2024 Kia Picanto Sport review

Kia’s formerly cute Picanto has had a glow-up.

It’s ditched its more rounded shape up front and has a new, angular, more grown-up-looking face.

This isn’t an all-new car, but it is a comprehensive update to the Picanto, which has been on sale in this generation since 2017.

There’s good news and bad news. The Picanto now comes with way more standard safety features than before, and that’s good. It also comes with a higher price, and that’s probably not so good.

Now that Kia has discontinued the slightly larger Rio hatch, the Picanto is the first step into the Kia range in Australia. From here you step into either the Stonic SUV, or the much larger Cerato hatch.

The Picanto is a touch smaller than cars like the MG 3 and Suzuki Swift, though these are realistically its competitors now.

Can some new safety and technology features and a more modern front face keep the Picanto, and in fact Australia’s Micro Car segment, alive?

The 2024 Kia Picanto comes in two versions, the Sport, like I have here, and the more expensive and better-equipped GT-Line.

Both come with the same 1.2-litre non-turbo engine producing 62kW and 122Nm. You can stick with a five-speed manual, or there’s also the option of a four-speed automatic.

The Sport comes with some new features the old base-model Picanto S didn’t have, like halogen projector headlights, 14-inch alloy wheels, power-folding door mirrors, and an instrument cluster with digital readouts.

There are dusk-sensing headlights with auto high beam, fabric seat trim, leather-look steering wheel and gear-lever wrap, an 8.0-inch infotainment system, and power windows.

There’s also a long list of new safety features, like lane-keep assist and lane-follow assist, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert (both with braking), driver attention warning, rear occupant alert, and more.

Within the Kia range ‘Sport’ sits higher than ‘S’, so this new model isn’t a true direct replacement of the old model. That’s reflective of this car’s need to fill the role of both the Rio and Picanto, somewhat.

Now… let’s talk price, which is the crucial bit.

The Picanto is still one of Australia’s cheapest cars – but it’s not the cheapest, nor is it as cheap as it used to be.

This car is priced from $20,690 drive-away. If you want the auto, it’s $1000 more, and if you want a metallic paint finish that’s a $520 surcharge.

Last year you could get a base-model Picanto for $1800 less – but last year’s model was the Picanto S, so the step-up isn’t just a price rise for the sake of it when you factor in the new equipment.

If you’re watching your budget, the MG 3 starts from $19,990 drive-away with an automatic, or you can get into a Suzuki Ignis from $22,490 drive-away.

At just 3595mm nose-to-tail, 1485mm tall and 1595mm wide, the Picanto is a truly compact car. Its ‘Micro Car’ classification in Australia sees it grouped with the Fiat 500 (3571mm x 1488mm x 1627mm) that’s just a touch taller, but also the all-round larger Suzuki Ignis (3700mm x 1595mm x 1660mm).

As you’d probably imagine, this means the interior is fairly compact. Kia has been smart about how it has used the available space, but despite a significant new look on the outside, the interior of the Picanto is little changed from before.

The dash design hasn’t changed, but it’s holding up okay for its age. Because this is a cheap, compact car, nearly all of the surfaces are hard plastics, but they feel robust and don’t have any creaks or rattles.

The seats are cloth-trimmed and manually adjustable, but there’s no height adjustment for the driver’s seat (which curiously was available on last year’s model) and no reach adjustment on the steering wheel.

Storage space is fairly good, and the centre stack is configured in such a way as to offer lots of ‘chuck in’ slots for keys, wallets, phones, etc. There’s no wireless charge pad, but there is the option of USB-A, USB-C, and 12-volt charge plugs.

The centre console is quite skinny and doesn’t have an armrest or lidded cover. You need to step up to the GT-Line for this.

At the front, though, there are retractable cupholders that are just the right size for a regular soft drink can (but not an energy drink) and can be slid back to open up a big unlidded storage bin. There’s some extra space alongside the manual park brake too.

You can tuck a water bottle into each of the front doors, just. The door pockets are fairly generous too.

