Kia Picanto review – facelifted city car with lots to offer

Verdict – is the Kia Picanto a good car?

As manufacturers flock to mass produce lucrative SUVs, the number of small city cars on sale has suddenly fallen off a cliff. The Kia Picanto isn’t going anywhere just yet, though – it’s just been given a new lease of life. It includes a pumped-up new look so that it can cut it against all the SUVs on the road, and the amount of kit on offer – always a Picanto strong point – has been amped up even further. Its basic petrol engines are nothing special, but still represent very cheap motoring.

Kia Picanto models, specs and alternatives

The Kia Picanto has now been around for two decades as a budget-focused city car. It’s now in its third generation having outlived countless city-car rivals that emerged to take it on following its original success as a great value-for-money urban runaround. Cars like the Volkswagen up! and Citroen C1 have all bowed out of production.

Best city cars on sale 2025

The Picanto is keenly priced, starting from around £15,500, and is well built and reliable, it offers much to tease buyers away from rivals such as the Hyundai i10 and Toyota Aygo X. Its abilities might also lead buyers to consider the Picanto against superminis like the MG3, Suzuki Swift and Dacia Sandero.

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While cars usually undergo one mid-life facelift during their life cycles, the latest Kia Picanto has actually undergone two – it first launched in 2017, but got a minor refresh in 2020 and then for the 2024 model year it’s had a more comprehensive rework. Now it sports Kia’s latest ‘Opposites Attract’ design language which brings it more in line with the brand’s most expensive electric SUV, the Kia EV9.

Kia’s goal with the facelift has been to give the illusion of a larger car, now that SUVs are en vogue and the slightly larger Kia Rio supermini has been discontinued. The Picanto’s headlights and tail-lights have been moved right to the edges of the car to create a wider look. There are now full-width light bars at the front and rear on higher-spec GT-Line models – these are swapped for black trim pieces on lower-end versions.

The Picanto was always quite well equipped, but now it gets even more goodies as standard, including a digital gauge cluster. There’s also a faux-leather steering wheel, automatic headlights and wipers, rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and even safety kit like forward-collision avoidance, lane-keep assist and cruise control – impressive stuff for a city car.

Quality has been improved, too, addressing some of the criticisms of previous Kia Picanto generations.

Under the skin there aren’t any particularly drastic changes, with the brand simplifying the engine lineup to just the 62bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine from before and a new naturally-aspirated 77bhp 1.2-litre four-cylinder unit reserved for GT-Line S versions of the Picanto. A 99bhp 1.0-litre turbocharged model was previously available on pre-facelift cars but this has been discontinued. While it may have the look of the EV9 electric car, the Picanto doesn’t come with any form of electrification as this would make it too expensive.

With generous proportions, the Picanto is one of the more accommodating city cars on the market and it aligns well with busy family life. All models have five doors and there are seats for five inside. It's not especially wide, so three adults may be a little cramped in the rear, but three children of varying ages will be content back there. The boot is sizeable, too, putting 255 litres of load space at your disposal – not much less space than you'll find in some superminis from the class above.

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Rounding the Picanto package off is a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, which can be transferred to a new owner when the car is sold. The Kia Picanto came in an impressive 12th overall in our 2024 Driver Power survey, scoring highly in the categories for value-for-money, quality and reliability, low running costs among others according to owners. Only a slightly disappointing four-star Euro NCAP safety rating blots the Picanto’s copybook, although its individual category scores were far from disastrous.

More than ever before, the latest Picanto mounts a serious challenge in the city-car class, with models to suit all budgets and the extra pizzazz of GT-Line or GT-Line S trims if you want it. Some rivals have a little more flair, but the Picanto is a very competent, enjoyable and comfortable small car.