Although a sporty Kia sounds a distinctly oxymoronic concept, it's something we're going to have to get comfortable with. The Korean company has a whole host of rather exciting models waiting in the wings to sassy up its image a bit. For the time being we have to content ourselves with a car that's sporty in name rather than nature - the Kia cee'd 2.0 CRDi Sport. As long as you don't get too hung up about its sporting capabilities and instead concentrate on the value proposition, it's a hard car to find significant fault with.

The cee'd model range is one you're probably familiar with. The name stems from 'Community Europe and Europe Design' and while naming a Korean car after a European bureaucracy might seem odd, this cee'd will seem even stranger for those who have an old-school view that Kias represent lowest common denominator motoring.

With 138bhp on tap from its 2.0-litre CRDi diesel engine, the cee'd Sport has a respectable, if hardly retina-detaching, turn of speed, getting to 60mph in 10 seconds and running on to 127mph. The steering lacks a little of the polish of some of the very best contenders, although we're talking about tiny percentage differences. There's certainly very little in it when it comes to ride quality, the Kia adopting much the same MacPherson strut front suspension and five-link independent rear setup as the best of its rivals. The cee'd corners well with well-suppressed lateral roll and even when provoked, steadfastly refuses to do anything unexpected.

The long wheelbase helps ride quality with only lumpy B-roads showing up any flaws in deportment, the lower profile tyres on the 17-inch alloys making the ride a little more garrulous than the stock cee'd. The suspension settings have been left largely unchanged from other cee'd models which is no bad thing. Peak torque from the four-cylinder engine is rated at 305Nm which is more mid range muscle than a BMW 330i, this figure attainable anywhere from 1,800 to 2,500rpm. In other words, you won't need to rev the cee'd to high heaven in order to extract meaningful performance.

"It's keenly priced, drives well for those not looking to corner on their door handles and comes very well equipped.."

The black bezel headlights, the 17-inch alloy wheels and the rear privacy glass combine to give the cee'd 2.0 CRDi Sport a purposeful look, albeit one that's not quite as sleek as that of the three-door pro_cee'd which shares this diesel engine. That said, space and versatility are both significantly better with the five-door car and even better still if you choose the SW estate model. Kia is aiming for Volkswagen standards of quality with the cee'd range: sit inside a top variant like this one and you'll wonder whether they might be on the way to achieving it. Ex-VW designer Peter Schreyer and his team benchmarked the best European cars in order to give Kia something substantive to aim at and when it came to interiors, he was able to share a little of what he knew of his ex-employers' best practice. Soft touch plastics, quality fabrics and thoughtful approach to design make the cee'd a landmark Korean car.

The additional load space in the cee'd Sport SW hasn't come as a result of extending the hatchback's wheelbase. It's come by lengthening the rear overhang and increasing the roof height to the rear of the car. The total length of the car goes up by 235mm as a result. The carrying capacity of 534 litres when loaded to the height of the rear windows is almost 200 litres more than the cee'd hatch. The tailgate is an interesting design, taking with it a huge bite of roof when opened. This means that you won't need to stand back when opening the hatch - handy in confined supermarket spaces.

Kia is more than aware that its badge is yet to attain the sort of clout enjoyed by the likes of Peugeot or Renault, so to make up for this, it ensures that all its models are very well equipped. The cee'd Sport gets part-leather seats that feature a neat tyre tread design with silver stitching on the bolsters, arm rest and steering wheel.

There's also height and lumbar adjustment for the front seats to complement a rake and reach adjustable steering column, heated and electrically-adjustable door mirrors, remote central locking and a stereo with USB and auxiliary inputs. That's on top of climate control, electric windows all round and front fog lights. Given that the price Kia want for the 138bhp cee'd Sport buys you 110bhp worth of Ford Focus with far lower equipment levels, it's tough to argue with that value proposition.

Fuel economy is, as you'd expect from a modern diesel engine, very good, the cee'd 2.0 CRDi Sport returning a combined figure of 50.5mpg. Around town, a figure of 38.2mpg is quoted while the open road statistic is 62.8mpg. Emissions are rated at 148g/km. The omission of a diesel particulate filter puts a small dent in this engine's green credentials.

Used values will doubtless be propped up quite nicely by Kia's excellent warranty arrangement. Buyers get full cover for seven-years or 100,000 miles. It's about as good as the industry can offer and puts mainstream rivals like Ford and Vauxhall in the shade. This promise of trouble free motoring will be enough to tip the balance for many potential customers. Insurance ratings also look very reasonable, predicated upon a low cost of repair, a generally mature buyer profile and excellent safety provision.

So bowled over were we when Kia first announced the cee'd that we perhaps got a little ahead of ourselves. Now that the car has been on the market for some time, its position in the hierarchy of family hatches and estates is becoming clearer. The Sport model probably isn't the strongest car in the cee'd line up and the Sport badging isn't really done justice by an engine that can't break ten seconds to 60mph nor from a chassis that hasn't benefited from serious tuning for the enthusiast driver.

Put these complaints aside and take the Sport model merely as a well-equipped cee'd that looks quite tidy and it makes a lot more sense. It's keenly priced, drives well for those not looking to corner on their door handles and comes very well equipped. Kia is on a roll at the moment and this model adds to a well rounded range of cars. The bar of expectation was raised high when the cee'd first appeared and though the Sport leaves us a little disappointed, a little perspective shows it to be a very strong offering.

TOP 2 CEED DEALS

The results below show the top CEED deals on buyacar

	Kia Ceed 2.0 CRDi Sport 5dr Station wagon Estate
	ETR	Mthly £296	Saving £1,935	Price £14,655
	Kia Ceed 2.0 CRDi Sport 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £278	Saving £1,926	Price £13,839

typical 12.24% APR

PCP finance quote over 48 months,  10,000 miles pa,  deposit of £1000