Kia’s updated Rondo here with new five-seater

KIA Motors Australia (KMAu) has introduced its facelifted Rondo MPV with a reshuffled line-up including a new $4500-cheaper entry-level five-seater to help ignite slow sales.

Wearing a $26,990 before on-roads pricetag, the five-seat Rondo S supplants the $31,490 seven-seat Rondo Si as the base variant, which now moves up to the flagship version as the Platinum has been discontinued.

Revealed at last month’s Paris motor show, the restyled Rondo receives new front and rear bumper styling with a more prominent ‘tiger nose’ grille, along with newly designed foglights.

With the seats up, the five-seat S has a luggage capacity of 536 litres and the seven-seat Si can stow 492 litres, which increases to 1694L and 1650L respectively with seats folded down.

All Rondos are powered by a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder GDi engine – producing 122kW of power and 213Nm of torque fed to the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission – and will return a combined fuel economy figure of 7.9-litres per 100km.

Stopping the 1520kg Rondo S are 300mm/284mm front and rear disc brakes tucked behind 16-inch steel wheels, with the seven-seat variant using the same stoppers behind 16-inch alloy wheels and incurring a 26kg penalty.

Inside, the Rondo S features a 4.3-inch colour touchscreen with music copying functionality, while the Si has a 7.0-inch touchscreen with satellite navigation.

Si variants also receive a premium steering wheel and shift knob, electric folding mirrors, and a luggage screen.

Standard features across the Rondo range include automatic headlights, front and rear foglights, keyless entry, cloth trim, heated mirrors, rear spoiler, cruise control, six-speaker audio system, Bluetooth connectivity and USB input.

The Rondo was awarded a five-star ANCAP crash safety rating in September 2013 thanks to safety features including hill-start assist, rear parking sensors, rearview camera, speed-sensing automatic door locks, driver and passenger front and side airbags and curtain airbags.

Kia Motors Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith said the revamped Rondo range will translate to increased sales for the South Korean car-maker.

“I think it is fair to say that Rondo has never enjoyed the positive market attention that it deserves,” he said.

“With the addition of the five-seat variant, some fresh styling and a specification realignment we are confident Rondo will feature on a much greater number of consideration lists.”

For the first nine months of the year, Kia has sold 109 Rondos – its second-worst performer ahead of the Soul crossover on 65.

Although down 37.0 per cent over the same period last year, the Rondo is just ahead of the Ssangyong Stavic (108), Volkswagen Caravelle (90) and Citroen C4 Grand Picasso (96) in the people-movers under $60,000 segment.

Kia Rondo pricing*

S (a)	$26,990
Si (a)	$31,490

*Excludes on-road costs