Kia Stonic Review 2025

The Kia Stonic is one of a seemingly endless range of small SUVs hoping to catch your eye. Introduced in 2017, the Stonic is based on the long-since-discontinued Kia Rio, but it offers a little more practicality than its sibling. If we had to pick three highlights, we’d say that it offers good value for money, a good level of standard equipment and the reassurance of an excellent seven-year warranty. It’s up to you to decide if that’s enough to choose the Stonic over rivals like the Hyundai Kona, SEAT Arona, Renault Captur or Nissan Juke. Discover more in our Kia Stonic review.

The Kia Stonic: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. This is one of many, many fish swimming in an increasingly crowded pond of small SUVs. The name, in case you were wondering, is a portmanteau of ‘speed’ and ‘tonic’. Make of that what you will.

What’s more important is the fact that Kia Stonic is a rival to the Hyundai Kona, Seat Arona, Nissan Juke, Renault Captur, Skoda Karoq, Suzuki Vitara and… well, the list goes on.

Why should you choose the Stonic over any of its rivals? The seven-year warranty is a good place to start. Maybe the long list of standard equipment will help, or the aggressive pricing?

The Stonic has been around for a very long time, now, and during its lengthy lifespan, it's been offered in a wide range of different trim levels, all of them relatively well equipped for their time, compared with rivals. It's also been offered with a range of different engines, none of them hugely muscular, but the turbocharged three-cylinder 1.0-litre is definitely the pick of the bunch thanks to its strength, flexibility and smoothness. New-car prices are nowhere near as low as they once were, but then again, show us a single product of any type that's a cheap now as it was almost a decade ago. Importantly, the Stonic is still reasonably competitive on that score with rivals.

Don’t approach the Kia Stonic expecting a traditional crossover experience. The low-slung driving position is at odds with the lofty position offered by many of its rivals, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you’re after.

The same is true of the driving experience, which is more supermini than crossover. The handling is neat, but the car isn't that much fun, and the ride is distinctly firm. Is that really what you want from your small SUV? Only you can decide that.

This lower driving position is a little odd when you consider that many people see a raised driving position as a primary reason to buy a compact crossover.

The Stonic is based on the now-defunct Kia Rio hatchback, but it's actually a bit more satisfying to drive than that car, with a suspension that seems to prioritise handling over comfort. To be fair, though, the Rio isn't an astonishingly high bar dynamically, and compared with rivals, the Stonic is still a little dull to drive. Easy, yes, with light controls and excellent forward visibility, but there isn't much engagement to be had.

More importantly in a car like this, though, it's not as comfortable as many rivals, either. The flipside of the firm suspension setup is a ride that can be jittery and jarring on scruffy road surfaces, especially in cars fitted with larger wheels: these can feel really crashy over potholes and rough surfaces.

In the early days of the Kia Stonic, it was offered with a naturally aspirated 1.4-litre petrol engine with 100PS, or a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit with 120PS. Also on offer was a 1.6-litre diesel that was offered with outputs of either 110PS or 115PS at various different points in time.

The 1.4 wasn't awfully good, being breathless and a bit too gutless for the job of hauling the Stonic's body about, so it's best avoided as a used buy. Unless you spend most of your days on the motorway, so is the diesel. It's noisy, a bit slow, and lacking in character.

The 1.0 T-GDi turbocharged petrol engine is much more like it, though. It's a terrific all-rounder, offering a brilliant blend of performance and economy. It makes the Stonic quick enough to sprint between traffic lights in the city, but smooth enough to feel at home on a motorway. Some people might not approve of the three-cylinder soundtrack, but we think it gives the Stonic some much-needed character.

Nowadays, the 1.0-litre turbo engine is all you can buy, although it's offered in two states of tune. The basic one has 100PS, while the other has 48-volt mild hybrid technology and an increased output of 115PS. We haven't tried either yet, but we'd expect both to be very similar in character to the earlier iteration of the engine.

