Up until 2025, the Cerato nameplate was Kia’s go to small-mid sized sedan, after the Optima and the larger Stinger left the market. Now the K4 takes up the mantle, sporting the Korean car maker’s new design philosophy.
The GT-Line we’re reviewing here is priced from $42,990 – close to its South Korean cousin – the Hyundai i30 N-Line Premium sedan (from $43,490), and both Toyota competitors, the Corolla SX and Camry (from $38,977 and $44,393 respectively).
The outgoing Cerato was quite a good looking car, so the K4 has some big shoes to fill. The front now fits in with the rest of Kia’s lineup, with angular daytime running lights echoing the Picanto, Sorento and Carnival.
The front remains modern while hinting at being an upmarket vehicle, with a unique bumper and grille for the GT-Line. It’s wide too, more so than its predecessor and i30 sedan relative. The side mirrors do fold in, but don’t really afford much advantage.
Towards the backend, there’s a nicely styled haunch over the rear wheel arch. The design does come with some consequence though, as the door handle moves into the C-pillar, creating some confusion for first timers.
Slapping the rear lights from the Carnival on a sedan body gives the rear an interesting, but almost droopy appearance too. The biggest point of contention is that aforementioned C-pillar though, with all the lines and curves of the body shape meeting there.
It results in a weird mish-mash of elements that maybe don’t come together as coherently as we would have liked. While this reviewer may question some of the design choices, one wonders whether the incoming hatchback variant might improve the look and practicality.
Gloss black wheel arches shrink the wheels visually, even at 18-inches. The wheel design is quite a nice one though, being not overly fussy. For all our comments about its styling, the K4 won a design award for its “aura of authenticity, daring, vigour, and resilience”.
Our car came in a nice Wave Blue hue, which contrasts well with the black trimmings. It’s one of eight colours. Inside is where the K4 shines the most though, and Kia continue to step up their interior game, in this case with a variant exclusive two-tone look.
Black Onyx and Grey trims give a premium feel, while front occupants are treated to a huge, 75cm curved screen for the infotainment and instrument cluster. The climate control area can at times be obscured by the drivers left hand and the steering wheel.
Kia have thought about this, offering a + (plus) button to expand the climate control area across the viewable part of the infotainment screen. It’s a nifty addition, but you do have to realise it’s there.
We also appreciate that there are switches and toggles for the climate control in the middle. The two-tone steering wheel matches the seats and feels good in the hands, with plenty of intuitive buttons for other controls and features.
Hot tip – the Drive Mode selector is in the centre spoke. The gear shifter looks like it was lifted out of a car from the 90’s and while it does the job and can even slide across for shifting up or down through the gears, it stands out against its modern surroundings.
The instruments can be customised with different displays depending on the mode selected and how the driver would prefer information displayed. There is no head-up display, which does feel like a bit of an omission.
While the front seats are very comfortable and treat their passengers to heating and ventilation via some buttons in the doors, only the driver gets electric adjustment, which again feels like a let down in a GT-Line spec vehicle.
The rear seats are roomy and comfortable, with a couple air-conditioning vents and USB ports available. Even on an occasion when the car was filled with four gentlemen, everyone was quite impressed with the amount of space afforded.
A large sunroof helps provide a bit more light and airiness into the cabin. Even the boot space impresses, with the K4 able to accommodate 508-litres behind the rear seats, and more if those are folded down. This is 80-litres more than the Cerato it replaces and beats out the i30 sedan’s 474-litres.
For tunes, the K4 features wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and a single wireless phone charger. Music is played through a very decent eight speaker Harman Kardon premium sound system.
Under the bonnet of the K4 GT-Line is a familiar four cylinder 1.6-litre turbocharged engine putting out 142kW and 265Nm through an eight-speed automatic. Interestingly, the 1.6T is 8kW down on the previous Cerato GT and its Hyundai i30 N-Line Premium cousin, using the same engine, though we think it would be hard to notice the deficit. Kia claim fuel consumption of 6.7-litres/100km. We managed 9.0-litres.
The GT-Line comes with Hankook tyres and features larger brakes and a multi-link rear suspension setup. While we liked how the K4 Sport handled, with its torsion beam setup, this variant offers that bit more confidence in the bends when pushing a little harder.
While that’s hardly what the car was made for, it’s good to know the capability is there. There are three of the aforementioned drive modes, including Eco, Normal and Sport, with the latter offering a little extra kick.
The engine doesn’t make the most enthusiastic sound but certainly lets you know what’s going on. The K4 keeps it safe with blind spot monitoring, forward collision avoidance assist, rear cross traffic collision avoidance and lane keep assist.
Driver attention warning and safe exit warning also feature in a long list. It does miss out on blind sport cameras like those found in the Sorento and Tasman though. This isn’t a big issue as visibility is great all-round, but we feel it’s a bit of a miss.
There is a reverse camera and plenty of active guides to assist in parking, but there’s also no 360-degree surround view. The K4 GT-Line sedan is backed by a 7-year unlimited kilometre warranty and 8-years roadside assist (the latter if you service with Kia).
You also get 7-years access to Kia Connect, over-the-air updates and 10-years of satellite navigation traffic data. The Cerato was a great sedan for the brand, but its K4 replacement certainly brings a lot of tech and comfort to the table.
The exterior styling is mostly a win, while the interior – especially in the GT-Line – is a giant leap forward. It will be interesting to see if the hatch gains popularity too. To find out more, visit the Kia Australia website, or talk to your local dealership.
To get a low rate finance quote, talk to Australia’s best reviewed car finance broker; Credit One. To see a great range of vehicles for sale, check out OnlyCars.com.au.
Our test vehicle was provided by Kia Australia for independent review purposes. Exhaust Notes Australia has not been paid to review this vehicle.
