Cheap and cheerful. Few motoring nameplates fit the bill quite as neatly as the Kia Picanto.

The Korean marque’s smallest and cheapest model arrived in Oz in third-generation guise in 2017.

At under four metres in length, the diminutive five-door hatch brought cute Pokemon looks, hub caps and all, to the city car segment. And with a little over a 5.0L/100km combined consumption form its naturally aspirated 1.2-litre (though technically 1.25L) four-cylinder it proved suitably thrifty as the urban runabout it clearly positioned itself as.

With its practical packaging, handy 200-litre boot, essentials-ticking features and long seven-year warranty, the Picanto struck chords as both as seductive first-car proposition and as a handy third-car grocery-getter and went on to become the biggest selling city car in Australia…by a country kilometre.

The Picanto’s first-car credentials were boosted over the second-ten Picanto by no small measure in third-gen JA guise by the introduction of standard all-speed AEB and forward collision warning, with ANCAP awarding the range a decent four-star safety rating in its launch year.

It was now more modern, too. The outgoing version offered Bluetooth and USB power as tech highlights, but for gen-three even the penny-pinching ($14,190) entry S manual version fit a 7.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto mirroring and a reversing camera. Auto versions commanded an extra $1500. Bootspace, too, had grown to 255 litres.

Things got more cheerful, if not quite as cheap, further upstream. In 2018, an up-spec GT-Line version ($15,690-$17,290) ) brought a sporty makeover to the line-up, if without as much as a tickle under the bonnet, and an ‘upmarket’ X-Line version ($16,190-$17,990) arrived in 2019. Both versions were offered as manuals and autos. Tennis fans were offered an AO Edition (Australian Open), with mostly cosmetic fettling, between 2017 and 2019.

The top dog, though, is the GT. A turbocharged 1.0-litre three-pot, good for 74kW/172Nm, manual-only and sport-tuned suspension, the GT arrived in 2019 as the most fun you peel off the showroom floor for its $18k ask.

For such a small package there’s a lot to like. The N/A four-pot is struggler on the open road, but its tuned-for-Oz suspension packages are fit and fun, appointments are thoroughly modern for the sort of money Picanto commands on the used market, and they’re all still covered by Kia’s long factory warranty.

What goes wring with a used Kia Picanto?

• Sporadic reports regarding the keyless entry not working and the electric mirrors failing to adjust, however these complaints are few and far between.
• A few reports that the Apple CarPlay can be quite glitchy and phone connectivity in general can be faulty.
• Some reports that the handbrake on some examples requires a serious pull to stop the car rolling away.
• Minor and rare reports of window motors making loud/harsh noises when closing and that the leather can be prone to peeling on the steering wheel.
• Occasional reports of coil pack issues.
• It should be noted that these faults were generally repaired under warranty and again, we wouldn’t categorise the issues as “common” problems at all.

Should you buy a used Kia Picanto?

If you require a little city car that is loads of fun to drive, offers near bulletproof reliability and has its own quirky personality, absolutely.

The Picanto is our pick for cars in this segment. Yes a Fiat 500 might win for aesthetics and image but the Kia blows it out of the water in every other sense.

The Picanto, especially in GT Line or GT nails it. It provides such a great balance of everything that a car in this category needs to deliver and even when used and with many kilometres on it, is genuinely bloody awesome.