Some years ago, I once had the pleasure of driving with a top factory test driver at a famous race track. I remember his time around the circuit to this day. Each successive year I've been back and I've been chipping away at that time. At first, whole minutes came away, then tens of seconds, then the odd second here and there. Now, I'm improving in tenths. Each tenth of a second gets harder and harder to claw back. What does this have to do with a Kia hatchback? It's simple. As a manufacturer, Kia has made a lot of the big, easy gains. Now, in order to stand parity with the likes of Ford, Renault, Vauxhall and Peugeot, it needs to sweat the details. With that in mind, let's run the rule over the cee'd.

Let's get the big news out there first. The cee'd is a car designed by Europeans for Europeans. It's built in Europe - in Zilina, Slovakia to be exact - and the man behind the design project, Peter Schreyer, was once head of design for Volkswagen Group. The Koreans are pulling no punches and that much is evident the very first time you clap eyes on a cee'd. I challenge you to name one Korean car to date that hasn't had at least one gratuitously odd styling feature. Think of even the better looking South-East Asian cars and there will be some jarring detail you'll be able to nominate fairly easily. With the cee'd, Kia has aimed for a more mature design. Not mature as in the demographic of the target market. Rather the design output of a company that doesn't need to fall back on gimmickry and ostentation to get noticed.

Up against the likes of the Ford Focus and the Vauxhall Astra, the cee'd needs to be extravagantly talented to even have a sniff of getting near Kia's modest target of two percent of total segment sales which, in real terms, equates to about 10,000 cars per year. The usual Kia attributes of the excellent seven-year warranty will still apply but a big leap forward is needed. To extend our earlier analogy, Kia needs to find another five seconds a lap from somewhere.

Sit inside the cee'd and you'll wonder whether they might be on the way to achieving it. 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. Let's not be patronising and proclaim it as 'a lot of metal for your money' or any other such bunk. This model is a good car, full stop.

"This model is a good car, full stop."

British customers get a choice of either a 108bhp 14-litre unit, a 120bhp 1.6-litre that's set to be the most popular petrol engine and a 141bhp 2.0-litre powerplant. Diesel customers get the choice of 89 or 114bhp variants of the 1.6-litre direct injection common-rail 16v engine or a 138bhp 2.0-litre. All engines bar the 2.0-litre units get a five-speed manual gearbox, the bigger engines getting a six-speeder. The 1.6 also has the option of a four-speed auto. None of the cars are what you'd call quick but by the same token none, except perhaps for the 1.4-litre petrol, are signally lacking in poke. The 1.6-litre petrol was a little resonant when extended but in normal use is adequately refined. It'll make sixty in 10.8 seconds and reach 119mph and if driven a bit less maniacally, will return an average of 44.1mpg.

The cee'd is available in five-door hatch and SW estate bodystyles, if you want a 3-door you'll need the sportier pro_cee'd model. Trim levels open with the S models which feature air conditioning, six airbags, a stereo that can accept MP3 file inputs from the CD, a trip computer and 15-inch steel wheels. Step up to the GS model (as many will) and you'll get 16-inch alloy wheels, a better stereo with an auxiliary socket for docking your iPod to, remote locking and electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors. The plush LS adds climate control, part leather upholstery and front fog lamps, while the Sport takes a slightly sportier tack with 17-inch rims, sports seats and black bezel headlamps.

Whichever trim level you choose, the interior of the cee'd is an impressive piece of design. It's a touch bigger in most of the key measurement criteria than a Focus without looking like an MPV in the process. Where the car really succeeds is in resisting the temptation to once more lapse into wackiness, the controls being beautifully finished and resolutely straightforward to use without losing the focus on design elegance. The best designs are those which function best and in this regard, the cee'd scores a bullseye.

To drive it's there or thereabouts too. 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. Benchmarking at work again. Next time you see clusters of suited Oriental gentlemen obsessing over a rival car's door pulls or switches or some other apparently trivial detail at an international motor show, you'll know the score.

The cee'd is a genuine revelation. The sole thing that stands in its way is the limitation of its badge equity. In a blind test, it's one of the best two or three family hatches sensible money can buy. Kia has found that extra few seconds per lap from somewhere.

TOP 5 CEED DEALS

The results below show the top CEED deals on buyacar

	Kia Ceed 1.6 CRDi LS 5dr [113] Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £242	Saving £1,883	Price £12,507
	Kia Ceed 1.4 S 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £172	Saving £1,849	Price £9,241
	Kia Ceed 1.4 GS 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £188	Saving £1,857	Price £10,033
	Kia Ceed 1.6 CRDi GS 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £214	Saving £1,870	Price £11,270
	Kia Ceed 1.6 CRDi LS 5dr [113] Auto Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly	Saving £1,902	Price £13,488

typical 11.52% APR

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