OK, so it may be a blatant attempt to copy other hatches, like VW, Toyota and Ford, but as copy-cats go, this isn’t half bad. The Kia Cee’d offers an astonishingly smooth ride, far better than the Cerato (the model it replaces) could ever deliver.

The model comes in a range of engine types and sizes – two 1.6 diesels (89 bhp and 113 bhp respectively), two petrol’s (1.4 litre, 103 bhp and 1.6 litre, 113 bhp) and finally a 2.0 litre, 140 bhp diesel. It’s the last one you should aim for; you’ll have to turn the CD volume up quite a bit at high speed, but it’s fairly nifty. Kia endeavours to keep its prices low so there is an inevitable downscaling of quality material in the interior and elsewhere; but the surprising thing is that, with this series, you don’t notice it.

The five-door Cee’d has independent rear suspension and handles superbly (it seems to float gracefully over speed-bumps). The passenger and boot space isn’t lavish, but neither is it miserly and you’ll certainly have a comfortable ride, whether you’re in the front or the back.

This is the model that should encourage you to shrug off any residual ‘badge snootiness’ and slide boldly behind the wheel of a Kia.