One year old and 7500 miles, time for an annual review!
Still very happy with the Cee'd, a car I think is a joy to walk up to from any angle, the sporty front looks and the angular wedge side profile sitting on the two tone alloys makes her something I love unlocking and getting into.
Driving wise, as stated already, in full auto mode she is a very relaxing car, on long journeys she soaks up the miles effortlessly, my only slight gripe being that the gearing results in some unnecessary down changing when using cruise control and you hit an incline, this is probably related to differing locale speed limits, 65-70mph is just about at a change point, whereas setting it at 75 is less cumbersome (but ultimately illegal!). Having said that though she is very comfortable and even if any stiffness does set in, the 10 way electric adjusatble drivers seat makes alteration of the driving position on the move easy to relieve any issues. Over the Winter I really liked having heated seats again as well as the heated steering wheel, very pleasant!
The engine is virtually silent from the cabin, the biggest noise being that of the road, most noticeable on more porous tarmac, on a fully sealed surface it is very quiet.
I tend to keep it in full auto mode with ECO most of the time, this has resulted in an average UK MPG of about 32 in the last year, significantly less than the advertised 45, but she does reach the40's on longer runs, indeed a journey to Edinburgh and back last week resulted in 43 mpg.
I like the flexsteer option a lot, using comfort for city driving, normal for highway/motorway driving and sport for the more spirited country lane stuff, indeed my daughter loves it when dad pops it into what she calls Xbox mode and uses the manual paddle shift!
The body and paintwork is showing no signs of problems, a couple of stone chips in the flat of the front bumper the only evidence of a one year old car, the angular front shape and sloping windscreen appears to repel any issues, even bug splatter is kept to a minimum.
Internally the car is very tight, on a par with my i30 and certainly better than either the ix20 or i40 in my opinion, no dashboard creaks and despite a significant amount of piano black hard plastic in the door handles, no evidence of creaking has manifested itself.
Dealer wise I have already stated my opinion of the service received, but no harm in mentioning again that I think Kia Aberdeen provide an infinitely better experience than Hyundai Aberdeen did.
Problems - as already noted on the forum, I have had the headlamp wash system and one reverse sensor replaced under warranty, I am currently experiencing an intermittent issue with a front sensor, but it only goes wonky when the temperature rises and in direct sunlight, so being in the UK, not an easy issue to replicate for the dealer to acknowledge! A coiple of stone chips on the lacquer of the diamond cut wheels has resulted in the beginning of white worm as the piercing has allowed ingress of water, something I will bring up with the dealer at my next service, you never know I might be able to get some new alloys on the warranty. I had my first puncture since before I owned the i30 this weekend, a screw attacking between the tread on the OSR wheel, plugged for £26.50 at my local tyre centre this morning.
Overall then as I take her into the second year of ownership, there is no restlessness, I have not even had the urge to look at any local dealers stocks, although I did see a lovely Optima the other day and even Kim mentioned how good it looked!
Rating 9.5/10. If you are looking to change then don't discount Kia, particularly in the UK where I think the options available are more varied and perhaps even better value for money.
To finish off here are a couple of pics of her after todays clean and polish, that is what I like about her, a joy to look at, a joy to drive and even a joy to spend some hours on pampering!
