long-term test car I'm saying goodbye to today became more than just a vehicle. It took my wife and I to our vaccination shots, to our doctor's appointments, to those all-too-rare outings to the supermarket when we were largely locked-down.

So yes, the bond is strong with this one. And to be frank, there are far worse cars to live with long-term than Kia's smallest SUV.

The car you see in these picture is the Stonic GT Line, which - at almost $30k - is far and away the most expensive vehicle in the Stonic line-up. But it's also far and away the best looking in the Stonic family.

The Stonic GT Line cost almost $30k. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) The Stonic GT Line cost almost $30k. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

But I would argue it’s not just the best-looking Stonic, but that it's good-looking, period, with it's chunky, nuggety stance, sharp-looking alloys and abundance of black cladding.

That is helped, of course, by the GT bodykit, the LED DRLs, the fog-lights and the sunroof, and the end result is a vehicle that, from the outside, doesn't look like an entry-level SUV.

But it's not all good news all the time. There are some reminders that you’re in a budget-friendly small SUV that’s been specced up. Some of the materials are hard and scratchy, backseat riders don’t get much in the way of love. And in the boot, lifting the spare-wheel-hiding shelf reveals an unsprayed metal boot lining.

Some materials inside are hard and scratchy. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) Some materials inside are hard and scratchy. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

Being the top-tier, most-expensive Stonic, you’d also expect the GT Line to get the best safety equipment, but actually Kia’s been pretty democratic when it comes to high-tech safety gear, basically ensuring no model missed out.

Apart from the usual braking and traction aids, you’ll find Hill Start Assist, a Forward Collision Warning system with AEB, Lane Keep Assist, Lane Follow Assist, a reversing camera, a driver fatigue monitor and a Lead Vehicle Departure Alert, which sounds a little warning chime when traffic ahead of you starts moving.

There is no active cruise control or blind-spot warnings, though, but you do get six airbags, two ISOFIX attachment points and three child-seat anchors. 

Backseat riders don’t get much in the way of love. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) Backseat riders don’t get much in the way of love. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

Oh, and ANCAP rated this SUV five stars, but it did that by adopting the five-star score for the Kia Rio, which goes to show just how closely related the brand’s bite-sized city hatch and this Stonic really are.

Can we talk ownership for a moment? The Stonic is covered by Kia’s seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with capped-price servicing throughout, which just about the best in the business. But the cost per service, and the time required between them, are a little higher than the norm.

You’ll need to visit the service centre every 12 months or 10,000kms, and Kia reckons you’ll pay a total $3314 for servicing over the first seven years of ownership, or an average of $474 per annum. 

Underneath the boot floor is a space-saver spare. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) Underneath the boot floor is a space-saver spare. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

The Toyota Yaris Cross is less than half that, at $215 per year for the first five years. Plus it requires servicing every 15,000kms. The Mazda CX-3 also requires a 10,000km service, but has an average cost of $351 per visit for the first five years. And the Volkswagen T-Cross, also extends the time between servicing to 15,000kms, though it averages out at $527 per year for the first five years. 

With lockdown finally properly lifted I had the opportunity to put the Stonic through its paces on some longer drives, and there’s a lot I like about the way the Kia Stonic GT Line handles itself, and a couple of things that I don’t. But let’s start with the positives, yes?

I’m a sucker for a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine, and this one’s pretty damn cool. Not only does it sound like it's having a whale of a time up there, but the output are actually plenty in a car that weighs around 1200kg. 

The 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine has plenty of power for a 1200kg car. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) The 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine has plenty of power for a 1200kg car. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

In all of our adventures, it’s never felt underpowered, nor have I found myself longing for more grunt. This no performance car, but the outputs match the ethos of the Stonic here, and it all just kind of makes sense.

But while I haven’t wished for more power, I have definitely wished for it to arrive more predictably.

One of my real bugbears is that, sometimes, and always when you least expect it, there’s a real power hole that appears when you plant your right foot.

From the outside, the Stonic doesn't look like an entry-level SUV. (image credit: Sarah Smaje) From the outside, the Stonic doesn't look like an entry-level SUV. (image credit: Sarah Smaje)

I suspect it’s got something to do with the stop-start system and the DCT gearbox not playing nicely together, and it doesn’t happen all the time, or even often, but there are definite moments when you find yourself waiting a beat or two for the power to arrive.

It’s one of the few driving complaints I’ve got, though. The Stonic is a very easy car to live with, owing in no small part to steering that’s light and easy, but not entirely disconnected, and a suspension tune that absorbs most road-issues easily.

So goodbye, Stonic. You'll be gone, but, given the madness of 2021, never forgotten.

Acquired: July 2021

Distance travelled this month: 844km

Odometer: 4104km

Average fuel consumption: 8.9L/100


The Wrap

The Kia Stonic might make you rethink how much SUV space you really need. It's a small and convincing package, and one that matched our urban lifestyle (two people, one dog, not kids) just fine.

Likes

Supermodel looks outside
Wants for little in terms of equipment
Clever engine makes more power with less

Dislikes

Basic set-up for backseat riders
Smooth driving takes practice
Self-locking doors surprisingly annoying

Scores

Andrew:

3.9

The Kids:

3.9

$22,290 - $34,990

Based on 200 car listings in the last 6 months

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