ZR7 1.4

Brilliant value for money

Got this new in May last year when my old MK3 Golf finally gave up the ghost. I was looking to take advantage of the goverment sc***page scheme and narrowed my choice to a Fiesta or a Corsa when someone at work suggested i look at Pro-Ceed.
Never having heard of a Pro-Ceed i had a look at a few pics and was immediately taken by how very un Kia like it looked. The 7yr warranty was a great decider for me.

After the initial running in period i found the car to be a little underpowered low down and really needs to be revved to get the best out of it. Apparently it makes most of its horsepower up near the redline. However, that said, once moving it will happily sit at motorway speeds all day. On a long trip to Dorset and back at quite high motorway speeds (banning speeds allegedly!) it returned 35mpg and was happy to sit up near the redline for hour after hour. On my usual 25mile trip to work it will average around 42-44 mpg which is fairly acceptable for a pretty heavy car with a small engine.

Ive only had a minor issue with the car since i bought it. I had the engine warning light intermittantly illuminating with a loss of power. This was diagnosed as a faulty spark plug and was changed right away. The dealer (Westdrive Braintree) were great and very apologetic but you cant really blame Kia for a faulty 3rd party item can you, especially when you think how many thousands of plugs they must use each year?

PROS.

7yr warranty

looks

high level of equipment as standard

cheap tax and insurance

reasonable fuel economy

no ones going to steal a Kia!

CONS.

1.4 engine needs to be revved but i believe this may have been remedied with a new fuel map on newer cars (my model quotes 115hp,the newer ones 89hp???) So im guessing the engine has been mapped for better low down torque?

suspension does seem to be getting a little noisy with age(currently 14months/15k miles old)

poor rear visibility (but who needs to see where theyve been!)

potential poor resale value


Summary.

Dont write it off just because of the badge, its a nice looking car with a high level of equipment and a fantastic 7yr warranty. Definately worth a look if youre in the market for a small, stylish car.

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