Picanto for piquant, of course, which means, according to one dictionary, that the new Kia five-door city car might be pleasantly pungent in taste or odour, spicy, stinging and/or "interesting yet having a disconcerting or troubling effect".Well, there's nothing at all troubling about this neatly presented little machine, and looking at the cost you can tell there's no sting in the financial sense. Interesting? Reasonably so. Pleasantly pungent in taste or odour? Didn't get that far.Spicy? You can say that again, especially about one of the two-tone interior colour schemes. Disconcerting? Maybe to some rival manufacturers, now that they've had a chance to check the Picanto's balance of pricing and specification.Kia may build this car back home in Korea, but it has obviously been well tested and researched for the European market, which is expected to take 80,000 units in a full year, including 10,000 for the UK. While the roofline is high - the only way to get decent rear cabin space in a hatchback of this overall length - the styling is a lot more grown-up than some previous Korean city car efforts.I can't, for example, see a bunch of teenagers strolling along the pavement hooting with laughter at a passing Picanto, and pointing to the driver (myself) as being an obvious freak, which is what happened with a previous KCC, now wisely dropped from the UK market.The car looks good, and one unexpected thing is that the interior is pretty dashed stylish. Kia has come up with an attractive fascia design featuring something which may sound odd in this context but absolutely hits the spot - instruments with white markings on black faces.It's always interesting (see above) to find a manufacturer unafraid to use bright interior colour schemes. If the Picanto's charcoal and grey option looks sombre to say the least, and the charcoal/blue arrangement is - well, dark - it's complete whoopee time with the charcoal/orange mix, especially as those are the colours of the door trim and carpets too. I'd go for that combination every time.There's good headroom all round, and although the Picanto is certainly a four-seater, front-seat passengers would have to allow some give-and-take to provide adults in the rear with comfortable legroom.Over the back there's only very modest luggage space, but the rear seat splits 60/40 to increase the load area if required. The SE has a two-seat rear layout, while the less expensive LX and GS go for three.From the outside you can tell the SE, which Kia expects to account for 20% of UK sales, from the other models by its alloy wheels, front foglamps, sill extensions and rear spoiler. Inside, it gets air-conditioning, a CD/MP3 player, electric windows all round, a pull-out tray under the front passenger's seat, a leather-rimmed steering wheel and a surprisingly chunky leather-topped gearlever knob.As well as that, the three Picanto models have ABS with EBD, and they come with disc brakes all round. Altogether, a top-class specification for this kind of car, and very good for the prices asked, considering that there's a three-year unlimited-mileage manufacturer's warranty, including European roadside assistance.The SE manoeuvres neatly in city traffic and zips along smartly out on the open road, where the 1.1-litre is more at home than some of its city car rivals, because the 64bhp engine gives it a very fair power to weight ratio. Holding a steady 70mph you know there's quite a small engine under the bonnet, but Kia has built in more refinement than many rival cars of this size offer.Kia sales are up 61% in the first four months of the year, and it's building up to a 150-strong dealer network by the end of 2004. They'd better be ready for the next car in the Picanto range, because a turbo diesel is due to arrive next year. It will have a Hyundai/Kia group engine, tinier even than the 1.3-litre Fiat GM Powertrain unit which is currently the smallest of its type on the world market. The Koreans are almost ready with a 1.1. Engine 1086cc, 4 cylinders Power 64bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 57.6mpg / 119g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 15.1 seconds Top speed 96mph Price £6995 Details correct at publication date
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