Kia Ceed Sportswagon Review & Prices

If you’re looking for a keenly priced, practical and well-equipped estate car, then the Kia Ceed Sportswagon is well worth considering. Compared with some equally practical but more imposing-looking SUVs, the Ceed Sportswagon feels more like a week in Cornwall than a scorching seven days in Ibiza. But, just like a staycation, you get quite more bang for your buck.

The Kia’s focus on value for money is especially obvious when you consider just how much equipment you get as standard. Even entry-level Ceed Sportswagons get an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with smartphone mirroring, and you get an assortment of posh-looking metal-effect trims dotted about the place, too.

There’s also the option to upgrade to a larger 10.3-inch touchscreen and you can get the Ceed Sportswagon with a 12.0-inch digital driver’s display instead of conventional analogue dials. Sure, it’s not quite as crisp as the equally large screen you can get in a Volkswagen Golf Estate, but the configurable display is just the thing for making sure you don’t miss an upcoming direction from the sat nav.

The Ceed Sportwagon’s interior has almost as many soft and squidgy materials as you’ll find in the likes of the Golf Estate, but the design is a little bland and it doesn’t feel quite as well built as the Volkswagen. Nevertheless, it’ll still be sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of family life.

It’s a nicer cabin to spend time in if you go for a high-spec model with 10-way electric adjustment for the front seats and electric lumbar adjustment to help stave off back ache on long motorway drives. You won’t have any trouble getting comfortable if you’re very tall, either, thanks to the Ceed Sportswagon’s generous headroom.

If you regularly carry passengers, you’ll be pleased to hear that space in the back seats is just as generous. There’s a decent amount of room for three adults to sit side-by-side, too, but the Golf Estate serves up a smidge more space for their shoulders.

The Ceed Sportwagon’s boot is big enough to take four large suitcases or a super-size baby buggy and plenty of soft bags. There’s more than enough space for a huge weekly shop and the wide, square opening and flat loading lip makes it a doddle to load heavy items. OK, so the Skoda Octavia Estate trumps everything for boot capacity in this class, but you won’t struggle for space in the Ceed Sportswagon.

Need to carry some seriously bulky stuff? The back seats flip down in a three-way split so long items can poke through from the boot between two back-seat passengers. With all three back seats folded down out of the way, you get a completely flat load bay that’ll have no trouble swallowing a bike with both its wheels attached.

In the past, the Ceed Sportswagon has been available with a wide range of petrol and diesel engine, plus a plug-in hybrid powertrain (check out our Kia Ceed Sportswagon Hybrid review). At the time of writing, however, it’s only available with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol motor with 160hp. It’s a decent engine that combines reasonably strong performance with good fuel economy. A six-speed manual gearbox is fitted as standard – there’s currently no automatic option.

The Ceed Sportswagon comes with lots of high-tech safety kit including automatic emergency braking, cruise control and lane-keeping assist. EuroNCAP’s safety ratings for the Ceed hatchback can be applied to the Sportswagon, so it scores a four star rating in standard form or a five star rating when fitted with some optional safety tech.

The Kia Ceed Sportswagon may not have the glitziest interior and isn’t quite as good to drive as some of the alternatives, but it is spacious, practical, well-equipped and affordable to run. Compare its prices with those alternatives and you’ll see it’s also keenly priced, but to save even more, make sure you check out our Kia Ceed Sportswagon deals pages. If a used Kia Ceed Sportswagon is more up your street then check out our used page.

At the time of writing, the Ceed Sportswagon is only available in mid-level 3 spec, with a 160hp 1.5-litre petrol engine and a manual gearbox. Alternative choices are the Ford Focus, Hyundai i30, Peugeot 308 SW, SEAT Leon, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Golf.

Look at prices for the alternatives that closely match the Ceed Sportwagon’s spec and you’ll find that only the Hyundai undercuts the Kia. The SEAT, Skoda and Vauxhall are priced within £1,000 or so of the Kia but the rest cost several grand more.

The Ceed Sportswagon gives a comfortable ride and feels good to drive, but some alternatives are more engaging

In town

The Ceed Sportswagon feels exactly the same as the Ceed hatchback to drive. It’s not a large car so it’s easy to nip around town, darting down side streets and slotting into gaps in traffic. You can feel the car’s size when you park, though, especially if you’re used to hatchbacks. The back end of the Sportswagon extends a couple of feet beyond the back wheels, so you need to bear that in mind when sizing up a space.

Fortunately, actually manoeuvring the Ceed Sportswagon is really easy. The steering’s light, you have a great view out through big windows, plus rear parking sensors and a reversing camera are fitted as standard.

The suspension’s quite soft, so it gives a comfortable ride on ruined urban roads. There’s also lots of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel, so you should be able to find the driving position that works best for you.

The 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine is reasonably punchy when accelerating from a standstill and the six-speed manual gearbox (there’s no automatic option) doesn’t make life difficult for you.

On the motorway

You notice quite a bit of tyre noise when travelling at motorway speeds in the Ceed Sportswagon, but that’s true of every version of the Ceed. Besides, you can drown the noise out by turning the stereo up a bit.

That’s the only note of caution to sound about driving the Ceed Sportswagon on the motorway. It’s a pleasant car to travel long distances in. It feels rock solid from behind the wheel, the seats are nice and supportive and you can barely hear the engine. Standard cruise control and lane-keeping assist reduces the strain, too.

