[Behemoth]

Today I had some time and had planned to get my Jawa 42 serviced and since the Kia showroom is right next door to it, I got to spend some more time seeing the Kia Sonet.
I also did some measurements of the Legspace and the Rear seats. I am doing a comparison of the Sonet's measurements with the cars I have - the Jeep Compass and the Skoda Laura.

First the Kia Sonet's measurements:

Seat Squab length is around 18 Inches


Sonet Seat width is close to 48 Inches


Legroom for me with Driver seat in my position (height 5'8") at rear seat is 7 Inches.

Measurements for Skoda Laura


Seat Squab length is 18.5 Inches


Laura Seat width is 51.5 inches


Laura Legroom is 8 Inches


Now Jeep Compass:

Jeep Seat Squab length is 21 Inches


Jeep Seat width is 50 Inches


Jeep Legroom is 8 Inches.

So Sonet is not really too much behind in legroom compared to both my other cars! In terms of seat width, the Laura is best at 51.5 Inches, which is 3.5 inches more than the Sonet, but the Laura has bucket seats even on rear bench and also a huge transmission tunnel, so it is also best as a four seater.
The Jeep Compass rear seat has a seat width 2 inches more than the Sonet and also has a very healthy seat squab of 21 inches, which is quite comfortable. The flat floor also is good for three passengers aside.
I have shared the measurements for my cars, and if someone with Venue can do the same measurements on their car, we will have another rear world comparison between the two.

I also measured the Ground clearance of the Sonet from the centre and here are some pics:


Height of the centre portion above the Ground is 10.5 Inches (unladen) for GTX+ Diesel variant



Also, I opened the hood of the Sonet, and it is really Heavy! The Build quality of the Sonet (at least from Metal sheet thickness) is much heavier than other cars in the CSUV segment. In fact the Bonnet weight of the Sonet was almost as much as my Jeep Compass Bonnet weight, inspite of it being a bit smaller.

I saw the platinum coloured car too and that also looks good in person and is a bit more subtle than the other flashy colours. Here are some pics of that car.

[MaheshBapurao]

Originally Posted by dksv

Can somebody visiting the showrooms navigate on the HU as shown below and check whether the following option appears? If it does, then this is it!

Attachment 2052831

This is available in Indian version too. I am disappointed as I have booked GT Diesel AT on day one. Hope there is some workaround to Apple car play too

[NFS2024]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

I also did some measurements of the Legspace

Thanks for this very useful information. Was the Seat squab dimension same at both front and back in the Sonet i.e. 18 in?

Dear Venue owners - Appreciate if you can measure similar dimensions for your Venue and post it here to get a conclusion on the interior dimensions of both these cars.

Thanks in advance.

[gusfring]

Originally Posted by BKB999

Infact the approximate price, when I asked, told by the sales executive was 8.3lks Ex-showroom for HTK+ Diesel MT 😳 (which I have booked), which is nowhere coming near the rumoured price tag of 9.69lks! He said, to beat the Venue in competition that's the price tag they're expecting. I would be happy even if it is priced at around 9-9.15lks Ex-showroom.

Test drive should be available by this weekend as per him.

Oh wow, then I could maybe expect the HTK+ petrol MT to be even lower... like maybe around 7.5l ex-showroom!!! This is quite ideal; the only gripe then is that like with the Seltos, Kia may not have a test vehicle for the NA engines to push sales of the turbos

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by NFS2024

Thanks for this very useful information. Was the Seat squab dimension same at both front and back in the Sonet i.e. 18 in?

Dear Venue owners - Appreciate if you can measure similar dimensions for your Venue and post it here to get a conclusion on the interior dimensions of both these cars.

Thanks in advance.

Well I focused only on the rear seat and did not measure the driver seat! Though the driver's seat was quite ergonomic and comfortable. My guess is that the seat squab is same, if not more. From the driver seat, you can also see the hood all the way and visibility is good.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by gusfring

Oh wow, then I could maybe expect the HTK+ petrol MT to be even lower... like maybe around 7.5l ex-showroom!!! This is quite ideal; the only gripe then is that like with the Seltos, Kia may not have a test vehicle for the NA engines to push sales of the turbos

Seeing the cars available for the media drives ie. the iMT turbo petrol and diesel Auto only, I hope Kia doesn’t goof up the variant-colour-engine combinations like they did with the Seltos at the time of launch, leaving a lot of pre-booked customers stranded!

[BKB999]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

This is highly unlikely. The Diesel range will start close to where the Venue starts, i.e. 8.1 lakh - this will be for the HTE.
...so I don't expect the HTK+ Diesel Manual to be anywhere under Rs. 9 lakhs.

I reckon that. Even I was awestruck when the sales representative told me the price. I did reassure that I am asking about HTK+ Diesel. He then told me the competitive price expectation.
Any way, I am optimistic and expecting a price around 9.5L

[DImPo]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Rumour! Kia Sonet ARAI fuel economy numbers leaked


As we know, the Sonet will be offered with three engine options. The 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine produces 82 BHP @ 6,300 rpm and 115 Nm @ 4,200 rpm. It is paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox and is said to return 18.4 km/l.

The 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine produces 118 BHP @ 6,000 rpm and 172 Nm @ 1,500-4,000 rpm. This engine will be offered with either a 6-speed iMT or 7-speed DCT. This engine is said to deliver 18.2 km/l.

