Kia Seltos

For the Philippines car market, the Kia Seltos features an all-black theme for the smart-looking cabin, which feels nicely put together and upmarket with several new-age features. The functional driver’s cockpit of the Kia Seltos comprises a three-spoke tilt and telescopic adjustable multi-functional steering wheel, which has a large instrument console with a 3.5-inch LCD MID in between the analogue gauges.

The centre console of the Kia Seltos features a free-standing 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with physical buttons for audio on both of its sides. The central layer of the dashboard here houses sleek trapezoidal AC vents, while the controls for the single-zone automatic climate control are placed within a separate console below the AC vents. The other features gracing the cabin of the Kia Seltos are push start-stop button, front sliding armrest, height adjustable driver’s seat, 60:40 split rear seats, 6-speaker audio system and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

While several other global markets have already received the facelifted version, the Kia Seltos is still available in the pre-facelift version in the Philippines car market. However, despite that fact, the Kia Seltos still feels relevant, for its busy design language still looks fresh even after more than four years of existence.

At the front, the Kia Seltos carries its smart and sophisticated design pretty well, with the fascia comprising of a bold-looking trapezoidal grille. This smart-looking grille, which is a modern interpretation of Kia’s “tiger-nose” grille, features chrome surrounds, which give it a premium look. The grille also has stretched T-shaped all-LED headlamps flanking its sides, which are divided into two halves – all-LED main headlamps in the upper part and claw-shaped LED turn indicators placed in its lower part.

The front bumper here houses a wide air dam, which has a silver skid plate. The Seltos also comes with LED projector fog lamps surrounded by blacked housings, which complete its frontal look. The Kia Seltos has an upright stance and taut lines flowing through the side profile, which makes the SUV look smart and upmarket. For an added sense of ruggedness, the Kia Seltos also has black mouldings over the wheel arches and bottom part of the door panels, while the SUV rides on 17-inch machined alloy wheels.

At the back, the Kia Seltos carries forward its muscular stance, comprising of wide-stretched LED tail lamps with a thick bar of chrome joining them while running across the boot lid’s width. The Seltos also has a rugged-looking rear bumper, with blacked-out cladding covering most of its surface area, while also housing the dual exhaust pipes.

Having a suspension combination of Macpherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear under its skin, the Kia Seltos feels sporty to drive but at the cost of a slight drop in suppleness in its ride quality. However, for an added sense of versatility, the Kia Seltos is also available with a drive mode selector, through which one can select among the three drive modes and three traction modes on offer.

For the Philippines car market, the Kia Seltos is being offered with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder naturally-aspirated petrol engine, which is the largest engine offered in any version of the Seltos globally. Also available in other Kia and Hyundai offerings globally, this engine is paired to a CVT gearbox here in the Seltos, and produces a maximum power output of 149 PS and a peak torque output of 179 Nm.

While the global-spec Kia Seltos is packed with safety features including ADAS, the Philippines-spec version is equipped only with essentials like front, side and curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, cruise control, reverse parking sensors and camera, electronic stability control, ISOFIX mounts for child seats, hill start assist and hill descent control.

For an SUV which has been in existence for more than four years now, the Kia Seltos feels decently modern, despite the fact that a much more feature-rich and flashier-looking facelifted version has already reached overseas. The spacious cabin, refined petrol engine and decent set of features still make this pre-facelift Seltos relevant for family-oriented buyers.