A 700km test drive shows the Kia Tasman XPRO delivers impressive comfort, capability, and tech, making it a strong contender in the ute market
‘Interested but not excited’ was the phrase that would probably best describe my feelings before getting the keys to the new Kia Tasman XPRO ute, but perhaps I was judging a book by its cover.
Walking up the carpark to the ‘Cityscape Green’ Tasman, its size and stance in person gives you quite a different vibe to the pictures on the web. Still, I was not sold on its frontal appearance at this early stage – the rest of the Tasman giving off big truck vibes by filling up its parking space both in length and girth compared to some others on the market.
Sliding into the hotseat, embarrassment kicks in as I struggle to find the start button, which was out of sight behind the slightly askew steering wheel. A quick push to start the diesel engine and we’re all go.
Spoilt with all the XPRO technology onboard, I connect my phone wirelessly to Apple CarPlay in no time, which is a record for this techno-phobe.
The digital dash spreads across the driver’s cockpit and gives good view of everything that needs to be seen while driving, while the odd instrument that wasn’t vital was a head movement away hiding behind parts of the steering wheel.
Comfort in the XPRO is top tier – I haven’t had a ute quite mould itself around me like this one does. The headrests on the front seats are awesome; the woven fabric seemed to offer support you didn’t know you needed.
Being a bloke that loves a good-old heated seat to help ease my midlife aches and pains, the XPRO model gives you three heat settings with the steering wheel having the option of being heated as well.
My wife across in the passenger seat loved the cooling option – it did a great job of bringing the temp down for her. I see the rear seats also have a heating option but aren’t cooled.
Cruising the busy streets of Auckland, the Tasman has really good vision. The front windscreen is a lot more vertical than others on the market. In my opinion this offers far fewer blind spots. This windscreen feature along with good internal width, length and head height gives a great feeling of openess. Not once did I feel like I was confined in a small space.
When changing lanes while indicating, it has a cool feature where the side mirror camera shows its view up on the dash, making lane changes near foolproof.
Harmon Kardon is the ‘name’ for quality sound systems and seems to be flavour of the year in many vehicles. The Tasman XPRO music maker loved to rock my country playlist, pumping out crystal clear tunes that left some ringing in my ears afterwards.
Right: The ute proved itself on the sand at rugged Muriwai beach in Auckland
Up front the model has a dual wireless charging pads and plenty of USB ports for other tech. Handy to the backseat drivers are a USB charger in the side of each front seat with a 240v plug with 400watt capable of running quite a few different power tool battery chargers at floor level.
With this particular vehicle not having been fitted with a tow bar yet, my go-to trailer test wasn’t able to be carried out, so it was off to Bunnings for a snag and a whole household of flatpack wardrobes.
With 770kgs loaded on its back we headed for home. Like most standard utes on the market, with a load on, they can all do with a spring upgrade, and the Tasman was no exception. It was a little rolly like a boat out of corners, although the steering was still direct – but all in all, not too bad.
The tray of the Tasman XPRO has some cool features. Internally it’s equipped with another 240v/400-watt plug and internal tray lights illuminate up your workspace at night.
A push button soft-opens the tailgate and takes the thud out of it dropping by itself. The drivers side flare above the rear wheel has a handy compartment for strops or the odd thing you don’t want to float around the back. It’s also got very handy steps either side of the tailgate for easy access into the tray bed.
The Kia Tasman rocks a 2.2 litre, four- cylinder turbo diesel engine and it does seem to get up and boogie with its 154kw output. On paper it appears down on torque at 450Nm, but coupled to its eight-speed auto transmission, I believe it’s comparable to my daily drive of 150kw and 500Nm.
I couldn’t fault the smoothness of the motor and box combo and if it wasn’t for the sound of the motor changing revs, you’d have a hard time telling when it was changing gears.
With the rugged west coast Muriwai beach at my doorstep, I was keen to see how the Tasman went in the sometimes-tricky sand. Approaching the entrance to the beach, a quick push of buttons into sand mode and we were ready. None of the normal ‘turn traction control off and hope for the best’ was needed.
Unsure of how it would go, I eased into it. In no time at all I was amazed at where the Tasman XPRO was climbing. It was quite unreal how it traversed around the softer sand with tyres at road pressure. Even stopping on hilly slopes it’d take off again conquering sand dunes I know other trucks struggle with.
There are other cool off-road gadgets such as a camera to see over the brow of inclines, front wheel position avatar, and low-low speed cruise control.
Covering 700km in the five days testing the XPRO, I gave it a well-rounded work over. Kia have done a great job building this ute. Even my opinion on the frontal looks changed with the familiarity and new all-round love. Unfortunately for me, I’m now missing the Tasman XPRO experience.
For more information, contact kia.co.nz