That 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol motor is more than up to the job of hauling the car along with a full load of passengers and luggage, sitting at 70mph quite happily. However, the engine needs to be worked quite hard to give its best performance. In practice, that means you might need to hold third or fourth gear a bit longer to get up to speed smartly. That’s no hardship, though.

There are higher-spec alternatives with plusher interiors that are more relaxing to drive for hours on end. But, considering the price you pay for it, the Ceed Sportswagon is quite a good long distance cruiser.

On a twisty road

For a car with no pretensions of sportiness whatsoever, the Ceed Sportswagon is pretty good to drive on a twisty road. You don’t feel particularly connected to the steering and the soft suspension means the body leans over quite a bit in corners.

The engine could be more energetic and the gearbox a bit slicker, but they don’t get in the way if you’re trying to make rapid cross-country progress.

You probably won’t go for a drive in the Ceed Sportswagon just for the fun of it, as you might in a Ford Focus. But it’s a safe and stable car to drive on A- and B-roads in whatever manner you’re inclined to.

The Ceed Sportswagon has loads of passenger space and one of the biggest boots in the class, but there could be more storage space up-front

Practicality

There’s very generous space in the front of the Ceed Sportswagon. Even really tall people have room to stretch their legs out and there’s so much headroom that someone of average height could jack the driver’s seat up to the top of its height adjustment without their head touching the ceiling.

There’s not much storage space up front, though. The door bins can hold a litre bottle, but nothing else with it. There’s a biggish cubby hole under the centre armrest and a pair of cupholders in the centre console. A tray for your phone is in front of the gear stick and the glovebox can hold the chunky book pack and a packet of biscuits. Cold air can also be fed into the glovebox, so your snacks won’t melt on a hot day, and there’s a glasses holder in the ceiling.

In the rear, there’s more door bins, a pair of cupholders in the armrest and pockets on the back of the front seats.

Space in the back seats

Again, there’s a lot of space in the back. There’s legroom to spare for anyone a bit over six feet tall, and the relatively high roofline creates stacks of headroom. Alternatives like the Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Golf estates have a bit more legroom, but they’re slightly longer than the Ceed Sportswagon.

The Ceed Sportswagon is too narrow to get three adults in the back comfortably, but that’s the case with every car of this size. Three kids have room to lounge, though. If you have little ones that use child seats, you’re unlikely to have any complaints, either. Hinged covers for the ISOFIX mounts makes installing a seat really easy. And the door openings are quite big, so you don’t have to contort yourself helping children into and out of the car.

All in all, the Ceed’s credentials as a family car are good enough to make you wonder if you really need anything bigger.

Boot space

With a capacity of 625 litres, the Ceed Sportswagon has the second-biggest boot of any small estate car. And it only trails the Skoda Octavia by 15 litres which, in practice, is a couple of shoeboxes. The boot’s a good, square shape, too, with a big opening and a low loading lip, so heaving in heavy stuff is a doddle.

There’s a few extra storage compartments concealed underneath the boot floor, which are useful for stowing all those little things you need to keep in the car. Usefully, the load cover fits in the biggest compartment. There’s also assorted hooks and tie-down loops to secure your load and a 12-volt charging port.

The back seats fold down easily in three parts, not quite flush with the boot floor. A big fridge-freezer will fit with room to spare.

Clear and sensible take precedence over style and aesthetics

The Ceed Sportswagon doesn’t have the most interesting interior you’ll ever see in a car, with a colour scheme of several shades of dark grey and black. A few bits of silver-coloured trim create a bit more of a premium vibe, and the big windows let in lots of light, so it hardly feels dark and dingy in there. The materials generally feel nice, too.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the layout of the dashboard is really clear and easy to use. Where other manufacturers are starting to use fiddly touch-sensitive controls, the Ceed Sportswagon still has lots of buttons and knobs that you can find almost without looking.

It does have a touchscreen infotainment system, with a 10.25-inch display mounted to the top of the dashboard. Among the many features are sat nav, Bluetooth and DAB radio. The screen is responsive and crisp, but the ‘native’ operating system isn’t the slickest we’ve used. So you may prefer to connect your phone and use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

Other standard features include dual-zone aircon, cruise control, four electric windows, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

The petrol engine/manual gearbox combination in the Ceed Sportswagon gives an official average fuel economy figure of 47mpg. In the real world, you’ll probably see around 40mpg on average.

CO2 emissions of 134g/km mean vehicle excise duty costs £165 per year after the car’s first birthday. Company car drivers may want to scrutinise the benefit-in-kind rates before committing, with emissions a distance behind plug-in or hybrid models.

Safety experts Euro NCAP gave the Ceed hatchback a four-star rating in its standard form, and a full five star rating when fitted with some optional safety features. Those ratings apply to the Sportswagon estate.

The 3 trim level the Sportswagon comes with has a pretty generous helping of standard safety features including automatic emergency braking that detects pedestrians in the road, lane keeping assist, a driver attention monitor and an emergency call system.

Kia has a great reputation for reliability and its cars can usually be found near the top of the table in owner satisfaction surveys. There are no issues of concern with the Ceed that we’re aware of – it certainly feels extremely well made. It’s backed up by Kia’s industry-leading seven-year/100,000-mile warranty.