Price: £22,795
Top speed: 101mph
0-62mph: 11.1 seconds
MPG: 74.3
CO2: 88g/km
Clearly no one in their right mind is going to name a new car after Nero, Rome’s most eye-poppingly deranged emperor. But, according to Kia’s bumf, this car’s name also means “strong and powerful” – a laudable aspiration for every vehicle, though “strong and stable” would be even more timely. The name also puts you in mind of Robert De Niro. I spent the week saying: “I drive a Kia De Niro,” which annoyed my children, but brought the car a touch of glamour.
The Niro appears at first to be a bland but perfectly pleasant car – like potato soup, or an episode of The Archers. If you look at it and then close your eyes, you’ll find it impossible to remember anything about it. Was it blue? How many doors? It looks so like Nissan’s Qashqai that my neighbour thought it actually was one. But look a little harder and you’ll spot the Niro is, in fact, something quite different. It’s Kia’s first ever dedicated hybrid.
Until now most dedicated hybrids (ie those specifically designed as hybrids rather than being existing cars with an efficient electric/combustion combo engine shoe-horned in) follow the Uber-tastic Prius template. They tend to be chiselled with an emphasis on aerodynamics – think of slippery teardrops with dramatic grilles and swooping headlamps. But the Niro, being more of an SUV, is a more user-friendly shape. This costs it in terms of aerodynamics, but it still manages an worthy 74.3 miles to the gallon with super low CO2 emissions.
You couldn’t say it was exciting to drive. I’ve experienced more drama wrestling cubes out of the ice tray for my vodka tonic. But this is designed to be a “point and press” car that’ll get you where you want to go with the absolute minimum of fuss. I drove it to Cardiff and back in a day – a journey of about 280 miles. It’s normally a festival of frustrations: tailbacks, road works, speed restrictions. But smart cruise control, lane departure warnings, auto lights and wipers, excellent DAB sound system, emergency braking and more all stepped up to take the strain out of the long haul. All I had to do was catch up on a few podcasts.
The Niro is bursting with safety tech, connectivity features and driver aids. A couple of new ones caught my eye. The funky central display, for instance, tells you what setting your wipers are in. I realise that’s a laughably small matter, but I’ve never seen it before and it’s the sort of detail that makes all the difference. The car also gives constant feedback to encourage a greener driving style, and at the end of the week I was proud to be awarded a good mark for not being “aggressive” with the throttle. The emperor would have been disgusted…
Driving in Europe this summer? Take this test
Halt! Arrêtez! Detener! Are you heading across the Channel this summer? If you are, it’s time to polish up your European motoring knowledge! Despite the fact that thousands of us visit the continent by car every year, almost one in three admit that we don’t feel all that confident. To combat this, Euro Car Parts has created an ‘International Theory Test’ to allow us to brush up our driving knowledge before our travels.
It’s amazing what you will discover. For instance do you know what the autobahn speed limit is? Or by how much the speed limit reduced in France when it is raining? And what driving footwear is banned in Spain? Take the test at eurocarparts.com and find out.
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166
