Kia Stonic Review 2026: Prices, specs and verdict

What is the Kia Stonic?

You’ll be forgiven for thinking that Kia no longer makes the Stonic. After all, it was launched back in 2017 and, bar a couple of minor updates over the years, hasn’t really changed since.

In fact, the Stonic has quietly soldiered on even while Kia launched much newer and fresher small SUVs like the Niro and EV3. Nearly a decade is a lifetime in a competitive market where bestsellers like the Ford Puma and Nissan Juke dominate.

Despite its ageing design, the original Stonic has continued to enjoy sales success: in 2024 Kia sold more in Europe than the Stonic’s first year on sale in 2018. But the time has come for a serious upgrade.

The basic structure of this new-for-2026 Stonic is carried over, but this is no mild facelift with all-new front and rear styling, an overhauled interior and new technology. Can the updated Stonic cut it in the trendy small SUV market? Our review aims to find out.  

Verdict: is the Kia Stonic a good car?

There’s no doubt that the Kia Stonic has improved, with a fresher look inside and out and more modern equipment. It also handles well, yet retains a keen starting price that undercuts many small SUVs. It lacks the outright space, quality and comfort to compete with the best in class, however.

Pricing, specs & rivals

Pricing for the new Kia Stonic kicks off from £21,845 at the time of writing. That puts it at the same level as the outgoing version, despite the upgrades inside and out.

It also makes the Stonic nearly £5,000 cheaper than the entry-level Ford Puma – a huge sum at this end of the market. It’s even cheaper than the Renault Captur and Hyundai Bayon, although a Dacia Duster does undercut the Kia.

That entry price gets you a Stonic in Pure trim with the 99hp petrol engine in manual form. You’ll need another £1,000 for an automatic version with Kia’s 7DCT gearbox.

Pure trim is relatively basic but gets the essentials, making do with 16in alloys and halogen headlights but including the full infotainment suite, cruise control, rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, lane keep and lane follow assist.

Upgrading to GT-Line trim (from £24,645) upgrades the exterior look with 17in alloys, sportier gloss black exterior trim, LED headlights and rear lights, privacy glass with solar glass for the front, auto wipers, part faux leather upholstery, climate control and blind spot avoidance. It also gives you access to the more powerful mild hybrid engines.

Topping the range is the GT-Line S, from £28,345. That throws in lots of features including a tilt/slide sunroof, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, keyless entry and start, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, customisable ambient lighting, front parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, an upgraded digital driver’s display and wireless phone charging.

Of course, every Stonic benefits from Kia’s class-leading warranty that covers you for seven years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Rivals

The Kia Stonic has many more rivals that when the first version launched. There’s the familiar Ford Puma, Nissan Juke, Renault Captur, Seat Arona and Vauxhall Mokka to consider, but the related Hyundai Bayon is also well worth a look.

Other alternatives include the Toyota Yaris Cross, Skoda Kamiq, Volkswagen Taigo, Vauxhall Frontera, Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600, while Chinese alternatives like the Omoda 5 and Jaecoo 5 are also worth a look.

Interior comfort, quality & technology

The old Stonic felt its age inside compared to the latest Kias, but this new version brings the interior bang up to date.

The infotainment screen jutting out of the dash, combined with old-school analogue dials, is now replaced by a modern twin-screen display unit blended into a single bezel.

There’s also a touch sensitive control display below the screen which looks smart and isn’t too tricky to use, however we would say the old layout with its physical buttons was more intuitive to operate on the move. At least there’s still a good number of physical controls for turning of lane keeping and speed alerts, turning on heated seats and changing the drive mode.

Quality is generally decent, with a solid feel, no noticeable rattles and well-damped switchgear. However, there are plenty of hard, scratchy plastics on display once you start prodding the doors and dash. That’s par for the course at this price, but some alternatives disguise them better.

The Stonic offers a comfortable, if not commanding, driving position with plenty of adjustment in the seat and wheel. Forward visibility is good, with slim windscreen pillars, while good-sized side windows and a deep rear window make it easy to see out the rear, too.

Infotainment, sat-nav, stereo and connectivity

Every new Stonic comes with a 12.3in touchscreen with built-in sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. However. Both of those connections are wired rather than wireless, which is a shame.

That’s the only real black mark, though, as the screen is easy to use with sensible menu layouts and decent responses. Granted, the graphics aren’t the most modern and polished, but overall there’s little to gripe about.

Only top-spec GT-Line S versions get a fully digital dial display. In lesser versions you get a ‘semi-digital’ display that combines a 4.2in central screen with simple numbered readouts rather than old-school analogue dials. It’s fine but hardly looks cutting-edge.

We can see the appeal of the GT-Line S version with its much more versatile fully digital display, along with wireless phone charging and a smartphone-based Digital Key option. All Stonics get a seven-year subscription to Kia’s connected services giving you live data for traffic, weather and news.

All versions of the Stonic get two USB_C charging ports up front along with a single rear charging port. Curiously, this is upgraded to two rear ports in GT-Line S trim. There’s no upgraded audio option, but the six-speaker sound system is decent enough for a cheaper car.

How practical is the Kia Stonic?

The Kia Stonic’s dimensions of 4,165mm in length, 1,760mm in width and up to 1520mm in height (models without roof rails sit at 1,500mm) make it larger than a Jeep Avenger but a similar size to the Ford Puma.

There’s plenty of space up front for a pair of six-footers to get comfortable, with no shortage of headroom even with the sunroof fitted and plenty of space for your legs. The cabin is also wide enough to avoid clashing elbows with your front seat passenger.

