Anyone with experience??

We’ve got a Kia Picanto 3-cylinder, 4 valve, 998cc petrol non-turbo. There probably aren’t too many (if any) common components, however, in common with other 3-cyl engines, vibration at idle is noticeable. Try sitting in the car, at idle, with the doors open. Try it doors open when starting/stopping the engine too. Auto stop-start, counter-balanced flywheels, etc will help
The engine likes to rev (consider your fuel consumption 🙂 ) and they’re smooth at speed

Not of that model but do have the 99bhp turbo engine. It works but is a very small turbo with a very small power output. Feels fine with me in, noticeable ‘slow’ with 3 in it, but it still works and gets to the legal limit, just not as soon as with just me in it.
Engine seems good but the stop/start doesn’t work – apparently the battery isn’t fully charged – unsure how as it has had some decent runs, but after 1200 miles it isn’t there yet.

Purely advice from a 1l 3 cylinder (non-turbo) VW owner, who’s been looking into a turbo version:
They like to rev, without a turbo most the power and torque is higher up the rev range, so it’s like driving a 2 stroke, lots of gear changes too.
I’ve been looking at the turbo versions to get more torque lower down, so you don’t have to tickle the gear shifter quite as much, and of course to have more fun pulling off from lights etc.

I’ve heard they don’t work well in heavier cars though, over 1.5 tonnes, but the Stonic looks light enough on paper.

We test drove a 1.2 tsi Seat and I was left unimpressed – especially as the car was £1.6k more second hand than the ‘old technology’ 1.4 16v we did buy (for £6.2k) for same model…

Not of that model but do have the 99bhp turbo engine. It works but is a very small turbo with a very small power output. Feels fine with me in, noticeable ‘slow’ with 3 in it, but it still works and gets to the legal limit, just not as soon as with just me in it.

Feels just like the ‘old’ 1.4 we have – great around town, fine with just me in, labours a bit with all of us in or up the slope from Kier…
But then the ‘old’ engine costs b*gg*r all in parts and service, and so far (2.5yrs and 40k) nothing has gone wrong.

I liftshare with a guy who has the i20 with 1l turbo, couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding and he is not getting any better fuel economy than my 3l diesel (42mpg). My wife has the 1l Ecoboost Fiesta 140bhp, she gets better economy than me and compared to the Hyundai my liftshare has it is a pocket rocket.

Not a Kia but I had a rental new style Asta SRI which turned out to have a 999cc turbo engine. The turbo was about the size of a grapefruit.

Wasnt terrible in normal mode and when you pressed the sport button it was actually pretty good and like a little jack russell in a “let me at ’em” kind of way. It just ran out of puff quite spoon…in a jack russell kind of way which meant you really had to be sure you were going to get past if going for an overtake.

Being a vauxhall you just had to make sure you switched off sport mode before you got to a bend as the steering feedback on the limit was terrible.

MPG wise it was getting about 40 I guess on my commute. My old 306 HDI would do the same with me ragging it silly and my current E-class does 40-50mpg depending on traffic and how much I use the gas. And that car is much nicer to overtake with as it just keeps pulling with 2 proper sized turbos.

Motorhome replaced the caravan for which we bought a Sorrento for towing purposes, so MrsT needs something smaller for her commute. We use trains and now buses(free in Scotland atm)if they go where we want to. Having read reviews of various 1ltr cars and knowing people who have them I’m aware of the fuel consumption issues. However on a daily basis it’s only likely to 10mls a day, bus takes 45mins to do the trip with one change and a wait!!! MrsT has mobility issues due to arthritis btw…
My days of being a “boy racer” have dimmed somewhat but looking forward to having a wee revy engine again(first car was a Holman Imp which could rev to 8k!!)
As we near retirement we are looking to future proof our transport by dumping the big 4×4 diesel for something smaller and petrol. Only think we may regret is not having 7 seats, 4 grand kids to ferry about occasionally but that tends to be when we take them away in motorhome nowadays.