– By David Brown –
At the launch of their new baby sized Picanto, Kia forecast 300 sales per month and they believe that one-in-five of these would be to the fleet market.
The micro segment of the Australian market has not been doing well of late. So far this year the total sales for the segment are down 31% compared to last year. The biggest selling car has been the Mitsubishi Mirage followed by the Nissan Micra.
In this small segment of the market there were only five manufacturers offering products prior to the introduction of the Picanto and being in second place is not good enough for Nissan who have just announced that the Micra will no longer be sold in Australia
If Kia sells 300 vehicles a month then on today’s numbers it will have 40% of this market segment. They will need the fleet sales to support this ambitious target.
Mitsubishi says that most Mirages are private sales. Major rent-a-car companies do not order these type of cars for all their outlets but some local depots do have some on fleet.
Quality and features have not been high in this smallest and cheapest segment and enhancements seem to have stagnated over the last few years.
This has changed with the new Picanto and the just released Holden Spark, which represent significant improvements.
The Picanto has bluetooth connectivity, air-conditioning, tilt-adjustable steering wheel, USB and AUX inputs. Rear parking sensors are also standard which is good but there is no cruise control or reversing camera.
The Picanto is a good car especially for city driving.
It is comfortable, if basic, for the driver and even the space in the back seats is acceptable. The compromise is the size of the boot which has a capacity of only 200 litres. This expands to a much more usable 600 litres when you fold the back seats down.
Kia see potential city fleet customers as those who don’t need to carry big loads such as pathology deliveries, sales reps for small products, home visit activities such as nurses, home car or even doctors as well as rent-a-cars.
It is obviously not a status symbol but it is very easy to park, cheap to buy and cheap to run.
Rural jobs such as home care medical workers are possible even if they have to travel on country roads. The Picanto sits comfortably on relatively flat country roads and even if it gets twisty, it handles the situation quite well.
It is when overtaking or climbing a step hill that the 1.2 litre, 63 kW engine and the four speed automatic gear box show their limitations. When changing down to third gear on a hill it feels more like a big jump rather than a gentle step in ratios and at 110 km/hr it would be nice to have another gear to reduce the revs.
The good thing about the Picanto is that it has just received a five star ANCAO crash rating, a critical requirement for Government and some major fleets. Kia notes that Government fleets currently do not buy this very small size of car. This could change with improved quality and a consideration of city conditions and environmental issues but this is unlikely in the immediate future.
The Picanto is priced at $14,990 drive away. That is not bargain basement price but it does come standard with an automatic gearbox.
It also comes with Kia’s 7 year warranty which for commercial use is limited to 150,000km (whichever comes first).
