Kia’s K4 Just Struck A Killer Blow To The VW Golf

• Kia has revealed prices for its stylish new K4 hatchback in Europe.
• The base 1.0 T-GDI costs £25,995 and a top-line 1.6 is £36,195.
• Volkswagen’s most affordable Golf in the UK is the £28,150 Life.

Kia’s new K4 hatch already looked like it was going to cause problems for the segment-leading Volkswagen Golf. But now the Korean brand has made a move that will really set alarm bells ringing at Wolfsburg. K4 prices are out and they’re getting on for 10 percent lower than the German cars’.

Both the entry-level K4 Pure and the base Golf Life give you 113 hp (115 PS) and a manual transmission, the Kia making that power via a mild-hybrid 1.0-liter engine and the Golf doing it with 500 cc more and no electrical help. But that most affordable of K4s will set you back £25,995, whereas a VW dealer wants £28,195 for the Golf Life.

Related: Kia’s K4 GT-Line Is No GT, But It’s Winning Where It Counts

You could option your K4 with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and the the resulting £27,495 bill would still be £655 below the manual Golf’s base price. And it’s not like Kia has skimped on equipment to get the price down. You still get the same dual 12.3-inch dash screens as you do in the posher grades, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a ChatGPT-powered AI voice assistant. Euro Golfs get one of those, too.

For buyers looking for more visual sizzle and some extra luxury the K4 comes in two further trims at launch. GT-Line starts at £29,995 and GT-Line S kicks off at £33,995, both featuring compulsory DCT ’boxes. In a similar vein VW has R-Line and Black Edition, but where the base K4 and Golf lock horns neatly, there are some bigger differences at the faux-sporty level.

Kia K4 prices UK

Trim	Engine	Power	Transmission	Price
Pure	1.0 T-GDi	113 hp	6-spd manual	£25,995
	1.0 T-GDi	113 hp	7-spd DCT	£27,495
GT-Line	1.0 T-GDi	113 hp	7-spd DCT	£29,995
	1.6 T-GDI	147 hp	7-spd DCT	£31,295
GT-Line S	1.0 T-GDi	113 hp	7-spd DCT	£33,995
	1.6 T-GDI	177 hp	7-spd DCT	£36,195

SWIPE

One is that Kia lets you have the GT-Line aesthetics with the lowly 113 hp engine for £29,995 or the more powerful 147 hp (150 PS) 1.6-liter T-GDi motor that’s denied Pure-trim buyers for £31,295. And the range-topped GT-Line S has a 177 hp (180 PS) 1.6 for £36,195.

But the petrol Golf R-Line is only available with a 147 hp 1.5 and costs £31,490, though it does at least give you the choice of automatic or manual gears (the DCT is an extra £1,600 in the Golf), and a diesel option that the Kia can’t match.

Kia

The Golf also has a fuller range, with two extra trims – Match and Style – between the base and sporty ones, plus GTE hybrid, GTI and R hot hatches that the K4 lineup has no equal to so far. No doubt Kia will flesh the range out in the coming years, but even on day one, the combination of arresting design, a bigger interior, more cargo space and a major price advantage is sure to drag some would-be Golf buyers in Kia’s direction. Which would you pick?

Kia/VW