How The Kia Pro Cee'd GT Cuts It As A Video Crew Car

Our long term test vehicles get used for all sorts of things, including ferrying us to press events, being put through their paces for reviews, and - with a busy YouTube channel to populate - being used as a video crew car.

With the CT video team in need of an extra pair of hands to film a future Readers’ Rides video recently, I was able to see how our Kia Pro Cee’d GT coped with our demands.

With this particular shoot being one of the furthest away we’ve ever done, much of the day was spent racking up motorway miles, something that the Kia is rather good at - for the most part. The ride is smooth, while the supportive and soft seats are very comfortable. The big downer is the fuel economy, though. Despite spending much of the journey trundling through roadworks at a highly efficient 50mph, the best the Pro Cee’d could manage was a dismal 37mpg.

The boot’s a reasonable size (380 litres with the seats up), making it big enough to swallow up all of the video guys’ equipment. The tailgate opening is also relatively large, so when it came to setting up a camera for tracking shots, there was plenty of room. At this point the smooth ride also came in handy.

People’s attention may have been drawn to the crazy, big-winged Elise we were filming, but had that not been there, all eyes would have been on the Kia. There are elements of the car’s aesthetics I’m not fond of; it’s a big car as a three-door, and the rear windows are particularly small, leaving you with a big, empty expanse of metal on the rear quarter. But there’s no denying it’s a pretty car, and not a particularly common one on the roads.

As the day wore on, the Kia had yet to excite me, but a brief stretch of windy road on the way home gave me a chance to give the Pro Cee’d GT a good poke. Its 201bhp didn’t offer up the most electrifying experience, but it was decently entertaining. It’s definitely a warm rather than hot hatch, but it gets a gentle nod of respect from me. I’m looking forward to the next drive.