Kia Rio (2017-2023) review | Roomier than you might expect

What is the Kia Rio?

You could be forgiven for not having heard of the Kia Rio, because it’s hardly the UK’s best known or its most popular small car. In fact, sales of this, the most recent model, were slow enough that in 2023 Kia removed it from its UK range. Today, then, the Rio is a secondhand buy only.

New or used, rivals such as the Ford Fiesta, the Volkswagen Polo, and the Vauxhall Corsa, not to mention the Skoda Fabia, the Toyota Yaris and the Renault Clio tend to steal more of the limelight in the small hatchback arena. The same can be said about the Rio's sister car, the Hyundai i20, which has enjoyed a much longer run in the UK market after catapulting to success following the Government's scrappage scheme of 2009.

The Rio deserves a second look, though. While it might not be all that exciting, It’s competitively priced, well equipped, and proving to be reliable. It can make an especially good buy if you find one with some of Kia’s original seven-year/100,000-mile warranty still left to run.

How practical is it?

Climb aboard the Rio and it soon becomes clear this is a car that prioritises pleasing the head over the heart. The interior is inoffensively bland, and finished almost exclusively in dark grey plastic, but the controls are well laid out, and the buttons and switches move with satisfying clunks and clicks.

There’s not much in the way of storage for your odds and ends, but the door bins are a decent size, and visibility is decent enough thanks to the big windows.

There’s lots of space for passengers in both the front and rear seats, and the 325-litre boot (it expands to 1,103 litres when you fold down the back seats) is not at all bad for this class. There's a clever sloping lip up to the rear seats, too, which means there’s no sharp step when they’re folded flat.

What’s it like to drive?

The Rio is functional, if not all that much fun on the road. Around town, it’s easy to drive, though the mild hybrid version’s electronically actuated clutch (we’ll explain this below, in ‘Three Things To Know’) doesn’t have much feel, which can make quick getaways tricky.

It’s pretty comfortable, too; the ride is occasionally flummoxed by bigger ruts, but most of the time, the Rio deals with imperfections more smoothly than the majority of its rivals. It lacks the verve of a Ford Fiesta or a Seat Ibiza when it’s hustled along at a pace, though. It’s a bit roly-poly in corners, and while there’s plenty of grip, the steering reacts quite slowly, and doesn’t give you much feedback.

For such a small car, the Rio had a fairly mind-boggling range of engine options. At launch, there was a choice of four petrol engines: an 83bhp 1.2-litre, a 98bhp 1.4-litre, and pair of 1.0-litre turbos, kicking out 99bhp and 118bhp respectively. An automatic gearbox was available, too, but it only came with the 1.4-litre engine, and it was a rather old-fashioned four-speed unit.

In addition, you could choose between two 1.4-litre diesel engines, each with a manual gearbox, and rated at 76bhp and 89bhp respectively. However, both of these engines were short-lived, lasting only Kia realised that small diesel cars’ already limited appeal had been eroded almost entirely by the Dieselgate scandal, in 2018.

In 2020, Kia revised the range further, dropping the 1.4-litre engine and the old automatic gearbox in favour of a newer, and much snappier, dual-clutch gearbox, which could be bolted to the 1.0-litre turbo in either of its forms.

At the same time, Kia added mild hybrid technology to the 118bhp 1.0-litre turbo, which gave a small boost in fuel economy.

The 1.2-litre engine is rather slow, which shows in its rather leisurely 0-62mph time of 12.5 seconds. The 1.4-litre petrol is better, but still no ball of fire, covering the same sprint in 11 seconds dead. The 1.0-litre turbos are the pick of the range, each hitting 62mph in around the 10-second mark. The mild hybrid feels the perkiest of the lot.

Expect about a second’s penalty in those acceleration times for choosing the dual-clutch automatic; steer clear of the old 1.4 auto, though, as its 13.4-second 0-62mph time will leave you still struggling to get up to speed by the ends of some motorway slip roads.

The same goes for the 76bhp diesel, which takes a similarly somnolent 13.5 seconds to hit 62mph. The 89bhp unit is a little better, completing the same dash in 11.6 seconds, but we still think the petrol turbo is the one to have.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The Rio line-up isn’t too tricky to understand, thanks to Kia’s straightforward naming system. The entry-level model is simply called the Kia Rio 1, and while it only gets steel wheels, you do at least get front electric windows, Bluetooth, and air-conditioning as standard.

Next up is - you guessed it - the 2, with alloy wheels, cruise control, and a touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple Carplay as standard, while the 3 gets heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, climate control, and satnav.

If you prefer your Rio with a sportier flavour, you could opt for the GT-Line and GT-Line S versions. The first of these matches the spec of the 2, but adds larger alloy wheels, sportier styling, and twin exhaust tips.

This model was actually discontinued in 2021, but the GT-Line S continued until the end of production, with heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, climate control and satnav added to the specification of the GT-Line model.

Every version except the 1 gets a big central screen for the satnav and entertainment system, and this is easy to use, with an intuitive menu system and clear graphics, even if it doesn’t have quite the aesthetic flair of some of its rivals’ screens.

Kia Rio running costs

Choose a petrol version of the Rio, and in the real world, fuel economy will be pretty similar regardless of which you go for; you can expect an average from a mix of town and motorway use of around 45mpg. You might see one or two extra MPG from the hybrid model, but the difference will be marginal.

Diesel models are a different matter, and can achieve fairly impressive fuel economy figures; 60mpg isn’t beyond the realms of possibility on a long run.

Compared with its rivals, the Rio’s fuel consumption is respectable but not outstanding. The mild hybrid version loses out to the equivalent Ford Fiesta, which is a little more efficient, despite also being more powerful.

All Rios have a 12-month or 10,000-mile service interval, whichever crops up the soonest, except the diesels, which run to 12 months or 20,000 miles. And because servicing costs are relatively affordable, you may find that any extra cash you spend at the pumps is mitigated by the money you save at the garage.

All Rios of this generation were built after the tax rules changed in 2017, so they all incur the standard rate of car tax.

Kia Rio reliability

The Rio is now too old to feature in any of the latest reliability surveys, but when it did, it consistently put in respectable showings. Kia as a brand also has an excellent reputation for reliability, having come 8th out of the 30 car makers to feature in the 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey.

What's more, Kia offers one of the longest new car warranties on the market as standard, which means the Rio will remain protected for up to seven years or 100,000 miles from the date of registration. That means later examples will still be covered by their original manufacturer warranties – something that can’t be said of rivals like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo.

On some Rios built between April and June 2017, the child locks on the rear doors might not work correctly, because the cable that operates them was incorrectly installed. There is a recall out for this fault, which means any affected car should have been fixed for free at a Kia dealership.