The Kia Stonic has been awarded two safety ratings by Euro NCAP. One is for versions with the full suite of driver assistance systems, the other is for models without the kit. With early cars, you needed to order a Stonic 3 or 4 in order to get a five-star car, or add the optional forward collision-avoidance assist and lane keeping assist to the Stonic 2. Otherwise, you'd have just a three-star car.

These days, all that stuff is provided throughout the range, along with more safety kit besides. That makes no difference to the NCAP rating, though: these ratings only apply for five years due to ever-increasing safety standards, and since the car was tested way back in 2017, its ratings have long since expired, and the car is very unlikely to be tested again.

So what precisely is the roster of standard safety kit these days? Well, all versions have Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Lane Keep Assist and Lane Follow Assist, Intelligent Speed Limit Assist with manual speed limiter, Driver Attention Warning, Rear Occupant Alert, Hill-Start Assist Control, front-, rear-, side- and curtain airbags with front passenger airbag cut-off switch, and outer rear ISOFIX child seat mounting points with top tethers and anchor fixings.

On top of that, GT-Line cars add Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist, while GT-Line S cars add a more advanced Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist system, along with adaptive cruise control with stop/go functionality and Highway Driving Assist.

You’re unlikely to do much towing in the Kia Stonic, but all versions have a maximum braked trailer weight of 1,110kg and maximum tow ball weight of 450kg.

The Kia Stonic does an adequate job in this area, but little more than that. There's decent space in the front seats, but the rear seats aren't as generous. You won't have to be that tall to find yourself short of both headroom and legroom back there, and if those up front are in any way gangly, you'll struggle even more. You won't want to squeeze three in the back on a regular basis, either, because the cabin is too narrow to do this comfortably.

The boot isn't huge at 352 litres, either. What's more, there's a very high load lip that you'll have to muscle heavy items over and drop in the other side. Some rivals have sliding rear seats that allow you to sacrifice some rear legroom in other to boost boot capacity: you don't get these in the Stonic, but given that rear legroom is already in short supply, that's probably not the worst thing in the world.

To be honest, you'd expect more from a small SUV in this area, and many rivals do it better. For example, a SEAT Arona has a larger 400-litre boot, a pretty-much-flush loading lip, and more space in the rear seats.

Concentrate your attention exclusively on the cabin's main touchpoints, at the Kia Stonic's interior feels ok. The steering wheel and gearlever are leather-wrapped, making them feel fairly lustrous in your hands, and the various switches work with a neat, substantial-feeling action.

Allow you attention to wander elsewhere, though, and things aren't anywhere near as positive. Even the dashboard is fashioned from hard-cheap-feeling plastic, while the stuff found on the door trims and centre console are even less appealing. You'll also hear a rather hollow-sounding noise when you close the doors which makes the car's build quality even less substantial.

It's a shame, because Kia's interiors usually punch well above their weight when it comes to the balance of quality versus affordability. It's fair to say that the Stonic is the exception to this rule.

All early Stonics - even the entry-level Stonic 2 - featured a 7.0-inch touchscreen media display with DAB digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You also got front- and rear USB ports, so there should be no squabbling over who gets to charge their smartphone on the move.

It’s a good system, helped in no small part by the large buttons flanking the crisp and clear display. If we had one complaint, it’s that it can be a little slow to respond to inputs. Sat-nav was fitted to Stonic 3 and 4 models, while a reversing camera was standard on all except the Stonic 2.

As of the 2025 facelift, all versions come with a much larger 12.3-inch central touchscreen with navigation as standard, alongside all the stuff we mentioned before. Range-topping GT-Line S cars also add a 12.3-inch digital driver's display and wireless phone charging. We haven't had a chance to play around with this new system yet, but we'll update this review as soon as we have.

