In the Netherlands, Kia only supplies the Rio as a hatchback, but there is also a sedan version far beyond our borders. In fact, there are two Kia’s Rio in sedan form. The variant intended for the Chinese and Russian market has now been facelifted.
Kia presented the current fourth-generation Rio to the world in September 2016. In our country you can only get it as a five-door hatchback, but in the United States you have a second choice. Kia offers a sedan version of the Rio, which shares its basis with the five-door known here and which therefore also has the same front. There is a second Rio Sedan on the other side of the world. This concerns the derivative intended for the Russian and Chinese markets. That car, which is known as K2 in China and has a nose that differs in details, shares its GB platform with our and the American Rio, but has a completely different carriage. That Rio Sedan has now gone under the knife.
American Kia Rio Sedan
The Russian and Chinese Rio Sedan / K2 has a wheelbase that is 2.6 meters 2 centimeters longer than that of the hatchback known here. The Rio Sedan has been updated in particular at the front. The four-door Rio gets new headlights with a modified layout. From now on, a spur runs down the redesigned bumper. The modified bumper work makes the Rio Sedan a total of 2 centimeters longer. Also new is the grille, which is a lot larger than on the original presented in 2017 (photos 13, 14 and 15). There is also design news on the back. Kia gives the Rio Sedan rear lights with a new interpretation. In addition, there is a changed rear bumper at the bottom of the buttocks of the Rio Sedan. In it, Kia places two triangular silver-colored ornaments, one of which serves as a frame for the exhaust tailpipe. The top versions of the Rio Sedan have a shark fin antenna, which is in black regardless of the chosen paint color.
Pre-facelift Kia Rio Sedan (Russia)
Little changes inside. Kia now puts an 8-inch infotainment system on the options list and adds a larger, now 4.2 instead of 3.5-inch color screen, which has a place between the clocks in the instrumentation. The engine list includes a 100 hp naturally aspirated 1.4 MPi, which also has an unblown 123 hp 1.6 MPi as a more powerful alternative. Shifting is done with a manual six-speed gearbox, although a six-speed automatic gearbox is also available for both engine versions.
To add to the Rio confusion, there is also a crossover-like hatchback based on the Russian / Chinese Rio Sedan. That car is called Rio X-Line in Russia and is known as KX Cross in China.
Kia Rio X-Line (Russia)