2020 Kia Seltos - Let’s Drive all new Seltos from Kia. Better than Hyundai Venue and Hyundai Kona?

Hello and welcome to Asian Petra. Today we have 2020 Seltos from Kia and it's not raining today guys. So we showed you Seltos briefly last month through a media test drive but today we have a press car solely to ourselves so let me show you design inside and out and of course take her for a drive and show you how well she does actually on the road and before you begin please do support us by subscribing to our channel. Thank you guys. Okay why don't we start with the name first. Kia says Seltos is actually combination of two words. Seltos son of Hercules plus Speedy. So it's actually Seltos with S in front. Let's start with front. Although Seltos is a subcompact SUV, Kia gave Seltos relatively long hood lines so it looks bigger than the actual size. Now let's move to the front. There's a diamond pattern tiger nose grille in the middle, full LED headlamp system and I love how Kia uses horizontal light strip that stretches toward the center of the car. Although let me show you in more detail. This is headlamp, high beam, fog lamp, turn signal and this is what honk sounds like. Okay guys let's also take a look at the engine room. In Korea, Seltos is being sold with two different engine choices. 1.6 liter turbo and 1.6 liter diesel. In India, I also heard you're getting 1.4 liter turbo and 1.5 liter diesel. Curious how they feel actually on the road and in our case our tester has 1.6 liter turbocharged gasoline engine producing 177 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. It is mated to 7-speed dual-clutch transmission and our tester also has all-wheel drive system. Now let me show you how fast Seltos can be. It took Seltos about 9 seconds to hit 62 miles per hour. Not bad for a subcompact SUV. I'm also very curious about the efficiency of Seltos so let's find out. Seltos returned 23 miles per gallon in the city and 40 miles per gallon on the highway so it is quite efficient and it is especially returning good mileage on the highway. Let me tell you how exactly large Seltos is. It's about 10 inches longer than the Hyundai Venue and also 5 inches longer than the Hyundai Kona. I got curious about the platform so I asked Hyundai folks and they said Seltos shares this platform with Hyundai Kona while Hyundai Venue shares this platform with Kia Stoney. It kind of makes sense because both of those cars does not offer any all-wheel drive system. Let me also show you the second row seats. I was pretty comfortable in Venue so this guy should be better. This was where I was sitting in front. Okay I'm 6'2 but there's good amount of legroom and headroom is also nice and my feet are especially very comfortable here. Glad to see air vents for the second row passengers, USB charging ports and a place to put my phone down. Although it's optional you can have Seltos with two stage heated seats and there's just a regular sunroof on the top. Our tester has 235 45 18 on front and back. Now let me show you the braking performance of Seltos. It took Seltos about 120 feet to a complete stop. Not bad for a compact SUV. All right guys let's also take a look at the interior. Our tester is fully loaded so this guy has everything in it. Between two analog gauges there's 7-inch LCD screen in the middle showing various information to the driver and to the right there's also 10 and quarter inch infotainment screen and on the top there's 8-inch combiner type head-up display. Bose sound system and wireless charging pad for your mobile phones, 12 volt, two USB charging ports, heated and ventilation seats as well. I showed you everything now let's go out to the road with Seltos. All right guys let's start with visibility. It's an SUV so it's got big windows around and there isn't any part particularly blocking my line of sight so it's easy to see out of hence easy to drive and compact size of the car also makes driving easy and just like any other Kia models the climate and media controls are made of physical buttons and dials which are easy to use even while driving and I hope it stays this way because I don't like touch sensitive buttons and there's also air cleaning mode in Seltos. All right enough talking let's put the car into sports and drive. When you do put the car into sports mode shift indicator on the left pops out small but quite effective doing its job. You're given three drive modes when you buy the car with all-wheel drive system but if you don't get all-wheel drive system Kia will also give you three additional attraction modes so you can get out of obstacles easier without the all-wheel drive system. 1.6 liter turbo is the same unit also found in Hyundai Kona. It produces about 177 horsepower so it doesn't have big initial punch line but because its peak torque starts as early as 1500 and stays flat until 45 so it pulls the car linearly all the way up to the red line. Bowling, bowling, bowling. Engine is mated to 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. I wish there was paddle shifters maybe I'm asking too much let me just show you in an action. Third, fourth, fifth, six, seven, six, five, four, three. I won't go to second but three, four, five, six, seven. So they not only shift quickly but also smoothly. I like the transmission. Three, two, one. Nice. But as all DCTs do it can stumble a bit in city heavy traffic engaging and disengaging the first gear but you know what everything kind of sucks in heavy traffic. Our Tesla also has optional all-wheel drive system. If you don't get all-wheel drive system you'll get torsion beam setup at the rear. Kia is charging about $1,500 for it. I would get it myself because it also helps with handling. See it's taking corners with quite confidence. Pretty nice. Electric steering system is easy to drive and these tires from Gumoos are gripping quite nicely. They don't scream so much. I like that. Right now we're driving on the highway with Seltos and Seltos feels quite stable. It is able to keep a straight line on its own and I think it feels quiet in here. Of course not as quiet as Sportage but feels good for this class. Feels stable on high speed as well. Stable. Now I'd like to show you adaptive cruise control working with navigation. Speed limit is about 90 kilometers per hour in this area. I'm going to set the speed to 95. Now we see Seltos slowing down to 90 kilometers per hour and then speed up to 95. You know it's well done protecting my wallet. Very nice system. All right let me show you guys the rear design. I love the chrome strip in the middle. It's got LED combination tail lamp. Let me also show you the trunk. It's got hidden storage area below like this and of course you can fold the second row seats to yield more cargo room. All right guys today we had a chance to test drive 2020 Kia Seltos. Hope you guys enjoyed it. We'll be back with more car reviews and before you leave please do support us by subscribing to our channel. Thank you guys. Just realized but Seltos also has safe exit assist. I've seen this car when pass by letting us know through the alarm and notification on the gauge cluster. If you leave sunroof or your mobile phones in Seltos, Seltos will let you know. But it's kind of unfortunate because it only works in Korean though. I don't know why. Just found out but the armrest can be extended like so and there's a general amount of space below.