Kia has revealed its facelifted Rio ahead of the Paris motor show that kicks off on Thursday 2 October. The Rio is Kia’s best-selling car globally and by the looks of the update it has tried to stick to the winning formula by not changing too much on the Rio. The update intends to keep it relevant amongst its competitors.

Kia Rio Facelift Details

The Kia Rio’s design team has updated the Rio’s ‘tiger-nose grille’ and given the car a newly-designed front bumper and fog lights. There is a new range of alloy wheels to choose from right the way from 15-17-inch sizes. Finally the subtle exterior update is completed with two new body colours to choose from – Urban Blue and Digital Yellow.

The Rio’s cabin is brightened by the addition of chrome accents around the four dashboard air-vents, and the fitting of a newly-designed centre-stack around the audio system. There will also be the option to cover the interior in faux leather.

Engines for the new Kia Rio vary in power from 55 kW to 80 kW with a choice of five-or-six-speed gearboxes or a four-speed automatic. Start/stop technology is now an option for the engines as are low rolling resistance tyres. More details on this will come at the official launch later this week.

The Rio is set to go on sale in European markets in early 2015. Kia South Africa has been quite timeous with local introductions so we should see it quite soon thereafter.