Vehicle: 2012 Kia Rio 5 hatchback EX Luxury A/T
Price as tested: CDN$20795
Performance: Is 3rd time the charm or 3 strike and you are outta here? Kia has high hope for their 3rd iteration of their Kia subcompact, a car destined to become the game changer in its class.
Powering the little Rio comes in the form of only one single powertrain. Rio comes in with a 1.6 liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder, which is good for 138 ponies and 123 lb/ft of torque. These numbers not only provide Rio with the most responsive car in its respective segment, it also brings wide arrays of world-class refinement and smoothness to the party. Despite the fact that our loaded Rio EX-L has to carry 2628 lb of luxury-lined features in this subcompact body, it remains a very peppy little car for its own right. Gone is the rather noisy racket 4-cylinder of previous Rio of yore, in with the newly refined yet superb delivery of power in a silky manners. Mesh the light electronic throttle, Rio takes off easily without any hestiation. Mated with this world-class powertrain is the 6-speed manumatic. This gearbox is every bit as good as the engine itself. The shifts are crisp and smooth, while the first 4 gears are setting low enough for bottom-end accleration and mid-range passing. 5th and 6th are tall enough for comfortable highway cruising. The very reason why Rio is able to deliver an impressive 6 liters per 100km is the utilization of GDI, or Gasoline Direct Injection, which provide for better performance. More importantly, its able to deliver a more efficient engine without losing anything, when it comes to horses and torque delivery. Put together a directly injected little engine with the right gearbox, it makes Rio a peppy little car which deliver on both performance and economical fronts. Its like having a cake and eat it too..:D
Handling: Push the Rio through corners, it exhibits driving pleasure in a delicate manners. While sharing the same architecture as its company silibings, Accent, their chassis tuning philosophy makes a 180 degrees difference between these two models. To put this into perspective, the difference between Rio and Accent is as significantly different as between Cayenne and Touareg. That set, for a small car underpinnings, this architecture is every bit as good as anything else in the world. The chassis is rigid and solid, while there are good place for suspension to hang its hats. The suspension is both sporty, supple and superb calibrated to provide class-leading driving feel and feedback. The chassis communication is every bit as the steering itself. The electric power steering provides excellent feel and feedback, with plenty of responsiveness and precision. When its time to put Rio through its paces, it remains confidence-inspiring without losing any driving fun one associates with driving a stylish subcompact. The result is Rio delivers both driving pleasure without losing any comfort for passengers. The suspension is comfortably compliant, which is able to absorb all the bumps and roughness. On the other hand, its able to take a set by itself after the body rolls settled in. The body rolls are minimal, while understeer has been well-tempted by a great set of ESC. Compare to its silibing, Rio feels sporty-oriented while Accent feels comfort-oriented.
Brakes: While Rio features front discs and rear drums, without standard ABS. Rio’s stopping power performs as admirably well as its dynamic equation. The stopping distance is short, while pedal feels solid and reassurring. In short, its just as world-class as the whole Rio itself. It remains fade-free while ABS doesn’t drop in unnecessarily.
Interior: Speaking of standard features, our Rio EX-L comes in a whole nine yards. It comes with many standard features beyond the its own class or anything above, in short, its plain amusing. Outside temperature gauge, back-up camera, heated steering wheel, cooling glovebox, keyless go and auto climate control…are just a few of those luxurious features you usually find in a luxury car, you are able to get all of them in a Rio for just 20 grand.
The interior styling is as funky as outside. With those funky buttons for auto climate control, which is an effective and initutive system. Kia has its own multimedia system called Uvo, which is similar to Ford’s Sync system. Once again, its every bit as initutive as one expects from Korean electronics.
As for the use of materials, Rio scores again. The leather seats are well-foamed, while all the plastic materials are nicely molded with excellent fit-and-finish. Just like the rest of the package, this Rio continues to be world-class.
However, the fold-down rear seats aren’t going completely flat into the floor while the side sills are swallow are Rio’s major pet peeves so far.
Wrapping up the Rio is the standard Start/Stop system, which is able to turn itself off when the vehicle is completely stop. When driver starts to release the brake, say from a stoplight, the engine starts again. This feature is able to eliminate emissions while providing zero fuel economy during engine idle. Exactly like the direct injection, Rio is the first car to have this as standard feature.
Conclusion: Its pretty amusing for a company, which used to produce some unremarkable cars, in just a decade ago. They are turning out game changer thanks to solid engineering, great design with innovative technologies. Rio is a perfect example of how Kia is able to transform itself in just a few years. What a terrific car it is! 
Competitions:
Chevrolet Sonic
Mazda2
Ford Fiesta
Hyundai Accent
Honda Fit
Toyota Yaris
OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2012 Kia Rio 5 hatchback
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Performance: 4.5/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 4.5/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 4.5/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 4.5/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 4/5
Value-for-money: 5/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5