Feature: 2020 Kia Seltos
The Kia Seltos is an important subcompact crossover for the brand. The Seltos is a car that anyone would be proud to own. Here's our review of the 2020 Kia Seltos, hit play and check the prices, variants and specifications.
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2020 Kia Seltos LX
2020 Kia Seltos EX
2020 Kia Seltos SX
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2020 Kia Seltos LX
2020 Kia Seltos EX
2020 Kia Seltos SX
Transcript
00:07Hi guys, it's Carlo from Top Gear Philippines and today
00:11We were lucky enough to be invited by Kia Philippines to come out
00:14and test their new Kia Seltos on a drive to Baler.
00:17Now, what makes the Seltos an interesting car, is that, for those of you in the know in the industry, Kia has not
00:22really been doing so well in the Philippines over the past few years.
00:26Thankfully,
00:27the new distributor Ayala Cars Corporation, they took over.
00:31And ever since they took over, they actually posted 125% growth in 2019.
00:35So they actually ended 2019 with a bang
00:38and they're hoping that the Kia Seltos and all new introductions would do well
00:41to power them through 2020.
00:50Well, the Seltos, Kia Philippines claims, is a car that has done
00:53exceedingly well abroad in countries like South Korea.
00:57In India, they spoke about how in India they were able to convert
01:0150,000 units in two months.
01:03Things like that just goes to show that this car is something that they consider quite important.
01:09Now to talk about the car a little bit the Kia Seltos
01:11is their, what they call a subcompact SUV, but actually when you say subcompact a lot of these
01:18subcompact cars in our market include like the EcoSport and similar SUVs
01:23but this doesn't feel like a subcompact SUV.
01:26In fact, it feels a lot bigger than a subcompact SUV because even me,
01:29at six-foot two, when I sit in the back behind myself
01:32I actually have space and you know
01:34it was a pretty long drive from
01:36Manila to Baler and I spent maybe three or four hours in the back and I was able to fall asleep, no problem.
01:50So we were driving the car around 14 hours and yeah, I know it's not going to be a full review
01:55but it's enough to give us a feel of what the car is like to drive or
01:59what are the stuff that we found interesting?
02:02First of all,
02:03it's a very modern-looking SUV.
02:06When you first lay your eyes on the Kia Seltos, one thing strikes you it's the grille
02:09It's the tiger grille. You've seen it on the Stinger. You've seen it on the Sorento,
02:12you've seen it actually in all their cars and this is something that they're very proud of and
02:16it's something that makes a Kia Kia nowadays and it's not just that if you look at the front of the especially the
02:22SX variant, the high-end variant, you'll see that they have the headlamps with the LED running lights
02:26The LED headlights and the LED foglights, which is always a very nice, high-tech thing to look at.
02:32To sum it all up, when you're looking around the car from the outside,
02:34it definitely looks different from a lot of other cars on the road
02:37Not just that but it also looks quite luxurious from the outside.
02:40Now that luxury actually extends through to when you're getting inside the car.
02:48The solidity of the doors and the interior materials, all of it just feels quite expensive.
02:54But also the layout of the cabin is very nice. It's very ergonomic. Everything's easy to reach and easy to touch
03:01We do enjoy the infotainment system
03:03Thank God,
03:04we're all thanking God that a manufacturer has
03:07decided to put Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in all their variants.
03:18But the thing that stands out the most when you're driving this car is the solidity of the chassis.
03:22As you're driving along the highway or hitting bumps and everything, it doesn't feel like an entry-level car,
03:27it feels something more akin to a luxury brand with how everything's very well insulated
03:32In fact, Kia has spent a lot of time making sure the noise vibration
03:36and harshness of this car is actually rated really well.
03:38But from Manila to Baler, it's actually a very interesting trip.
03:41You have a highway, you have city traffic with EDSA as usual,
03:45you also have small-town traffic,
03:48but most interestingly, you have a lot of zigzag and
03:51curvy roads that you can try. I think we spent like an hour or two
03:55just weaving like left and right through a mountain road, just getting to the hotel.
04:00So, we were able to try the car in all these different conditions and thankfully
04:04the chassis of the car, as mentioned a while ago, is just solid. It feels really good,
04:08it feels like it wants to handle well
04:10and it does actually.
04:12And this is complemented by the engine because of course when you're going through provincial roads,
04:15you need to overtake these tricycles and my God this car, it can, it does its job, it can overtake.
04:21The engine of the Kia Seltos plus is a two-liter Atkinson-cycle engine
04:24that's mated to a continuously variable transmission.
04:27That means that the engine has about 147hp and 179Nm of torque,
04:32now that doesn't sound like a lot, but really when you floor it,
04:35especially in Sport mode, since the car does come equipped with drive mode select,
04:39you can put it in Sport mode, hit the gas, and you'll actually be able to overtake a lot of the cars relatively
04:44easily, you know.
04:48That's not to say that the Kia Seltos is absolutely perfect.
04:51There are certain things that
04:53annoyed me a little bit and
04:56they're minor, to be fair, but there are something that we have to mention also.
05:02First of all, are the speaker grills in the backseat.
05:06Now the speaker grilles,
05:08if you look at them, they have this nice angular design
05:11they're very sharp and it's very nice to look at,
05:13but when you're sitting down in the backseat and your knee is resting up against it,
05:17and you're going through these bouncy roads and like going left and right,
05:20your knee will start rubbing against it.
05:22It's not a deal-breaker by any means,
05:24but it's something you will notice if you're sitting in the back and your knees resting up against it and lastly
05:28there are a lot of blank switches in the car. So,
05:32if you look at the shifter, there's like,
05:34out of the six buttons, five of them are blank.
05:36If you look at the left side, out of the five buttons three of them are blank.
05:39And it just shows that,
05:41some features are missing from the car and it's funny because this SX variant is the top-of-the-line variant,
05:46so there should not be missing features.
05:48But I have to emphasize none of these are deal-breakers,
05:50and the reason for that is the price of the Kia Seltos.
05:54The entry-level Kia Seltos the 2.0 LX automatic
05:58is at P1.098 so around P1.1 million.
06:02The mid-grade is about P1.2 million.
06:05And the SX, the top-of-the-line variant is about P1.5 million and with the top-of-the-line variant,
06:10you get all the features that we mentioned as standard including the backup camera, the parking sensors, the
06:16Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, you have cruise control, you have
06:19automatic headlamps. It's just a really nicely-featured car.
06:23And actually, when you really think about it at
06:25P1.5 million
06:27for an SUV in the Philippines?
06:29It doesn't have a lot of competition. Especially not one as feature-rich and as solid-feeling as this one.
06:36So again, this is just a first impression.
06:38So it's Carlo from Top Gear Philippines.
06:41For more car reviews news and
06:43sometimes motorcycle reviews also,
06:45keep it here on Top Gear.