2022 Kia Picanto S Manual Review

Thanks to a whole variety of reasons – market trends, higher safety standards, inflation, our currency – the sub-$20,000 segment in the new car market has been largely left behind in Australia. Just ten years ago, cars like the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 were available for under $20,000, but now you’re lucky to get one for under $30,000 by the time it leaves the dealership. With that in mind, what’s available for new car buyers for a reasonable cost? We tested the 2022 Kia Picanto S manual to find out. 

Price & Equipment: 8/10

In Australia, the 2022 Kia Picanto S manual sits at the bottom of the Picanto and indeed the Kia range. It’s priced from $15,690 plus on-road costs ($17,990 drive away) – the four-speed automatic is $1,000 more at $18,990 drive away.

Standard equipment on the base model Picanto S includes 14-inch steel wheels, manual air-conditioning, electric mirrors and windows, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and both wireless and wired Android Auto, automatic halogen headlights with daytime running lights, a rear fog light,  intermittent wipers, remote keyless entry, cruise control with a speed limiter, a 4.2-inch driver’s display and a six-speaker sound system. 

Safety kit includes six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with forward collision warning, hill start assist, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors, an alarm and rear occupant alert. 

Available colours on the Picanto S include our test car’s no-cost ‘Clear White’, while ‘Sparkling Silver’, ‘Astro Grey’, ‘Aurora Black’, ‘Signal Red’, ‘Pop Orange’ and ‘Honey Bee Yellow’ are $520 extra. The only interior option on the S is black cloth. 

Stepping up to the mid-spec Picanto GT-Line is another $1,500 and it adds a lot more equipment, including 16-inch alloy wheels, projector headlights with LED daytime running lights and front indicators, faux leather upholstery, gloss black interior trim, a covered centre storage unit with an armrest, a faux leather steering wheel and shift knob, a bodykit, GT-Line badging and heated and electric-folding mirrors. $2,000 above that is the manual-only Picanto GT, which trades the GT-Line’s engine for a 74kW 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, but keeps its equipment. 

Competitors to the Picanto S have dwindled dramatically in recent years and it’s now literally just the MG 3 (from $17,990 drive away with a standard automatic transmission) and Mitsubishi Mirage (from $17,490 drive away – the auto is $18,990) left – and the Mirage is about to exit Australia thanks to new ANCAP side safety rules that come into force in 2022. 

Performance & Economy: 7/10

Under the bonnet of the 2022 Kia Picanto S manual is a 1.25-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that produces 62kW of power (at 6,000rpm) and 122Nm of torque (at 4,000rpm). It puts its power to the front wheels via a five-speed manual or a $1,000-optional four-speed automatic transmission. In our opinion, stick to the manual as it is far superior to the automatic’s long ratios. It also makes the Picanto much more fun to drive thanks to its light but quick shift.  

With a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of around 12 seconds, the Picanto S is no rocketship. Around town however, the Picanto feels perfectly fine as it’s quite drivable. As the Picanto weighs only 995kg, it doesn’t feel too slow around town when commuting, though the 82kW/150Nm 1.5-litre MG3 would definitely feel quicker (auto versus auto as there’s no manual MG3 any longer).

Short gearing means that you can potter around town in fourth or fifth gear – but highway runs can be loud as the engine sits at almost 3,000rpm at 100km/h.

Kia claims that the Picanto S manual uses 5.0L/100km of fuel on a combined cycle, and we achieved 5.9L/100km. It can run on regular unleaded and features a 35-litre fuel tank. On a combined cycle, the MG3 uses 6.7L/100km of premium unleaded, while the Mirage manual uses a claimed 4.8L/100km, and it uses standard unleaded. 

Ride & Handling: 8/10

Driving the Picanto is a fun experience – it’s quite nimble and thanks to Kia’s Australian suspension tuning, it feels surprisingly mature and deals with bumps quite well. It feels like a much bigger car on the move than it actually is. Kia’s local tuning program has produced a winner – unlike the Mirage and MG 3. It’s capable of handling whatever is thrown at it, which is handy given how awful our roads can be. The local tuning has also made the car quite fun to drive – it’s chuckable and rewards its driver with safe, secure handling that defies its bargain sticker price.

