Kia Cee'd Sportswagon estate (2012-2018) - Reliability & safety

The Kia Cee’d hatchback saw a very impressive result in our 2017 Driver Power customer satisfaction survey. It’s good to see that Kias are about more than just their seven-year warranty these days, although its presence is reassuring all the same.

Given that the Cee’d hatchback scored the full five-star rating in the Euro NCAP crash safety tests, we’ll also predict that a Sportswagon is a reasonably safe car, too. That said, there are one or two additional features we’d like to see.

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Kia Cee’d Sportswagon reliability

The Kia Cee'd was rated highly for reliability in our 2017 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey of cars currently on sale in the UK. Of the owners who responded, 7.3% reported experiencing a problem with their car at least once.

True, the Sportswagon’s interior isn’t up to Volkswagen's class-leading standards, but then few interiors, except in more expensive models, are. Even so, it’s a match for the Ford Focus Estate. Plastics certainly appear to be hardwearing, especially on the higher-spec 3, 4 and 4 Tech models.

Safety

Euro NCAP awarded the Cee’d hatchback its maximum five-star rating for crash safety. Look deeper into that figure and you’ll find that the car scored an impressive 89 and 88% for adult and child occupant protection respectively.

The Sportswagon’s safety equipment includes a full range of airbags, although we’d like to see a driver’s knee airbag, too. In addition, the Cee’d hatchback scored 86% for its active safety assistance systems, compared to a typical score for the class of around 70%. The Sportswagon is no less impressive. It has electronic stability and traction control, but again we’d like to see automatic emergency braking assistance added to the mix, too.