Kia Proceed GT Tech

When it first lobbed at Wheels HQ, I couldn't give the ProCeed GT Tech away. “I’ll take it eventually,” was the reply from our art director. What did he take home instead? A Nissan Qashqai, for Pete’s sake. Made for people with families. Or late 20s/early 30s couples with a dog, pretending it’s not a precursor to two-legged children.

The ProCeed’s not made for that. Recaro front seats, well-bolstered and supportive, don't give a rat's about kids. Or dogs. Or picnic baskets. Because this is the first hot Kia a car with the power of a Golf GTI (well, if you go back to the Mk5 with 147kW) and an edgy, up-to-the-minute Peter Schreyer design. For a Korean car trying to be European, it’s very a la mode.

But can Kia do ‘hot’? I mean, really, the company that brings us the Carnival (yawn), the Sportage (commendable, but not dynamic) and builds luxury saloons like the K900 (a sofa on wheels)? Even the model code JD was used by Holden for the second Camira in 1984. That doesn't bode well.

Having the GT arrive, though, I’m starting to notice cars like the old Cerato Koup, which, like the ProCeed, is an oddly named Kia with sporting pretensions. It's almost handsome, rugged, square styling looks very Yankee, but I don’t mind it. It’s just that, well, you know, it’s a Kia.

I’m reluctant to tell my car-loving big brother that my new long-termer is from the Korean maker. Hell, my mum bought an i30 earlier this year, and the GT is just a boy-racer version of that, riding on the same platform. That’s right: I’m driving a more potent version of my mum’s car, sans the fluffy steering wheel cover, Cliff Richard CDs and rear doors.

I do like the styling, though, and I love this car in crisp, clean white. It really makes that nosebleed or is it blood from vicious hot-hatch fangs? stand out, and the rear is especially cool with the massive, melted-on tail-lights stretched along the rear quarter panels with their almost Citroen-esque 3D depth. The wheels are also well within tasteful limits of using chrome and silver, while, inside, the seats and leather-wrapped steering wheel work equally well with the classic round gear lever and the modern digital instrumentation.

The ‘Tech’, by the way, is the $34K top-spec GT, and means that this car comes with a panoramic sunroof (I love it already), HID headlights and keyless entry with push-button engine start.

The 1.6-litre turbo has a tough, solid and confident note when you give it a rev, and it’s punchy in traffic, with those Michelin tyres enabling the Kia to hold the road as strongly as I’m holding my preconceptions of a badge.

There is a simplicity to all of this. There’s no adaptive chassis, no sport mode or eleventyseven steering options; the GT is what it is, take it or leave it. Just get in and drive the thing.

Hang on, though, I’m starting to like this car, as much as I liked the Kia GT4 Stinger concept at the 2014 Detroit show – a classically proportioned, cut-price rear-drive sports car concept.

I caught up with the GT4’s designer, Tom Kearns, at the BMW Motorrad stand at Geneva this year, two months after Detroit. His lustful eyes were glazing over the German motorcycles, and he admitted he can’t get enough of them.

Passion like that, and cars like the GT4, show the company’s depth and talent, while the ProCeed GT proves it has the confidence to man up against all comers. So it’s about time I man up and come clean with my brother.