Being only 3.5 metres long, having thin pillars and great visibility makes the Picanto easy to drive and especially park in urban areas. The rear view camera is super clear and gives a good view behind the Picanto’s boxy body. Not all is rosy about the way the Picanto drives however, as road noise can be high at motorway speeds, but this isn’t so much of an issue in such a small and cheap car.

Interior & Practicality: 8/10

The interior of the 2022 Kia Picanto S is a surprisingly pleasant, good quality, relatively modern and reasonably practical place to spend time, if not the most luxurious interior in the automotive market. While all its materials are made of hard plastic, they’re nicely grained and the cabin feels solid and well built.

A leather steering wheel would make the cabin feel downright plush for the price, but the $1,500 outlay to the GT-Line for its extra features is a worthy spend in our opinion. The S is still more than fine for the price, and certainly superior to the MG3 and Mitsubishi Mirage for quality. 

The Picanto’s centre touchscreen measures in at a large 8.0-inches and is a great system thanks to its good screen quality, ease of use and surprising inclusions such as wireless smartphone mirroring and an excellent reversing camera. The wireless Apple CarPlay was temperamental in our experience, though. A fix is on the way, thankfully. 

The Picanto’s cabin is reasonably practical with nicely sized door bins, a centre stack tray for your phone, cupholders that fold away for more storage and a small open tray next to the hand brake. We’d like to see the covered storage and centre armrest from the GT-Line filter down to the S for greater comfort, as well as a reach adjustable steering wheel fitted as it’s an otherwise fairly ergonomic and practical cabin.

The rear seat of the Picanto S is a largely sparse and featureless environment with only a single bottle holder and a single map pocket – there aren’t even any door pockets, nor a charging port. The space on offer is good for such a small car though – two six-footers will fit fine. There really is so little wrong inside the Picanto.

The boot of the Picanto S measures 255-litres and folding the seats opens up 1,010L in total. The boot features reasonable practicality with a few shopping hooks, though a dual-level boot floor would be nice so that the floor is flat when the seats are folded. Under the floor is a space-saver spare wheel. The slightly larger MG 3 offers between 307L and 1,085L and the Mirage between 235L and 599L, so the Picanto sits in the middle for outright bootspace. 

Service & Warranty: 9/10

Like other Kia products in Australia, the Picanto S comes with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty with a year of roadside assistance increased 12 months with every dealer service up to eight years. Five years/75,000km of servicing costs $1,895 ($379 per service), which isn’t cheap.

The MG 3 comes with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty and with 12 months of roadside assistance. It costs a lesser $1,380 to service over five years, though its 10,000km service intervals are 5,000km less than the Picanto. The Mitsubishi Mirage comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty that – if serviced through a Mitsubishi dealership – is extended to 10 years in total. Its service intervals are one yearly/every 15,000km and over five years/75,000km, it costs $1,295 to service ($259 per service). 

The 2022 Kia Picanto S Manual DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.0/10

In case you couldn’t tell, we’re big fans of the 2022 Kia Picanto S at DiscoverAuto. Not only is it cheap – albeit more expensive than it once was – but it’s fun to drive, comfortable, fuel efficient, reasonable practical with a good quality cabin, there’s a good level of standard features and above all else, it offers much more character than the MG 3 and Mitsubishi Mirage.

Of course, it’s not perfect thanks to its old tech engine, somewhat expensive service pricing and that the upper spec GT-Line is better value for money. But these don’t take away from the Picanto and that it’s a great light car. It proves that there is life in the light car and that more of us should be buying them – and if we do, the Picanto is definitely the one to choose. You read that right, the 2022 Kia Picanto S is the best cheap car you can buy on the market today.