The concept of car family was founded around the 1970s, but became truly popular two decades later. Consists in entering multiple categories by deriving their respective body variations from one single car, enabling the automaker to promote only one identity at that price range. However, as the two-door E-Class’s article shows much better, prospering with this concept requires deep studies. One of its results, in fact, turned into the latest trend among the hatchbacks, which Kia has started to follow with the new pro_cee’d.
Do you remember when the ideal was to release taller hatchbacks in order to offer bigger internal space, just like what the minivans do? This trend rose in the early 2000s, with cars like Stilo, A-Class and 307 in Europe and Fox in Brazil – Volkswagen even created an additional model in 2005, Golf Plus. This concept didn’t take long to subside first because the actual minivans never stopped to exist (or to be a much better option for big families), but also for a second very important reason: being bad minivans deviated the hatchbacks from the sporty potential they’ve had for decades. The North-Americans may prefer the sedans and the Australians the pick-ups, but Europeans and Brazilians usually apply their high-performance packages on hatchbacks. Finally, one possible third reason would be the very limited “genetic predisposition”. In order to have a bigger cabin without an also big external size, these compacts needed to use rational designs, which fatally include the vans’ almost-horizontal roof line. Therefore, adapting coupés, sedans or other siblings turned impossible by the simple fact that all these designs need descending roofs. That’s precisely why the mentioned cars could only receive station wagon variations, respectively Multiwagon, SW and Variant (the latter using the original Golf) – the only possibility was to stretch them, like the Mercedes’ old extended-wheelbase L option.
However, the car fans can be happy again because the current trend could be defined as having only the good part of the first Mégane’s concept brought back. In other words, the family concept is still being used, but no longer intensely to the point of the entire line being the very same car until the central console. The second pro_cee’d won’t ever deny being cee’d’s two-door sibling, but this didn’t stopped it from offering a much more sporty design. If the four-door was already very attractive, the younger brother received elements such as the imponent crease that starts around the handles and gets really strong at the back, to the point of making the cabin look narrower than the lower portion – this muscle impression on compacts became famous most recently with VW Scirocco, which competes with pro_cee’d just like Opel Astra, Renault Mégane and the upcoming Seat León’s “coupe-hatch” siblings. The car’s interior features a driver-centered console and a very sporty combination of matte and piano-black, without any excess of chrome items. Kia will offer S and SE trims, the first one already bringing electric windows, full climate control, multimedia sound system and a large safety package, while the other adds a 7” touchscreen and several style accessories. This car won’t take long to receive the GT trim, but even that one repeats what could be this car’s only important weakness: both the 1.6L GDi (gasoline) and CRDi (diesel)’s numbers leave Kia without competing as this car’s design suggests.
