Driving the new 2.0-litre front-wheel-drive Kia Seltos compact SUV taking the choice in small SUV’s to around 25 with Mitsubishi’s recently refreshed ASX the biggest seller by a significant margin. The new five-door Seltos sits below Kia’s Sportage model, 115mm shorter, and very good looking in a great range of colours. Available in a mix of front drive and all-wheel-drive models – with pricing kicking off at $25,990 drive-away. I tested the Seltos Sport front wheel drive at $29,490 drive-away. Front drive models feature a 2.0-litre 110kW naturally–aspirated four-cylinder, a reasonable performer in its class but coupled to a new generation CVT automatic that’s really impressive. Cabin space and ride quality a high point, like most Kia’s, benefiting from local suspension tune.

With the added benefit of a 7-year unlimited kilometre warranty the Kia Seltos offers a compelling argument in the small SUV segment however it has a hard task to unseat the Mitsubishi ASX from its best seller role. Having said that, in its first full month on sale in November the Seltos managed 898 sales to be our fourth best-selling compact SUV. Capped price servicing in 12-month/15,000k intervals starts at a sharp $261 in the first year. High points: regular unleaded petrol, a full-size alloy spare wheel, a rear view camera with parking guidelines and a swag of active and passive safety inclusions. 

I’m David Berthon

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