If you're buying a brand new Stonic, the range kicks off at around £22,000 for the lower-powered 1.0-litre petrol car in Pure trim. Upgrade to the GT-Line trim and you'll pay more like £25,000, but that does also include the upgrade to the more powerful engine with mild hybrid tech. With both, upgrading from the standard six-speed manual gearbox to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic will stick another £1,000 to your bill. The top-of-the-range GT-Line S car is only available with the more powerful engine and the automatic gearbox, and it'll cost you upwards of £28,000.

As usual, massive savings can be made by buying used instead, but in the case of the Stonic, the difference is even bigger than usual because it's been around for so long. Early diesels seem to be the cheapest ones on offer: you'll pay around £9,000 for one with around 50,000 miles on the clock. However, you don't have to pay a lot more for a turbocharged petrol with similar mileage: around £10,000 should do it.

If you intend to cover long distances or spend a lot of time on the motorway, a used Stonic diesel makes a lot of sense.

Not that a used 1.0-litre T-GDi petrol engine will break the bank in terms of running costs. Official figures suggest that the turbocharged unit should return 47.1mpg with a manual gearbox, while there’s only a marginal penalty for choosing the automatic transmission. A figure of 46.3mpg is both respectable and achievable.

We haven't yet seen fuel economy figures for the mildly revised engines brought in for the facelift in late 2025, but we'd expect figures to be similar to before, maybe slightly better.

Insurance classifications run from group 8 at the lower end of the scale to group 14 at the upper end. With earlier cars, the lower-spec cars were actually in higher groupings than the high-spec cars, which is rare. That's because of the extra safety kit you got in the higher-spec cars, which the authorities decided made them harder to crash.

For VED road tax, you'll pay the same £195 annual flat rate as everyone else, but you can be sure that the expensive luxury car surcharge won't apply to you because the Stonic doesn't cost enough to be affected.

Kia has an excellent reputation for reliability, so hopefully the Stonic shouldn’t give you any headaches or expensive repair bills. What's more, you'll also be covered by Kia's famous seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Having been on sale for so very long, the Kia Stonic has been offered in a wide variety of trim levels over time. For the majority of its lifespan, the core trim levels were (imaginatively) called 2, 3 and 4, but on top of those, a considerable number of special edition models have been offered along the way. Generally, each version is well-equipped compared with contemporary rivals, and equipment levels have been incrementally enhanced over time to keep the Stonic fresh and competitive.

Today, since the car's major facelift in late 2025, the trim levels consist of Pure, GT-Line, and GT-Line S. The entry-level Kia Stonic Pure comes with a generous amount of equipment, including:

• 16-inch alloy wheels
• front fog lights
• black cloth seat upholstery
• artificial leather steering wheel
• manual air conditioning
• automatic headlight control
• roof rails, rear spoiler and front and rear skid plates
• electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors
• electric front and rear windows
• 12.3-inch touchscreen navigation
• 4.2-inch driver display screen
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Bluetooth
• two USB-C ports
• six-speaker audio system
• driver and front passenger sun visors with vanity mirrors
• rear parking sensors with reversing camera system
• cruise Control
• hill-start assist
• central locking
• Thatcham category 2 security alarm and immobiliser

Next up on the trim structure is the Kia Stonic GT-Line, which adds:

• 17-inch alloy wheels
• ‘GT-Line’ exterior and interior styling
• LED headlights, rear lights and front fog lights
• gloss black folding door mirrors with LED indicators
• gloss black radiator grille and side sills
• black window surround
• privacy glass for rear windows and tailgate
• rain-sensing wipers
• black cloth and artificial leather upholstery
• automatic air conditioning
• alloy pedals

At the very top of the range sits the Kia Stonic GT-Line S, which adds:

• sunroof with tilting and sliding function
• heated front seats
• heated steering wheel
• start/stop button with smart entry system
• customisable ambient lighting
• 12.3-inch driver display screen
• wireless mobile phone charger
• digital key
• front parking sensors
• adaptive cruise control with stop/go functionality
• electronic parking brake with auto hold function