Engaging the engine
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The Kia Picanto has always been one of the more affordable small cars on the market. While Kia now sells some quite flashy and expensive vehicles, the Picanto just gets on with offering great value, low running costs, reliability, and easy driving characteristics - and is one of increasingly few cars on the market to offer this combination.
It’s also bolstered by a generous seven-year warranty, which should be music to the ears of any budget-friendly used car buyer. Keep reading to find out more about the Picanto, its engines and trim levels, its benefits, and its running costs.
As a used buyer one of the Kia Picanto’s real highlights in the city car market is Kia’s standard seven-year warranty. That’s a real show of confidence from Kia in a small, cheap car, and it should be a real confidence boost to used buyers too, since even if you pick up a car that’s already two or three years old, there’ll still be a healthy balance of the warranty remaining - provided the original owner has kept up the service history, anyway.
The Picanto is a fine little small car in its own right though. The latest generation is five-door only and that means relatively easy access for loading people in the back, and it’s one of the more spacious city cars to begin with. This rear sear space means a small sacrifice in boot space, but you can flip down the split rear seats for more room if you need it.
Picantos are also easy to drive, with light controls and a positive, snappy gearshift feel, while all engines are fuel-efficient, including the turbocharged model which is quite good fun to drive. Lower-spec cars are really quite light on equipment, but the Picanto is affordable enough that you may feel inclined to look for a higher-spec car to begin with. Some of the better-equipped models even look quite stylish, such as the crossover-style X-Line.
For alternatives to the Picanto, consider the Hyundai i10, which is very similar under the skin thanks to Hyundai and Kia’s ties. The Volkswagen Up, SEAT Mii and Skoda Citigo trio have a grown-up feel while the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108 have a sense of fun to their interior and exterior styling. The rear-engined Renault Twingo and Smart Forfour are worth a look, while for a crossover-style vehicle, consider the Toyota Aygo X.
Spend all your time toddling around town and the basic 66PS 1-litre petrol engine will be more than sufficient, and cost very little to run thanks to its near-60mpg economy figure. It’ll handle brief forays onto motorways too, though you may feel the need to change down a gear at inclines to preserve your hard-won speed. If you regularly travel further afield then it may be worth looking at the 1.25 petrol, or the turbocharged T-GDI, each of which has more pep in its step. We’d also suggest hunting for one of the higher trim levels for their extra kit - maybe even a distinctive X-Line or GT-Line. Given the Picanto is already affordable, you may find you need only a little extra money to get into one of the better-equipped models.
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The Kia Picanto’s exterior dimensions are:
The Kia Picanto’s boot space is:
While city cars like this used to benefit from free tax thanks to their low CO2 emissions, all current generation Picantos are charged the same flat rate as almost every other car, which takes some of the shine out of the car’s otherwise frugal running costs. As of 2024/2025, you’ll have to pay £190 per year to tax a Picanto.
The 66PS Picanto in ‘2’ trim with an automated manual transmission is one of those rare cars that sits in the very lowest insurance group 1, in the 1-50 scale. Surprisingly a car in ‘1’ spec is actually in group 5, but no Picanto strays higher than group 11, which is for the turbocharged T-GDI in higher trim levels.
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14405
How many Kia Picanto cars are available for sale?
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