It’s worth pointing out that the GT-Line goes a bit more upmarket with leather-look seats, a centre armrest, sports pedals, and a few other features. The Sport, at least, gets a leather-look steering wheel rim, which is actually quite a nice touch.

The rear seats are fairly basic. Head room is quite good thanks to the tall roof, but anyone over about 180cm is likely to find knee room and elbow space quite limited. There are three seatbelts across the back, but realistically two occupants is about all you’ll comfortably fit.

The rear has no charging, no air vents, and only one cupholder in the back of the centre console, making it a bit of a reach. The rear seats offer a 60:40 folding function to expand boot space.

With the seats up you’ll find 255 litres of cargo space, or up to 1010L once they’re folded. An Ignis has 271L/1101L and an MG 3 has 307L/1081L by comparison. With the seats folded there’s a step in the boot, and the floor itself is low, leaving a fairly high loading lip.

The 8.0-inch infotainment display is decent. It packs in AM/FM radio, Bluetooth and smartphone mirroring. If you own an Android phone you can connect either wirelessly or by plugging in, but if you have an iPhone CarPlay is wireless-only.

It’s a pretty basic system, and a relatively small screen by modern standards, but there’s not much to complain about with how it works – plus it retains physical knobs and shortcut buttons.

The sounds come via a six-speaker system. It won’t set the world alight, but it’s up to the job for the average cruise.

Kia’s wireless phone mirroring hasn’t always played nice in the past, but this time it worked without a hitch or a glitch, which is really good to see.

The driver gets a digital instrument cluster – but not a full display panel, rather a set of alarm clock-style LCDs for the speedo and tacho, with a small trip computer in between.

Unlike some newer Kia models, the Picanto also goes without remote app connectivity, so you can’t check fuel levels or remotely unlock the car, like you can in bigger cars like the Seltos and Sorento.

The new Kia Picanto doesn’t have an ANCAP safety rating, but earlier versions of this same generation Picanto previously carried a four-star rating from 2017. Because ANCAP evolves its test criteria, it applies an expiry date.

A new result and an old one can’t be compared side-by-side, which is tricky, but it basically means a Picanto probably wouldn’t get a four-star score again if it were crash-tested in 2024, even with the addition of new safety features.

The updated safety equipment provides some extra protection, with things like forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking, six airbags, stability control, and hill-start assist carried over from before.

New for 2024 are lane-keep and lane-follow assist, driver attention warning, lead vehicle alert, safe-exit warning so you don’t open a door into oncoming traffic or cyclists, a reminder to check for back seat occupants, plus blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert that can brake to avoid a collision.

It feels a little fancy for one of the cheapest cars on the market to be able to steer its way through bends in the road and stay within lane markings. It works well, but on the other hand features like speed sign recognition aren’t fitted, so Kia has tried to update the Picanto, though perhaps not as comprehensively as if it were an all-new model.

The rear-view camera gives a good view behind, and provides ‘dynamic’ guidelines that steer as you do to make lining up a tight space a breeze. Rear park sensors are standard, but front sensors aren’t available.

Kia provides a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty for private owners, but if you use your Picanto as a ride-share or courier there’s a 150,000km cap.

Services are due every 12 months or 15,000km. Capped-price servicing is available, so you can look up service costs ahead of time to know what you’re in for.

Over five years that’ll tally up to $2069, so it’s not super-cheap. Each service is individually priced, but the first five years average out to less than $415 per visit. A Suzuki Ignis or Swift is similarly priced, both at $1955 over five years. An MG 3 is only $1445 over five years, but intervals are every 10,000km, so big distance travellers may need to factor in an extra sixth service at additional cost.

Comprehensive insurance is quoted at $994 for the Picanto Sport, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

Using the same details, we were quoted $1209 for an MG 3 Core and $1176 for a Suzuki Ignis GL, helping balance the Picanto’s slightly higher service costs.

