Kia Rio ups the Style stakes
The Kia Rio gets an equipment upgrade and exterior design tweaks to become the Rio Style
By Justin Lee
LOCAL KIA DISTRIBUTOR Cycle & Carriage Kia is gearing up to launch the Rio Style compact sedan and hatchback in April.
This is essentially an equipment upgrade exercise. The whole range will now feature a single driver’s airbag, an anti-lock braking system, a chromed front grille, a red and black colour scheme for the seats and interior door panels, chromed pedals, a leather wrapped steering wheel with red stitching and chromed switchgear for the centre console.
A bodykit is fitted as standard and the sedan will get 15-inch alloy wheels while the hatch is equipped with 16-inch ones. Shown here is an illustration of how the sedan version may look like.
The Rio will be sold concurrently with the Rio Style until stocks of it run out. According to a representative from Cycle & Carriage Kia, the car will be sold at around the same prices as the outgoing model. The current Rio sedan and hatchback are retailing at $36,999 for the manual and $39,999 for the automatic. All prices are inclusive of COE.
The launch of this upgraded model could be Kia’s attempt to be more competitive in terms of equipment and price against Hyundai which is distributed by Komoco Motors.
The Verna compact sedan with which it shares its platform, engine and transmissions has been available with a single driver’s airbag and anti-lock brakes since its debut here in 2006. Only offered with a four-speed automatic the car is priced at $38,199 undercutting the Rio by $1,800. Interestingly, the 1.6-litre Avante with manual transmission is going at the same price as the Verna.
With the impending debut of the Rio Style and the competitively priced and impressively specced Cerato Forte range, Kia looks set to mount a credible fight in its price war with Hyundai.
Also on the cards are body-kitted versions of the Picanto and Cerato Forte though details on these cars have yet to be firmed up. However, CarBuyer can reveal illustrative pictures of these upcoming models though it must be noted that the actual cars may look slightly different.
