Kia Xceed review

If you or your passenger stand at over six-feet tall, no problem: you will fit in the front of an Xceed just fine. There’s similar head and leg room available to that of a VW Golf or Focus Active. 

There are also good-sized door bins, a decent glovebox, two cup holders and plenty of trays for all your accoutrements.

Rear leg room is merely average for anyone tall and head room is unexceptional — or tight if you have the panoramic sunroof fitted. It’s certainly a lot less roomy in the back than rivals such as the Ford Focus and Skoda Scala. The rear door bins aren’t much cop, either.

It’s not all bad, though. Getting in and out through its relatively wide door openings is easy, and the rear seat is well shaped and comfortable. And with an almost-flat floor (there’s a very small central floor hump) it makes life sweeter for someone sat in the middle seat than many rivals.

On the plus side you can have 40/20/40 split-folding rear seats on the top-spec First Edition trim, but the rest of the trims, and most of its hatchback rivals, provide a less useful 60/40 design. If you’re comparing the Xceed against SUVs, like the Skoda Karoq or VW Tiguan, its lack of sliding and reclining rear seats is a negative.

The front passenger only gets adjustable lumbar support and a height adjuster from ‘3’ trim and above.

This is perhaps the biggest difference between a regular Ceed hatchback and the Xceed. The Xceed has a noticeably larger boot — up 31 litres to 426 litres — beating the Focus Active in its hatchback form, but not the Skoda Octavia. You’ll have enough room for a buggy or a couple of large suitcases, and won’t struggle making worthwhile trips to the tip.

What’s more you get a height-adjustable boot floor as standard; in its raised position, it irons out the step created by folding the rear seats down. It doesn’t completely remove the large load lip, though, and that makes lifting heavy items in and out more of an effort.