Kia Motors Europe has carried out a comprehensive upgrade of its ever popular cee’d, a model that has provided the foundation for the company’s continuing success in Europe over recent years. With more dynamic performance and Kia’s distinct style, the upgraded cee’d offers buyers a car built to meet the exacting standards of quality and design demanded by European buyers.

Kia’s European designers have evolved the interior and exterior styling of the current cee’d into an exciting new look, with the powertrain team developing a wider range of engines and transmissions. The improvements include a range of new safety, comfort and convenience upgrades. The changes apply to every model in the cee’d range, incorporating the five-door cee’d hatchback, Sportswagon and three-door pro_cee’d.

The modifications applied to the cee’d range also include a number of visual and dynamic improvements to the high-powered cee’d GT and pro_cee’d GT models. Already among the best-looking cars in the C-segment ‘hot hatch’ class, these changes will further strengthen the GT models’ appeal to buyers in this more emotive corner of the market. The upgraded model will come with a new ‘GT Line’ specification, offering buyers the sporty looks and dynamics of the GT models and the versatility of the conventional cee’d model family. The GT Line specification is available on all three cee’d body types – five door cee’d, cee’d Sportswagon and three-door pro_cee’d.

These upgrades to the cee’d arrive just as Kia has achieved a major milestone in the model’s history. Having started production in 2006, May 2015 saw the 1,000,000^th cee’d manufactured by Kia Motors in Europe, and the car has played a significant role in Kia’s sustained growth and success since its introduction nine years ago.

The upgraded Kia cee’d inherits the bold, distinct styling of the current model, with a series of visual modifications to modernise the car’s appearance. At the front, the cee’d continues the look that has proven so popular with European buyers, retaining Kia’s hallmark ‘tiger-nose’ grille, sleek wraparound headlamps and integrated fog lamps. Changes to the ‘face’ of the cee’d include a more angular and wider bumper, with chrome trim around the fog lamps, and a new oval-shaped grille mesh echoing many of the shapes and design forms on the front of the car. A similar change has been made to the rear of the cee’d, with reshaped bumpers and sporty-looking reflectors adding greater volume and strength to the car’s appearance. LED rear lamps complete the back of the car, adding a higher level of refinement while updating the cee’d’s night-time light signature. Stylish new 16- and 17-inch alloy wheel designs are also now available across the range.

The high quality cabin in the Kia cee’d has received a range of minor styling upgrades to build on the simple elegance of the interior design. The basic form of the cabin remains unchanged, but a number of subtle enhancements bring a more modern look and feel to the interior. A new optional colour pack further adds to the appeal. The asymmetric, driver-focused dashboard receives a flash of chrome around the instrument binnacle, driver-side and central air vents and around the upper edge of the instrument panel. The central fascia panel is now finished in a high quality, anti-scratch gloss black for a more premium look. Other chrome highlights have also been added to the cabin, in particular around the base of the gear-stick, on door handles and to the temperature control dials on the dashboard, depending on trim level. The 2016 Kia cee’d will be available with a new interior colour package, a new Brown Pack adding elegant brown upholstery to the seats and doors.

For diesel variants, the upgraded interior of the cee’d offers improved noise, vibration and harshness characteristics. Additional sound-absorbing materials have been adopted for the carpet and ventilation system, while twice as much anti-vibration foam has been added to the dashboard panel to cut engine vibrations intruding on the calm of the cabin. All diesel engines have also been fitted with sound-absorbing material to the engine block, oil pan and diesel particulate filter.

The upgraded cee’d offers a wider choice of powertrains than before, with all engines now compliant with the Euro 6 emissions standard. The diesel cee’d continues to be a popular choice for European buyers, and the 1.6-litre CRDi diesel engine has been upgraded for its application in the new model. A new high-pressure injection system and continuously-controlled variable oil pump reduce friction losses in the engine, with the lower powered 108bhp version available across both the standard cee’d and new GT Line range. The CO₂ emissions fall to 102 g/km, or just 94 g/km when fitted with Kia ISG (Idle Stop/Go). Available with both the enhanced cee’d range and the new GT Line variant, the higher powered 1.6 CRDi engine now produces 134bhp (up from 126bhp), and 210lb ft torque. With the small increase in performance, the engine’s full torque is now available from just 1,500 (down from 1,900, when equipped with a manual transmission), resulting in more effortless acceleration under all conditions. The Kia cee’d will continue to be offered with the popular 1.4-litre CRDi diesel engine which meets the Euro 6 emissions standard.

The upgraded cee’d features a second new technology debut for Kia, with the arrival of the brand’s all-new seven-speed double-clutch transmission (DCT), available exclusively on models equipped with the higher powered 134bhp 1.6-litre CRDi diesel engine. Kia’s new DCT is capable of handling the higher torque outputs of the modified engine fitted to the upgraded cee’d, with a higher capacity than the six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission it replaces. Drivers specifying the new DCT will benefit from faster gear changes than a traditional automatic transmission, as well as lower running costs. When equipped with the new DCT, the 1.6-litre CRDi engine emits just 109g/km carbon dioxide, compared to the 145g/km recorded by the earlier engine and six-speed automatic transmission.

Engineers have made a number of modifications to the suspension and chassis of the upgraded cee’d in order to improve ride comfort and handling, endowing the car with more dynamic performance. The principal enhancement is the addition of a new torque vectoring system, which reduces under-steer by partially applying the brake to the inner wheel under cornering. The motor-driven power steering system now results in more linear and predictable steering inputs, while changes to front wheel geometry have improved on-centre steering feel. Finally, new stoppers on the rear strut mount insulators and new outer ball joint on the rear stabiliser bar help to improve ride comfort on poor surfaces by minimising vibrations through the suspension.

Safety is a priority for Kia and the cee’d is now available with an optional Speed Limit Information Function, which uses a camera to identify speed limit signs and display them beside the speedometer and on the navigation screen. Blind Spot Detection and Rear Cross Traffic Alert are also available as options, using sensors to monitor the side and rear of the cee’d for other vehicles in the driver’s blind spots and give the driver a visual or audible alert.

Drivers can enjoy easier parking with the 2016 cee’d, with an upgraded Smart Parking Assist System, depending on market. SPAS uses side-mounted ultrasonic sensors and front and rear parking sensors, as well as the electric power steering system, to identify a suitable parking space and automatically steer the car into the space. In the latest cee’d, the system can now steer the car into perpendicular spaces, in addition to parallel parking. The parallel exit function allows the cee’d to steer itself out of tight road-side spaces.

Designed and engineered in Europe before launching originally in December 2006, the Kia cee’d model family is manufactured at Kia’s production facility in Žilina, Slovakia and remains one of the brand’s bestselling models with more than 75,000 sold across Europe in 2014.