• Decent if not outstanding rear seat space
• Huge and practical boot
• Square shape is more practical than related Proceed

The Ceed Sportswagon is certainly more svelte than its predecessor, but it’s still a good boxy shape – which makes it an immensely practical vehicle considering its small footprint. There’s plenty of space up front for a tall driver and you’re not too close to your front seat passenger, either.

It isn’t the widest estate, so sitting three adults abreast in the back is a little bit of a squeeze. But two will be very comfortable and they won’t be left wanting for leg or headroom, either.

However, the SEAT Leon, Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia Estate provide more legroom, handy if you’ve got lanky friends or family.

Boot and storage space

At 625 litres, the Ceed Sportswagon’s boot beats most of its main competitors – the 611-litre Volkswagen Golf Estate, 575-litre Ford Focus Estate and 620-litre SEAT Leon Estate if not the whopping 640-litres of the Skoda Octavia Estate. The Ceed’s boot isn’t just a large space, though – it’s a very clever and well-thought out one.

There’s a big storage compartment under the floor to keep items hidden away or from moving around the boot, plus two smaller lidded compartments just behind the wheelarches – great for small items such as high-visibility vests, first aid kits, or other small bits and pieces you want to keep handy.

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The seats also tumble flat effortlessly and lie flush with the boot floor, and when folded there’s 1,694-litres of space. Absolutely perfect for a trip to the flat-pack furniture store, dumping garden waste at the tip or simply moving big items such as fridges

Hybrid system eats into space

Although off sale at the time of writing, it’s worth pointing out that the PHEV version’s loadspace drops to 437-litres. We know what you’re thinking: the Ceed Hatchback isn’t far off that figure – in terms of boot volume with the seats in place the estate’s size advantage is trimmed to an extra 42 litres. That’s because the hybrid system’s battery takes up room, something that matters less when the seats are down, where the plug-in estate boasts 1,506 litres.

Also because the battery pack is installed towards the rear seats, you still get some of those handy underfloor storage compartments.

Safety

• Four-star safety score
• Rises to five with additional safety pack
• Crash protection scores high

The Ceed Sportswagon hasn’t been tested on its own, rather as part of the Ceed range. It scored a decent if unimpressive four-star rating under older, less strict conditions than the current Euro NCAP test.

This was raised to five stars with the addition of the advanced driver assistance pack, which brings adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic parking assistance and pedestrian detection for the autonomous emergency braking. It’s the last of these that gains Kia the extra star, as it brings the score for the ‘Safety Assist’ category up to the appropriate level.

There are two Isofix child seat mounts to be found on the outer rear seats although you can’t get one for the front passenger pew.