Kia Rio

The shape tells you which market the car is from before you open the bonnet. Americans buy three-box cars, so in the US the Rio sold overwhelmingly as a saloon and the hatchback was reserved for the higher trim. In Europe it is the reverse, and more absolute: because of urban conditions only the hatchback was offered, and a saloon of this generation was never imported at all. In our stock the ratio is about six to one in favour of the saloon.

The engine is the other half of the same divide. America backs one larger naturally aspirated unit: the 1.6 Smartstream MPI with 120 hp, and that is practically the only engine we hold. Europe moved entirely to small turbos — the 1.2 DPI with 84 hp or the 1.0 T-GDi three-cylinder turbo with 100 or 120, some of them with a 48-volt mild hybrid system.

For Bulgaria the difference is the cost of running on gas. The American 1.6 is naturally aspirated, with no turbo and no battery, and port injection — a cheap, simple conversion, and 120 hp is enough for this light body. The European 1.0 turbos have direct injection and a hybrid system; converting them is significantly more expensive and more complicated. If the car is being bought to run cheaply, the American one is the right choice rather than a compromise.

The gearboxes divide as well. America gives an IVT — a continuously variable transmission — and dropped the manual after 2019, so almost everything from there is automatic. Europe gives a seven-speed dual-clutch or a manual, including the electronic iMT. In our stock the manuals are single figures, exactly as expected.

Equipment is where the American car is the poorer one and it has to be said. The American base trim, LX, left the factory to the very end with rear drum brakes and steel wheels with covers. European versions got four-wheel disc brakes, lane assist and automatic pedestrian braking as standard far earlier, because the law requires it. And the GT-Line trim — aggressive bumpers, ice-cube LED lights, 17-inch alloys — was never offered in America at all. The model was discontinued globally at the end of 2023 and our years stop exactly there.