During a recent chat with Barry Martin at Sleator Kia, Mullingar, Cartell.ie asked what car he would recommend for a customer with €20,000 to spend on a used car. Barry didn’t hesitate to recommend a 3-month-old (pre-registered demo) Kia Cee’d so Cartell.ie hopped in the drivers seat to try it out.

Normally retailing for €20,850 a 3-month-old C’eed sells for €19,250. The car provided to us was the 1.6 CRDi diesel version with manual transmission and 113bhp. First impressions from the outside are that Kia have played it quite safe with the design of this car. There are some nice curves and we like the lower front headlights and grill. It certainly won’t offend anyone’s tastes but perhaps the designers have been overly cautious.

Inside the cabin the vehicle is cozy and compact. Everything is within easy reach of the driver and the controls are simple to use and understand: an important consideration for vehicles in this class. The steering wheel has tilt adjustment and a few buttons on the front including audio control. The CD-player looks slick and sits well in the  centre-console.

Taking this car out on the road is a pleasure. The diesel version that we drove is quite refined and it handles well. It’s punchy and changing gears is effortless.   The vehicle is also quite good in corners although it doesn’t perform as well as, say, a Ford Focus. The suspension is smooth and it does well on the open road, surprisingly enough, a car we’d be quite happy to spend long journey’s behind the wheel. In fact this car offers a good balance between city driving on the one hand and motorway driving on the other. We didn’t detect any rattles in the cabin too, which is good! The brakes are also nice and responsive though we’re not sure about the handbrake which looks cumbersome.

The boot space is adequate for the class and the rear seat space is excellent – easily enough space for 2 adults in the back. The car has a few nice standard features: air conditioning and an ipod connection and USB socket.

Of course the real benefit for this car is the class-leading Kia 7-year-warranty and Barry and the team at Sleator are keen to mention this at every opportunity!

Residuals for this car are competitive on this model meaning it won’t lose it’s value too quickly – making it a good purchase. It should be pretty easy to sell it onwards provided the customer has taken good care of it. Barry says: “Kia give the 7-year-warranty and the only thing we want in return is for the customer to bring the car back once every year so we can plug it into a G.D.S. computer and get all the info we need from it!”

The car enjoys Category A tax status meaning it will cost its owner €104 per year to tax it. It’s fuel efficient too the vehicle we tested returns 60 MPGs.

If you’re thinking of buying one you can see the range of similar vehicles available on Carzone.

You can also read our Trade Focus with Sleator Kia – Officially appointed Kia Dealer, Weatmeath and Longford, 2011.