Kia Rio review

The Rio’s comparatively boxy shape means front seat passengers have plenty of room above and in front of them. You might find yourself rubbing elbows with your passenger on occasion, though. 

Front storage is plentiful. The door pockets are shaped to take a bottle of water with ease and can even hold a medium coffee upright. Between the seats are another couple of cup holders and, in ‘2’ trim and above, a storage box between the front seats. There are also a couple of handy shelves beneath the heater controls that can hold even a large smartphone.

In the back, head room is good and, remarkably, there’s more leg room than you’ll find in the Skoda Fabia; only when there are particularly tall people up front will those in the back find their knees pressing into the back of the front seats. 

Should three large adults need to sit in the back, a shortage of shoulder room means they’ll want to get out after a fairly short journey. The middle seat will be more comfortable for a child or smaller adult; having only a small hump on the floor, they’ll have no shortage of space to put their feet. The two outer passengers will find enough space in the rear door pockets for a drinks bottle.

There’s nothing particularly clever about how any of the seats adjust, and, with just the usual 60/40-split folding rear seatbacks at hand to enlarge the boot when needed, the Rio doesn’t offer any clever solutions to increase versatility. If you’re looking for a truly adaptable interior, you might want to look at the Honda Jazz, which provides lift-up rear-seat bases so you can fit tall items in the rear passenger compartment.

The Rio’s boot is a helpfully uniform shape and comes with a variety of hooks and lashing eyes to stop your shopping sloshing around the boot at every roundabout. It’s also considerably larger than that of the Ford Fiesta, but can’t compete with the space provided by the capacious Skoda Fabia.

Our only complaints are that there is a big step down from the loading lip to the boot floor, and another big step along the floor when the rear seats are folded down. A variable height boot floor would help, but isn’t available, even as an option.