Kia Syros Review: Is It the Right Compact SUV for You?

Kia Syros Review: The sub-4m compact SUV segment has a wide array of vehicles to choose from. These SUVs are feature-loaded, offer decent space, and come with either a petrol or a diesel engine. Recently, in this segment, Kia India launched the Syros for the Indian market. It is spacious, comes loaded with features, and offers a turbo petrol engine or a diesel engine option. It is the first car from Kia that has scored a five-star safety rating in the Bharat NCAP crash test safety program.

Lately, we got our hands on the Kia Syros HTX (O) turbo petrol engine paired with a seven-speed DCT gearbox. We drove it for more than 700 km in the city and on the highways. We tested out its performance, fuel efficiency, seating comfort, the practicality of the boot space, and answered the question: Should you buy the Kia Syros at a price of ₹10.70 lakh (on-road, Noida)?

What’s Good - 

Safety

Regarding the safety, it is the first Kia car that score a five-star safety rating in the Bharat NCAP crash test. It is a safe car and offers multiple safety features. It comes with Level-2 ADAS, six airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control, a highline TPMS, hill-hold assist, and others. 

The Level-2 ADAS features include adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, auto high beam, and other functions. The ADAS functions worked effortlessly during our drive experience. Further, the traction control kicks in instantly as soon as the tyre loses grip.

Performance

Kia Syros comes with a 1.0L inline three-cylinder turbo petrol engine, which makes 120 bhp and 170 Nm of peak torque paired with a six-speed manual or a seven-speed DSG gearbox. This is the same engine that we drove on the Kia Sonet earlier. There is a 1.5L diesel engine as well, making 115 bhp and 254 Nm of peak torque, paired with a six-speed manual or an automatic gearbox.

Since we drove the 1.0L turbo petrol engine, we’ll share our experience of that. The performance from the engine is good. Our test unit was equipped with a seven-speed DCT gearbox, and the gearshifts were smooth, and the engine was quite refined as well.

However, there were some vibrations that were evident on idle and in the higher rev band. Regarding the power delivery, there was some lag, which we felt lower down, but in the mid-range, it offered good performance, and in the top-end, it red-lined around 6,000 RPM.

Features

The Kia Syros is a feature-loaded offering in the segment. Some of the features that we liked during our experience were the front and rear ventilated seats, 64 colour ambient lighting, multiple places to charge your phone, driving modes, traction modes, and others. Further, it has a panoramic sunroof, which brings in more light, and the rear seats have sun shades as well, which helped us in cutting out the sun in the summers.

The Syros has a 30-inch connected instrument cluster and an infotainment screen, including the climate control screen between the two. 

The touchscreen infotainment is slick to use and gets wireless connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Further, the instrument cluster has different modes, and the user interface is simple to read and looks modern.

However, the placement of the climate control comes behind the steering wheel, which we felt was an ergonomic issue while driving and required special focus, hence distracting from the road.

If you are a music lover, then you’ll enjoy the cabin experience in the Syros as it comes with an 8-speaker Bose audio system. The sound quality was good, and we enjoyed the music experience and the long drives in the Syros.

Seat Comfort

The seats of the Kia Syros are comfortable. The front seats gives a commanding view of  what’s around. The seat cushioning is soft, and during long drives, it did not feel uncomfortable.

However, the rear seat comfort of the Syros is also good. Despite it is a sub-4m compact SUV, it has enough kneeroom, legroom, and shoulderroom on offer. The rear seats gets a recline and sliding mechanism, which helps in improving the seating comfort at the rear.

Moreover, the width of the Syros is decent, and fitting three-people in the rear-row can be a tight fit.

What’s Bad -

Fuel Efficiency

Though Kia offers a turbo petrol engine in the Syros, it is a gas guzzler. The Syros has a fuel tank capacity of 45L and after driving it extensively in city and on highways, it gave us a fuel efficiency of 10.2km/l. During our drive experience, after driving it for 25-30 km in city, the instrument cluster showed a drastic range drop of more than 50km. If you are considering for fuel efficiency, then either you can go for the diesel variant or some other car.

Design

The design of the Kia Syros is either you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. The front profile of the Syros has boxy elements. The vertical LED headlamps are positioned on the corners, and are very prone to get damaged while on the edges. 

The throw of the headlamps is decent, and we expect a better headlamp quality from Kia in their cars.

On the side, it has flush door handles, and squared out wheel arches and has a boxy proportion. The windows are large enough, giving a good view of what’s around. It runs on 17-inch alloy wheels, and again the design is something which we didn’t like. However, it does have roof rails, which adds to the sporty appearance of the Syros.  

At the rear, the front design elements continue to offer. The LED taillamps are positioned onnthe side, and the reverse lamp is a halogen unit. The bumpers gets a blacked out treatment with silver finish, and the subtle badging gives a clean rear profile. 

If you want boot space, then Kia Syros can be a good pick as it has ample of space on offer. With the second row seats folded, it easily accommodated more than 100 gift boxes inside.

Ride Quality

Though the seats of the Syros are comfortable, we felt the suspensions of the Syros require slightly better tuning. The suspension is tuned on the softer side, and it does provide decent ride quality. However, on high speeds, there was a bit of the vertical movement, the suspesnions could have been a bit stiffened for better grip and stability.

Regarding the feel and feedback from the steering wheel, it requires improvement. It is light and easy to use in the city traffic condition, but while on highways and at high-speeds, it does not inspire any confidence and feels disconnected. On corners, due to tall boy design, there is a lot of body roll on offer.

Should you buy the Kia Syros?

Now the main question is, should you buy the Kia Syros? Our answer is Yes. If you want a car with good comfortable cabin, that is loaded with features, and punchy performance, then you should consider it. While the fuel efficiency can be an issue to some users, it can be a good option if you prioritise practicality and comfort inside the cabin.

Also Read: Volvo XC90 500 km Review: Is This the Best Luxury SUV Under ₹1.25 Crore?