New Kia Proceed GT 2019 Review

Kia has gone punctuation mad. First, it dropped the apostrophe for its Ceed hatchback and now for its sportier sister model, it鈥檚 not only dropped the rogue piece of punctuation but also the even more irritating underscore. 鈥檇 becomes simply ProCeed and the Korean firm has performed a complete control-alt-delete on the car, as out goes the three-door body shape and in comes a swoopy five-door hatch design. The ProCeed鈥檚 interesting mix of estate car and coupe body styles is an answer to the trend of people rejecting three-door hatchbacks. Here Kia is following Mercedes鈥?lead by offering a sleek CLA Shooting Brake in tandem with its more conventional A-Class, knowing that Shooting Brake customers are prepared to spend more cash on a more stylish model. In our eyes it looks pretty good, with a clear nod to the CLA, although at the rear there鈥檚 a hint of Porsche Panamera if you squint hard. There are even a few interesting design details, such as the Porsche-like four 鈥榠ce cube鈥?LED daytime running lights and metal-effect shark鈥檚 blade on the rear quarter glass carried over from the dramatic 2017 Proceed Concept.

It鈥檚 just a shame then that the concept car鈥檚 large wheels haven鈥檛 transitioned over, because our car鈥檚 18-inch alloys look a little lost within the body - but that鈥檚 the only real gripe. When it arrives in January the ProCeed is expected to come in three flavours of GT-Line, GT-Line S and GT - and our exclusive first drive was in a pre-production version of the range-topping model. Kia鈥檚 upmarket desires are clear on the inside because the ProCeed, just like the Ceed hatch, is well put together, with swathes of plush plastics, while the GT adds red stitching and bolstered sports seats. But while kneeroom is good, headroom in the back is pretty tight - if you鈥檙e over six feet tall you鈥檙e really going to struggle - and the visibility out of the back isn鈥檛 great, either. That said, the boot is well shaped and offers useful underfloor storage, luggage rails and seats that nearly fold down completely flat. The ProCeed sits 5mm lower than the Ceed hatch and estate, and features independent suspension all round, while the GT gets stiffer springs and softer anti-roll bars. The steering is particularly good in its response but just falls short of delivering enough feel, while the engine feels stronger and punchier than its 201bhp and 265Nm suggest. But the 1.6 turbo is let down by the automatic box; it might be a seven-speed dual-clutch, but the upshifts aren鈥檛 crisp enough for a sporting model and downshifts are too slow. This is mated to a throttle modulation that鈥檚 a bit tardy to pick up, too. How the ProCeed drives on the road sums up the car, really. It鈥檚 a stylish, nicely made and slightly quirky car that handles and goes well but is slightly held back by its gearbox and throttle response. It鈥檚 a nice balance between a warm hatch and a GT wrapped up in one of Kia鈥檚 sexiest bodies.

The base model Cayman/Boxster do not have a lot included. 1250 destination charge ). The beauty of the Porsche model is that you can get everything you want, and don't have to get anything you don't want. Sure it will cost you, but that is the price for full customization. But to say that a NO options Boxster/Cayman is better "packaged" than a fully loaded RF is ridiculous. 20k, I sure hope my money would be getting my something other than a badge. I'd personally spend the extra coin in that scenario. I have a buddy who has a high optioned RF, meh I'm not particularly impressed. It is really cramped - tighter than the NC and NB I've owned. 180lbs. I'd rather mod an NB than get into an ND. Which then puts me into what would I do new, that would be the Pcar all day long. It has nothing to do with the badge. Just drive the two, the winner is clear to/for me. The best buys - imo - for the Cayman/Boxster would be 981.1 GTS.

IMO a 981.1 GTS far exceeds the ND even at 1.5 times the price. Fine, but most people wont. Boxsters don't sell that well either. Plain and simple: this kind of car is out of step with the driving assisted, CUV/SUV times, that we live in, and I don't see any sign of that trend reversing. Fine, but most people wont. Boxsters don't sell that well either. Plain and simple: this kind of car is out of step with the driving assisted, CUV/SUV times, that we live in, and I don't see any sign of that trend reversing. While true, that is irrelevant to me. Plenty of good/great used/new sports cars to fulfill my sports car needs until I won't be able to drive one. I'd rather speculate than potentially be wrong. While true, that is irrelevant to me. Plenty of good/great used/new sports cars to fulfill my sports car needs until I won't be able to drive one.

We've covered this like a zillion times but one major factor impacting the sales of new sports cars is the availability of used models with hardly any miles on them for far less money. 1 they wore out and rusted out a lot quicker. Chances are if you bought a new MGB in 1972 by 1976 you needed a new one. Sure people would buy your old one but it's not like today when it's easy to find newish, barely worn sports cars with low miles, no mechanical issues and at attractive prices. For the serial sports car owner, back in the day it was rare to just buy one and keep it forever, you often bought them every few years. When I had to get out of riding bikes and decided to start looking at sports cars, it was a couple of years before the Miata came out. 1000 to fix what was invariably be wrong with it.