Honest John?

He's obviously been taking Clarkson too seriously.....

"Buy a Kia. It'll see you out."

Maybe, maybe not. Some people will happily trade some depreciation for the peace of mind of a comprehensive 5 or 7 year warranty. If you're prepared to own something for 7 years, depreciation probably isn't too big an issue, either.

And Hyundai and Kia have been making some much better cars of late. The Hyundai Coupes have improved year on year as have the 4x4s, and I read a decent review of Kia Pro-Ceed (not the ordinary Ceed) and it looks tidy. And the hot model is a turbo diesel. It was given a fair handling review when compared to a focus too, and the focus has a reputation of being a handler.

Yes. Not that the C'eed is a disaster though.

Oh no, it is a nice looking family budget hatch. But the proceed has gone beyond that and made a good crack at trying sexy.

Edited for accuracy.

It looks far better than the A3 though.

It's not like the A3 is regarded as a pile of crap either.

Edited for accuracy and entertainment.

Depends on who you speak to. Upmarket Golf / expensive Skoda / underpowered Seat / couldn't-afford-a-bigger-Audi / didn't-want-a-BMW / trying-to-nod-towards-carbon-footprint-bollucks. :o)

Aye, but none of that makes it crap, it doesn't have a reputation for rust or unreliability, it's not known for it's woeful lack of grip or unpredictable handling.

The styling isn't very exciting, but if that's the worst thing you can say about a car apart from the 'Harris from sales' car park pissing contest perception stuff then copying it doesn't seem like such a bad idea if you're a far-eastern car manufacturer.

The Koreans etc are coming on in leaps and bounds.

Not sure about the small Hyundai hatches, but the Sonata is kind of starting to make sense, as you get something the size of a Mondeo, stacked with kit, for the price of a Focus. They even do diesel slushomatic versions these days. As for the Coupe - I think everyone knows that I have a real soft-spot for it.

The Pro Ce'ed (Spelling?) looks good, comes with plenty of kit and, despite having horrendous percentage residuals, will probably lose less hard cash than any number of mainstream hatches.

It wasn't really a dig at Kia, 'cos they've made a very decent looking car - if people could look beyond the badge they have the potential to do a lot of damage to the sales from mainstream manufacturers.

I think it looks better.

There is actually quite a large luxury car segment using home grown cars in Korea because there are punitive taxes on imported cars.

He's a professional fuckface.

As per Mr Firths comments, when you're very familiar with a particular model of car and then read the reviews he's done on them, they are invariably littered with inaccuracies.

I bothered to email him once to point out what they were for one particular car, and never even got an acknowledgement and noted the inaccuracies weren't then changed either.

Like I said... a fuckface.

-- JackH

Under powered Seat?

Problem will always be the residuals though heh - partly cos they're so cheap (and probably discounted) new and partly because average Joe is too big-a percentage of the population and just thinks "Eeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!". Ssang Yong seem to be the ones with the least idea heh.

Some A3s can look cool though, the S3 does heh, but I suppose at £32k or whatever they are it bloody wants to. In white and 3dr, with the optional darker wheels and RS4 seats, they look cool inside and out. They even have the Gallardo flat bottomed steering wheel - but then so do all RS/S Audis. The S-Line though can be cheap, you can get 1.6s of those can't you? Mind you that'd be painfully slow given the lardassy-ness.

Doesn't that make the car uncomfortable to drive?

One of my colleagues reckons that money for money, Audis are merely underpowered Seats.