• Diesel promises good fuel economy
• 1.5-litre petrol can easily manage 40mpg
• PHEV can’t meet Kia’s bold 201.7mpg claim

What are the running costs?

Kia says the 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol XCeed can return around 47mpg. We’ve seen around 42mpg in normal driving, which isn’t bad – but rivals equipped with hybrid engines will return over 50mpg with ease.

You probably won’t have the same level of success with the PHEV model. Kia says it’ll return 201.7mpg which, like almost every other plug-in hybrid car on sale, is completely unrealistic. We managed to extract 64.2mpg on the same route as the petrol, which isn’t bad. However, to get that figure, you need to charge the car regularly.

There’s no reason not to, though. The more you can beetle about on electric power, the more money you’ll save on fuel. And, because the XCeed PHEV can travel 30 miles on electric power alone, most buyers should easily be able get to work without using a drop of fuel. If you can charge up while you’re at work, you wouldn’t use any fuel on the way back either.

We haven’t driven the updated 1.6-litre diesel or the revised 1.0-litre petrol yet, because Kia is struggling to get its hands on parts. So for now, we’ll have to take the company’s word on fuel economy for those units. The diesel has claimed WLTP economy figure of 56.4mpg, while the petrol returns a claimed 47.8mpg.

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Servicing and warranty

Kia recommends service intervals of around 10,000 miles (or every 12 months, whatever comes first) for the XCeed – and the company offers a range of service plans to cover the cost of maintenance. The most expensive plan covers up five years’ worth of servicing, and buyers can also choose to bundle the cost of their car’s yearly MOT into the package for an additional fee.

Kia also offers all its cars with a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty as standard, which makes the Volkswagen T-Roc’s three-year/60,000-mile effort look pitiful. The only manufacturer that can beat Kia in the warranty department is Toyota with its exceptional 10-year package.

As an added benefit, Kia’s warranty sticks with the car. So, if you sell your XCeed after four years of ownership, the new owner will still have three years of warranty left – and that’s a bargaining chip you can use to protect the car’s residual value.

Reliability

• Rock-solid mechanicals
• Excellent build quality
• Did we mention the seven-year warranty?

Kia has proved it can build reliable cars – our owner reviews section is testament to that. We haven’t heard of any catastrophic XCeed mechanical failures in the past three years the car has been on sale, and we’d bet a lot of money on that remaining the case.

All the XCeed’s powertrains are proven, as they’re used across the company’s range. But, if you’re still concerned about the reliability of a Kia, remember the firm provides a seven-year warranty with all its vehicles – and the company’s bosses wouldn’t do that if they knew their cars were unreliable.

Repairing cars under warranty costs Kia money that it rather wouldn’t spend, so you can rest assured the XCeed won’t break for at least the first seven years you own it. If you still need convincing, take comfort in the fact that the XCeed has had no recalls since it was launched.