Video: 2024 Kia Seltos Review: Better Than Ever

(upbeat music) One thing that immediately stood out as soon as you sit down is just how nice this is. Yeah, this was my favorite interior hands down, and it combined a lot of good things. Everything felt nice. Everything looked nice. It was just, you know, the design plus the materials. Just a home run in general. Yeah, the materials quality is outstanding. There's still some plastic, which isn't really unusual for the class, but so much of this is softer and better padded and nicer materials, and there's still some fun visual cues like the speaker mesh is- <v Jennifer>Very fun. Textured, but that feels premium instead of just, we put a nice color on it because we could. It's just, it's a very high quality interior that really, really stood out to me. <v Joe>Yeah, I think what really stood out was this brown interior. It had the highlights on the dashboard, the seats, they just look very, very nice. Especially compared with something like the tracks with kinda that funky color. You don't really know what's going on. Yeah. more mature, premium, just lovely. Another stark difference was what's under the hood. This is the SX Turbo, so it has 195 horsepower, four-cylinder, and it was the fastest in the test. It was more like a hot hatch than anything else here. Yeah, it's a great powertrain. It's much improved over the previous generation Seltos too with the switch to an eight-speed automatic from its previous dual clutch. Thought the transmission shifted real well. It's nice and quick. It's fun to drive. That's not necessarily a huge thing for shoppers, but it's a really nice thing to have and it really adds to that premium feel of the Seltos. Well, and the eight-speed really stands out to me, especially, you know, we're complaining about those other CBTs. <v Brian>Yeah. it's a great pairing. It does exactly what it's supposed to do. Shifts are just no nonsense, when they're supposed to happen, not abrupt. It just, it feels natural and just a, it's a good match. That combination of power and interior, this is the luxury and the sport option of the group, which is interesting. What adds to that was also surprising, this was quiet to drive. Very quiet probably among the quietest in terms of the road noise, the wind noise. The powertrain was nice and quiet. <v Joe>Yeah. <v Jennifer>Compared with some other ones, it was refreshing to get inside and hear not a lot. Yeah, the bar's kind of on the floor for a lot of SUVs in this class when it comes- To noise, but- Yeah. What? and then some. I'm still having lasting effects from the mileage drive after being in the Crosstrax and- Yeah, no, the lack of noise is notable. Yeah, it's done really well, which, again, for being the quickest, most fun to drive, one of the best handling of the group too, is very notable. Also, what's really notable, tied with the tracks for the best value score. So it's interesting because this is the most expensive vehicle, the Trax is the least expensive vehicle, and they both tied for the most value, and value is not just being inexpensive, it's what you get for the money, and the Seltos did get dinged for its high price, but it was offset by features that the other cars didn't have, so those unique features, ventilated front seats, a reclining back seat, a hands-free power lift gate, that's, like, solid SUV territory to have that feature that none of the others in this test had, and then also, the warranty. <v Jennifer>Very nice. 100,000-mile powertrain warranty really helped it, you know, solidify that value win even though it is the most expensive in the test. And all of those combine, you know, the warranty, the features, the interior, the driving experience, all of those combine to give it, to elevate it above the others and give it more of that premium feel that- Yeah. It's kind of surprising from, you know, an entry level SUV. Oh yeah, for sure. <v Brian>What I struggle with with this car is how it compares to larger SUVs and at what point do I make the transition, but here among its class, it's, you know, top marks. Yeah, for sure. Let's talk about where it didn't do so well. Now, it it did well in a lot of places. Yeah. There's one area where it was absolute bottom, and by a lot. Fuel economy. Fuel economy. unfortunately. People care. Yeah, so the 28.4 miles per gallon that it got in our fuel economy loop was considerably lower than the best in class Corolla Cross Hybrid at 47.4 miles per gallon, and even compared to the next lowest, it was still a big degradation in fuel economy. Yeah, usually, we're looking at differences of tenths- Right. Of an MPG and here, we're looking at a couple MPG difference between the next closest. 3.2 miles per gallon worse than the HRV- That's disappointing. in our fuel economy test. What about some other quirks that came up with the Seltos? You know, it did okay in the car seat check. It was the only vehicle whose latch anchors weren't completely exposed. So a little bit- Of struggling, you know, to connect the car seat anchors, not a lot, but it required more muscle than any other vehicle, unfortunately. There were also some unusual missing features for, you know, comfort and convenience. It's got ventilated seats, it doesn't have a heated steering wheel, it doesn't have dual-zone automatic climate control, it doesn't have still, and we've harped on this with Kia vehicles forever now it seems like, it doesn't have wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. You have to be plugged in. Yeah, It's a strange omission because you're also getting this, you know, really nice screen experience for the instrument panel and the multimedia system with really nice graphics, but it's missing a feature that might not be an expected feature, but you're getting it at a very affordable price- In a lot of these other cars. To see how the Seltos performed and read the full results of our comparison test and to read my full review, head over to cars.com. (upbeat music)