Rio competes against a wave of new subcompacts that includes the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, and Chevrolet Aveo, along with Rio's corporate cousin, the Hyundai Accent. All of these cars are smaller than market-dominating compacts like the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, but many offer better fuel economy with little loss of interior space. Rio rates as high as 38 mpg on the highway, while delivering agile handling. And Rio comes standard with six airbags, a safety feature normally associated with expensive luxury cars, not subcompacts.
Mechanically, there isn't much to distinguish a Rio from a Hyundai Accent. That's no bad thing, as both are state-of-the-art small cars. Rio is a bit more boldly styled than Accent, and the five-door variation is a Rio exclusive. Chassis tuning is a little different as well, with Accent biased toward ride comfort and Rio toward handling.
The stigma attached to owning a small car in America is becoming a thing of the past and the latest iteration of the Kia Rio is among the reasons why that's happening. Next Page