The 2023 Kia Seltos may be the brand’s best-value SUV yet

Kia has quickly become one of New Zealand’s favourite car brands. In fact, the facelifted Sportage has been the fifth-best-selling car in the country so far in 2022. Our favourite car in their lineup is a little underappreciated but we’d argue it’s the best value car in their lineup. The Kia Seltos.

This 2023 NZ Kia Seltos is better than ever with more tech, more power and a head-turning facelifted design. All that for under $32,000.

The Design

Kia has significantly updated the designs of all their vehicles over the last two years, with particularly aggressive looks for the Kia Sportage and the EV6. The NZ Kia Seltos has been redesigned too and we reckon it looks impressive.

It has the typical strong, upright Kia grill with the new logo emblazoned across the hood and LED lights wrapping around its corners. The rest of its look is inspired by the Sportage, with a two-tone roof (which looks great in black) and a futuristic rear brake light that cuts a straight line across the car’s rear.

The interior gets an update too, with two 10.25-inch screens in the dash that mould into one for a luxury curved screen look. There’s plenty of room for five and a generous boot too. It looks seriously tidy in here, with neutral tones, premium materials and minimal design features – you might even mistake it for a luxury Euro.

The Drive

The Seltos is an extremely practical car, perfect for families, commuters and road trippers. But it’s also a bit of fun.

You can choose from a 2.0-litre non-turbo petrol engine on the S, Sport and Sport+ and and a much zippier 1.6-litre turbo on the Sport+ line. If we were choosing we’d go for the 1.6-litre turbo – this thing seriously moves.

We don’t have the numbers for the new lineup of engines but last year’s 2.0-litre model put out 110kW of power and 180 Nm of torque, while the 1.6-litre turbo puts out a decent 130kW of power and 265 Nm of torque. Our money’s on the new models being more powerful.

All models are driven by a traditional eight-speed auto transmission with front-wheel drive.

The Tech

It wouldn’t be a Kia if it wasn’t loaded with more tech than Iron Man’s suit. This beauty features:

Front and rear parking sensors
Autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection
Cruise control
Lane-keep assist
Rear occupant alert
Blind-spot monitoring (detection and braking)
Rear cross-traffic alert (detection and braking)
Traffic sign recognition
Driver attention alert
Lane following assist

The best value medium SUV on the market

The Kia Seltos is a great looking SUV that drives like a much smaller car. It’s also packed with smart tech making it a pleasure to drive. That’s why when it lands we reckon it’ll be the best-value medium SUV on the market in New Zealand – bar none.

Keen to have a test drive when it arrives late this year, or early next? Get in touch with your local Niccars dealership and we’ll get one ready just for you.