Kia XCeed review

If you or your passenger stand at more than six feet tall, no problem: you'll fit in the front of an XCeed just fine. Head and leg room are similar to what you'll find in the VW Golf and Focus Active. 

There are also good-sized door bins, a decent glovebox, two cupholders 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 the 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 sitting 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 such as the Skoda Karoq and 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.