Rear seat space is behind the best-in-class cars – in particular the SEAT Arona and Skoda Kamiq. Headroom is fine, with six-footers able to fit in for short trips without feeling too hemmed in. Legroom is more supermini-like than a fully-fledged SUV, however, and three adults across the rear bench is a bit of a squeeze.

If you only plan on occasionally carrying adult passengers in the rear, the Stonic is perfectly fine. It’ll also be decent for those carrying young children, but there are better options out there if practicality is a key concern.

Storage and boot space

Storage in the front of the Kia Stonic is decent but unremarkable. The glovebox is okay, the door bins are a reasonable size, there’s a small separate armrest cubby and a pair of cupholders along with phone storage in the centre console.

In the rear you’ll find map pockets in the front seatbacks, but the door bins are tiny and there’s no centre armrest cupholders.

The Stonic also lacks outright boot space compared to the most practical small SUVs. The 352-litre capacity is less than the Jeep Avenger and comfortably less than a Ford Puma or Skoda Kamiq, but the Kia’s boot does have the edge on the Hyundai Bayon.

At least it’s a square shape with a decent-sized opening, while there is a small amount of underfloor storage (less so in mild hybrid models) and some pockets in the sides of the boot to store smaller items. You can also store the parcel shelf at the back of the boot area, which is a handy touch.

The seatbacks fold in a 60/40 split to increase the size of the boot, but there’s no reclining and sliding rear seats (like a Renault Captur) and no ski hatch either.

Performance & drive: What is the Kia Stonic like on the road?

There’s not a large amount of engine choices in the latest Kia Stonic. In fact, all versions feature a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, with or without 48-volt mild hybrid assistance.

The base version is carried over largely unchanged from the previous Stonic, boasting 99hp through either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Performance is not spectacular but is perfectly respectable for this type of car, with just enough grunt to get up to speed and a reasonably punchy mid-range so that overtaking isn’t an issue. You do need to keep it on the boil to get the best out of it, however.

A 115hp version of the same engine is available in all other trims. Again, you get the choice of manual or automatic gearboxes, but a 48-volt mild-hybrid system helps harvest energy when coasting and deploy some electrical assistance when accelerating.

Performance isn’t drastically improved with this version, however. You’ll notice that the DCT model is slightly keener because it has 18Nm more torque than the manual, though that manual version has the same torque output as the 99hp variant. It’s a little perkier but can’t match a Ford Puma’s brisk performance.

The six-speed manual has a slick, precise shift action, whereas the dual-clutch automatic is a mixed bag. It’s good at smoothly slurring changes as you cruise about, but kickdown is a bit sluggish and the upshift are quite leisurely at full throttle. The brake pedal responds predictably, however.

Power, 0-62mph times

• Kia Stonic Pure (manual): 99hp, 11 secs
• Kia Stonic Pure (DCT): 99hp, 12.1 secs
• Kia Stonic GT-Line (manual): 115hp, 10.7 secs
• Kia Stonic GT-Line (DCT): 115hp, 10.8 secs

Ride and handling

Kia has given the Stonic relatively firm suspension for a small, affordable SUV, so it feels significantly more agile than cars like the Vauxhall Frontera and, to a lesser extent, the Renault Captur.

The steering is precise and direct, which combines with minimal body lean to make the Stonic feel keen to turn into a corner. We’d stop short of calling it fun (a Ford Puma is more engaging) but there’s some enjoyment to be had from the driving experience.

The ride is mostly well controlled, too, but its firmer set up makes itself felt around town or on really rough tarmac where there’s a bit more fidget and thumps from the suspension than the comfiest small SUVs.

Noise and refinement

The Stonic is no class-leader when it comes to refinement, but that’s mostly reflected in the price. The petrol engine is pretty smooth for a three-cylinder and sounds good when revved but is never intrusive. However, you do notice a fair amount of wind noise and road roar at motorway speeds, particularly on less than perfect surfaces.

Euro NCAP: is the Kia Stonic a safe car?

The Kia Stonic was last crash tested by Euro NCAP in 2017, but that rating has expired so is no longer applicable to this new car. It remains to be seen if the updated Stonic will be subjected to a crash test.

The related Hyundai Bayon achieved a four-star rating in its Euro NCAP test, but that was back in 2021. Still, the Stonic has a good level of standard safety kit including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane keep assist, driver attention monitoring and an intelligent speed limiter.

GT-Line models and above add blind spot monitoring and collision avoidance, with GT-Line S featuring automatic emergency braking in junction turning situations as well as adaptive cruise control with Kia’s Highway Driving Assist.

Running costs and fuel economy

All versions of the Kia Stonic offer a fuel efficiency level that’s competitive, if not class leading.

The manual version is the least efficient, managing 49.5mpg on the WLTP combined test regardless of which power output you choose.

The automatic versions vary between 50.4mpg and 51.3mpg, with the most efficient being the 115hp mild-hybrid in GT-Line trim.

With no full hybrid or fully electric variant in the Stonic’s lineup, it’s down to the 48-volt mild hybrid system to boost fuel economy. It’ll engage the start-stop system more smoothly (and more often) than the non-hybrid option, while also letting the engine switch off when coasting to save fuel.

However, in official figures the mild hybrid version doesn’t bring much of an economy advantage. And the official figures are a long way short of cars like the Toyota Yaris Cross or Renault Captur E-Tech. That also makes the Kia less competitive from a company car tax standpoint, too.

How much does the Kia Stonic cost to insure?

The Stonic is among the cheaper small SUVs to insure, with entry-level Pure models kicking off from insurance group 10 in auto form, or 11 as a manual. Neither higher trims command a significant premium, with the more powerful engine in group 12 or 13.

By comparison, the Hyundai Bayon starts in group 13, while most Ford Puma variants are in higher groups.