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New Models

2021 Kia Cerato facelift leaked – UPDATE: Rear-end spied undisguised

Korean brand's small car to score sharper styling and digital instruments, a leaked workshop manual reveals.


UPDATE, 12 April 2021: New images of the updated Kia Cerato's rear end have leaked.

Images posted by Kurdistan Automotive Blog on Instagram show the revised small sedan's rear end in full, confirming the new logo, revised tail-light signature and reshaped lower valence seen in blurry images last week.

Stay tuned to CarAdvice for all the latest on the facelifted Cerato as its debut nears in the coming weeks.

Our original story continues below.


9 April 2021: The upcoming 2021 Kia Cerato has leaked once again ahead of its full reveal.

Snippets of a workshop assembly manual posted on the Bobaedream forum (via Autospy) showcase the new Cerato's front-end in a higher resolution than the undisguised spy photos published in March 2021, with Kia's new corporate logo sitting front and centre.

New halogen or LED headlights are connected by a slimmer 'tiger nose' grille, and sit above a sculpted lower intake design reminiscent of the new-generation K5 mid-size sedan (née Optima) sold in overseas markets.

Click any of the images in this story to view the full gallery.

Annotations on the image confirm the facelifted Cerato will continue to offer a 1.6-litre 'T-GDi' turbo four-cylinder petrol engine, with outputs not expected to change from the pre-facelift flagship GT's 150kW and 265Nm.

However, contrary to previous rumours, the 1.6-litre mill won't be upgraded to Hyundai/Kia's new, more efficient SmartStream family, meaning combined fuel consumption shouldn't differ from the current GT's 6.8L/100km claim.

Of more interest to buyers of the wider 2.0-litre Cerato range is confirmation the updated model will offer a digital instrument cluster for the first time (below), with images showing what appears to be the 10.25-inch unit employed in the new Hyundai i30 Sedan.

Alongside the workshop manual leak, a blurry spy photo shared on Spanish spy forum Cochespias (bottom) provides our first look at the facelifted sedan's rear-end.

While the resolution of the image makes specific details hard to discern, changes over the pre-facelift model appear to be limited to a new LED tail-light signature, a restyled lower bumper design and the addition of the new Kia logo.

Given the frequency of new leaks and spy photos, the new 2021 Kia Cerato should make its full debut in the coming weeks, rather than months.

An Australian launch has previously been confirmed for May 2021.


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Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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