I am quite surprised that the 1.0 Kappa GDI Turbo (3 cylinder) engine returns lower mileage of 18.2 kmpl as compared to the 1.2 NA (4 cylinder) engine's mileage of 18.4 kmpl. I thought the GDI Turbo engine would give better mileage for the following reasons

a) 3 cylinder engines are better than 4 cylinder ones in fuel economy
b) Direct Injection should improve combustion and thereby fuel economy
c) Turbo engine can also increase fuel economy apart from increasing power

May be the GDI engine is tuned more for power than for Efficiency.

[sou_3749]

I had a chance to check Sonet in person. Fantastic package I must admit. Solid build, fantastic interiors, feature packed and most importantly it's surprisingly spacious (I own a s-cross). Diesel is the clear choice if TGDI price is close to that of CRDI. Diesel AT if priced sensibly would be my pick of the lot. It's definitely a better package that Venue and Nexon.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by AbidIqbalShaik

As for the Seltos not having inbuilt Wi-Fi (in 8-inch unit)? Are you sure about it?

It isn't there buddy. The option isn't simply there in the menu. Few of us had tried the engg mode too to check if one could unearth it, but to no avail.

Originally Posted by AbidIqbalShaik

Maybe that is the case with Seltos too (in the 8-inch unit). It might have Wi-Fi but it is not be accessible to users, just like that in the Kia K5 2021. Possible, right?

Why would a manufacturer bury such a big feature if the hardware is already inbuilt. There are instances though in VAG cars when that has happened.

Originally Posted by AbidIqbalShaik

Maybe I am wrong. But that is just my speculation. @ Bibendum90949 do you think there is any other way to find out if the Seltos has Wi-Fi or not?

I don't know if there's any other way. My guess is it isn't there for the simple reason why would Kia mask if it exists.

[84.monsoon]

Originally Posted by DImPo

I am quite surprised that the 1.0 Kappa GDI Turbo
a) 3 cylinder engines are better than 4 cylinder ones in fuel economy
b) Direct Injection should improve combustion and thereby fuel economy
c) Turbo engine can also increase fuel economy apart from increasing power

This comes down to the way turbocharging works. Under optimal conditions, what you say is perfectly true and the smaller 3 cylinder engine should return a higher fuel efficiency.

However, where the 1.0 engine will fare far worse than the NA engine is under the following conditions:

• Slow moving or start stop traffic
• Situations requiring hard acceleration
• High speed drives

Essentially, once the engine hits a certain RPM range, the turbo charger gets spooled up properly and provides a solid boost. Most turbo engines have to hit about 1750+ RPM before this starts to happen. Also, the turbo has a certain higher limit of boost it can provide and in a situation where there is an even higher demand for power or torque from the engine beyond this point, the basic small engine again has to stretch to the outer limits limits of its capability. Here again, this is very expensive in terms of fuel consumption since the small engine is highly over-worked at this point.

For example, when in slow moving traffic, when the engine RPMs are not able to reach the range where the turbocharger kicks in, the engine works almost equal to an NA engine, Since it is a smaller engine, in the absence of turbo boost, it has to work a lot harder to move a relatively heavy vehicle for its size. This causes a disproportionate hit on fuel efficiency. Similarly, under hard acceleration, the output demand shoots up and again the small engine works at the non-optimal point in its range, guzzling fuel.

The ARAI figures actually understate the fuel economy penalty of the small turbo engines. The test is actually almost tailor made for small turbo engines to score well - since it involves significant percentage of running at moderate, steady speeds and does not test higher expressway speeds prevalent these days. Nor does it test enough the start-stop and crawling speeds very common in our cities. In the real world, the turbo engine will actually fare far worse for most of our driving applications.

[southpawPrash]

Between the Intense Red and Gravity Gray, I wonder which color would be easier to maintain. I love these 2 colors and I'm not sure which one to go for especially since there aren't many pictures available for the grey one. Red color Sonet photos are all over now, and I think that is the main reason why many would be booking red at this point especially for the GT line variant.

[k_gpatel]

Visited Kia showroom today and had a look at Sonet GT. Exterior looks are sharp, modern and due to its unique design language the Sonet looks bigger than the Venue. Door close with a solid thud and overall fit & finish both inside out looked great. Interior space is nothing different than Venue although boot space is a size above the Venue. If priced at par, I would pick the Sonet over Venue for its road presence.

[7000plusrpm]

After a few months of sleepless nights, I have finally booked the Sonet, variant selected is GTX+ and I'm yet to decide on the color.

I was looking for an automatic with 12L INR, a Diesel engine due to better city mileage and TC auto box for the reliability. I would have preferred a German or Japanese car. But I don't see anything matching my criteria.

Since there are very few options in the market, I was down to Ecosport (rules out due to abysmal city mileage), Polo (ruled out due to exorbitant pricing for the auto variant), and Sonet. Although it was my third choice, I had no other option left.

The SA has mentioned a waiting period of two months. I'm hoping to get it in October.

[RaceHorse]

Originally Posted by 7000plusrpm

Since there are very few options in the market, I was down to Ecosport (rules out due to abysmal city mileage), Polo (ruled out due to exorbitant pricing for the auto variant),
and Sonet. Although it was my third choice, I had no other option left.

Very good decision, I went through exact same thought process. After hearing the pricing of Polo GT which is closed to 12L on-road in Hyderabad,
I have no more confusions and happy with booking of GTX+ Diesel AT.

If diesel automatic is the choice, then this is unbeatable option right now in the market.