New-look sedan turns heads at Paris show

FIVE years after launching the Kia Venga, Kia revealed an enhanced version of its popular compact MPV at the 2014 Paris Motor Show recently.

This refreshed model features a new-look front and rear, a more sophisticated cabin, new alloy wheels and an expanded range of options.

Kia’s European design team, based in Frankfurt, has given the Venga a larger “tiger-nose grille” with a separate, repositioned Kia badge, and a restyled lower grille with combined fog lights and LED daytime running lights.

At the rear, horizontal chrome trim joins the new rear light clusters, which also feature LED bulbs. New designs of the larger 16- and 17-inch alloy wheels are also now available.

Inside, the enhanced Venga is fitted with darker metal trim with bright accents and a choice of two new seat trims to raise the quality of the cabin, plus a new centre-stack fascia.

New options include a heated steering wheel for colder mornings and the new generation of Kia’s AVN (audio-video navigation) system with a seven-inch display screen, rear-view camera, improved processing speed and faster route calculation with availability of system depending on individual markets.

The four-metre long upgraded Venga retains the original model’s unusually long wheelbase for its class at 2 615mm and its 1 600mm high roofline to maximise cabin space.

Every Venga is equipped with a 130mm sliding 60/40 split-fold rear seat, which also folds flat into the floor to create a versatile and spacious cargo bay.

Depending on individual markets, the 2015 Venga will be offered with a choice of up to six 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre petrol and diesel engines driving the front wheels through either five- or six-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmissions.

Every engine in the Venga line-up is available with Kia’s fuel-stretching Start/Stop (ISG) technology and complies with Euro Five emission standards. ISG equipped models have a CO2 rating from just 114 g/km for the models equipped with the 1.4-litre U2 diesel engine.

Manufactured exclusively at Kia’s Žilina plant in Slovakia, the upgraded Venga is expected to go on sale across Europe in early 2015, with local availability to be decided by individual markets.

Note that all specifications, including engine line-up, for the mass production vehicles in this article pertain to the Western Europe market. Details about models destined for South Africa will be released closer to the date of its local introduction.