The official fuel consumption rating for the Kia Picanto sees it running an oily-rag-like 5.4 litres per 100 kilometres. City consumption is 6.8L/100km and highway consumption is 4.6L/100km.

Treating the Picanto like a city-slicker for a week saw consumption heading towards the seven-litre mark. With some open-road driving on the weekend that came back down to an average of 6.5L/100km.

With a 35-litre tank that equates to almost 540km between fills. Based on Kia’s official average that’s more like 650km.

Not bad for a car with no high-tech fuel-saving features like stop-start or mild-hybrid assistance.

Cheap compact cars and rewarding driving experiences don’t always go hand-in-hand. The Picanto’s driving experience feels a touch better than its price rivals, not revolutionary, but resolved and satisfying enough.

The 62kW/122Nm outputs from the 1.2-litre non-turbo engine are willing without being over the top. For one-up darting around town, it’s all you’ll ever need. With a car-load of mates, you might find you need to turn the air con off to make a less belaboured getaway.

The five-speed manual is decent, in that it’s user-friendly and has a nicely defined gate. It’s not going to tax you as you change through the gears – and to get the most out of the package, you’ll probably need to do that a lot.

My one little gripe would be the clutch pedal itself. Again, it’s light and easy to use in peak-hour traffic, but the take-up point is hard to judge. This can lead to riding the clutch or over-revving a touch until you get your rhythm. For new drivers, it may catch them out at first.

Kia does local ride and handling work here to ensure the Picanto rides out the kinds of imperfections found on Aussie roads. It’s a touch firmer than you might expect from a light car, but the result is tidy handling and stability at freeway speeds.

Around town it can feel a bit heavy-footed at times. There’s some crash-through over little dips and speed humps, but the overall composure is decent, and the ride quality is reassuring overall.

The steering has some built-in weight. It might surprise you if you expect something super-light and city-friendly, but once you hit the road it makes more sense as a package overall.

You’ll certainly find the Picanto feels most at home around town. At 100km/h in fifth gear engine revs sit at 3000rpm, so it’s a little buzzy – but if there were a taller sixth gear to change into, the lack of torque may see you struggle to deal with inclines and headwinds.

The Kia Picanto isn’t rated to tow – but this probably isn’t the car for that. If you need to carry bikes, a roof rack might be a better option than a rear-mounted carrier. Kia doesn’t offer these as a genuine accessory, but they are available aftermarket.

Kia has done a great job of refreshing the exterior of the Picanto. It brings the look up to date and keeps the car eye-catching for potential first buyers who might be a little more trend-driven than interested in substance.

On the inside, the transformation is less convincing. It’s good that Kia hasn’t meddled with the available storage space, but without any significant changes, it’s not the most exciting or innovative new car interior.

What’s really great is the effort made to update safety systems. In a car that’s likely to be a first car for a lot of buyers, it’s good to see Kia investing in updates to technology and bringing them to entry-level cars like the Picanto Sport.

The downside, however, is that the price has now pushed past the $20,000 mark. While plenty of extra equipment has been added in the seven years this generation Picanto has been on sale, some may pine for the days when an entry-level Picanto was over $5000 less than it is today.

Harder still for Kia, this model has to sell up against second-hand versions of the same car, some of which are still covered by new car warranty, and the truly budget-conscious may simply opt to do that.

Still, against rivals like the MG 3 and Suzuki Swift or Ignis, the Picanto offers a decent amount of standard equipment, robust resale, affordable insurance, and safety features missing from those rivals. The pricing may not be as slim as it once was, but in a modern context the value still stacks up.

At the time of writing this review, demand for the Picanto outstrips supply. You may find a demo model, but in the case you need to order your car, a Kia Australia spokesperson said the wait time should be around three to four months.

I’d also suggest taking a spin around the block in the automatic version. The equipment is the same, but for urban commuters the auto might be a bit easier to live with – not that the manual is a bad choice.

If you want to stay updated with everything that’s happened to this car since our review, you’ll find all the latest news here.