IT'S GOT THE LOOK

A sexy, sporty Kia? You'd better believe it

When producing three-door family hatchbacks, the majority of manufacturers merely discard a couple of doors from their five-door models, change the side body panels and think that's enough. At Kia, we prefer to see each model as a unique offering, sharing components, structures and panels only where to do any different would add needless complexity and cost.

So, although pro_cee'd is clearly related to the European-designed and European-built fivedoor cee'd that has transformed European perception of the Kia brand, it is also a model in its own right – longer, lower and lighter, to highlight just three differences.

Only the bonnet and front wings are transferable between the deliberately family-oriented, conservative five-door cee'd and the youthful, sporty and sexy – yes, why be modest about it? – three-door pro_cee'd.

pro_cee'd will attract fashionable but value-conscious customers who have never previously even considered a Kia – and they won't be disappointed.

Like the five-door cee'd, the three-door pro_cee'd was designed and engineered in Europe to meet European consumer demands.

The emphasis was on giving pro_cee'd a sporty and dynamic look that will attract new, younger buyers or young-at-heart older couples free of the constraints a young family imposes on car-buying choices. This has not been achieved at the expense of the practical, commonsense values that have always been part of Kia's DNA, however.

The Frankfurt-based Kia Motors Europe design team under Anglo-French chief designer Gregory Guillaume – working in partnership with colleagues in Korea – went for a longer and lower profile compared with the five-door cee'd. A long, 2650mm wheelbase is common to all cee'd body styles, but the overall length of pro_cee'd is 15mm greater (12mm at the front; 3mm at the rear).

Combined with a 30mm reduction in overall height, it gives pro_cee'd an elongated, low, coupe-like stance, an impression reinforced by the 245mm longer side doors compared with the five-door cee'd, and the subtly sporty rooftop spoiler.

It all serves to highlight the improved dynamic responses – performance, steering and handling – of pro_cee'd, which in turn are helped by weight savings.

pro_cee'd remains faithful to the concept car of the same name Kia exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in 2006.

"At the front we have extended the nose by 12mm compared with the five-door cee'd and pulled down the mass by introducing a shallower grille, new-style headlamps, a wider and lower bumper with a prominent lip spoiler, a deeper central air intake that is wider at the bottom than the top, and large fog-lights set into elliptical depressions," says Guillaume.

The windscreen angle is unchanged, but the 30mm reduction in overall height and the deeper cant rail over the side windows and doors serve to give pro_cee'd a wider, flatter look. This is emphasised by a steeply-rising belt-line and a sharp, blade-like swage line that leads into the rear wheel arches.

"The profile makes pro_cee'd truly distinctive," says Guillaume. "The side window, C-pillar and tailgate spoiler are all new. The rear wing panels are pulled in a little compared with the five-door, so the wheel arches appear to protrude further from the main body – although the overall width is unchanged."

So successful is the interior of the five-door car that many of its design features and attributes have been carried across to pro_cee'd. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as someone once said.

The key differences are a lower roofline and larger side doors, plus a rear seat that has been totally redesigned to enhance usability with the three-door body. Three-door cars are inevitably a little less accessible than five-door models, but Kia's engineers have minimised the handicap.

The shallower windscreen, lower roof lining, big side doors and slimmer glasshouse give pro_cee'd a sporty, cockpit-like feel that seems more driver-focused.

The lower roofline marginally reduces headroom compared with the five-door car, but it remains competitive with similar models from rival manufacturers, and there has been no reduction in the outstanding levels of front and rear legroom.

To boost practicality and make it easy for owners to enlarge the luggage area despite the absence of rear side doors, Kia engineers have restyled the rear seat, which now has a fixed cushion in place of the forward-folding split system in cee'd. The 60:40 split rear backrest has

been re-engineered so that it is easy to release and simply folds down onto the cushion, with no need to first remove the headrests. The resulting load floor extension is stepless.

As in cee'd, the front doors of pro_cee'd open in stages, making it easy for passengers to get in and out while minimising the chance of banging doors with neighbouring cars in car parks.

Stops at 25- and 50-degrees hold the doors firmly in check in tight spaces, while at their maximum the doors swing open to a 70-degree angle to give an extra-wide opening.

Access to the rear is aided by new front seats with a top-mounted handle which can be used to tilt the backrest. As it does so, the whole seat also slides forward in one smooth, continuous movement. A memory function ensures the seat reclines to the exact position it was in previously.

From the driving seat, pro_cee'd feels compact and sporty, a sensation reinforced by the shallow windscreen, thick-rimmed three-spoke steering wheel, chronograph-like triple-dial instrument cluster beneath a tightly-curved cowling, and the 'floating' centre stack angled towards the driver.

The stack has a sporty metallic-effect finish. Designed to appear to float freely beside the driver, it houses a tailor-made RDS stereo radio/CD player with MP3 and air conditioning system controls, and is flanked by four large air vents rather than the two commonly found on competitor cars.