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Kia Cerato vs Volkswagen Polo

What's the difference?

VS
Kia Cerato
Kia Cerato

$20,990 - $39,999

2022 price

Volkswagen Polo
Volkswagen Polo

$22,490 - $43,880

2022 price

Summary

2022 Kia Cerato
2022 Volkswagen Polo
Safety Rating

Engine Type
Turbo 4, 1.6L

Turbo 4, 2.0L
Fuel Type
Unleaded Petrol

Premium Unleaded Petrol
Fuel Efficiency
6.9L/100km (combined)

6.5L/100km (combined)
Seating
5

5
Dislikes
  • Harsh ride quality
  • Unrefined, noisy cabin
  • Ageing interior design

  • Solid service pricing
  • No rear centre armrest
  • No adjustable rear air vents
2022 Kia Cerato Summary

Three years after the fourth-generation Cerato small car rolled into Australian dealerships, Kia launched a mid-life facelift for the sedan and hatch range in mid-2021.

It ushered in styling tweaks including new headlights and Kia’s new logo, as well as more safety tech and a multimedia upgrade.

At the top of the range sits the warmed-up Cerato GT. It’s not quite Hyundai i30 N-level performance, more i30 N-Line. In other words, more than enough performance to keep most people satisfied and enough poke to get away quickly at the lights.

But is the updated version of Kia’s Cerato trying to be something it’s not, or is it a performance bargain?

Read on to find out.

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2022 Volkswagen Polo Summary

The hot hatch wars, an on-going automotive conflict, fired up when Volkswagen lobbed a massive, Golf GTI-shaped salvo into an unsuspecting global car market in the middle of 1976.

Peugeot may have run a bold out-flanking manoeuvre with deployment of the 205GTi from the mid-1980s, and other skirmishes broke out soon after with the likes of Suzuki’s Swift GTi, but so far the German maker has retained majority ownership of those three little letters that mean so much.

Fast forward to 1995 and application of the GTI tag spread to the compact VW Polo, which close to three decades later brings us to the current, sixth-generation version.

It arrived in Australia in 2018, and four years down the track it’s time for an update, with subtle cosmetic tweaks and a significant safety upgrade included.

Volkswagen Australia invited us to the car’s local launch including a varied drive program, topped off with a hot-lap track session, to get a first taste of how it shapes up.

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Deep dive comparison

2022 Kia Cerato 2022 Volkswagen Polo

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