2023 Kia Seltos Review and Test Drive

Kia gets plenty right with the Seltos, but improvements are necessary.

Christian Wardlaw | 

Jun 13, 2023 | 11 min read

Christian Wardlaw

Slowly but surely, the Kia Seltos is establishing a solid footing in the subcompact SUV segment. The Seltos debuted for the 2021 model year and added a turbocharged Nightfall Edition and more standard equipment for 2022, and now it rolls into 2023 with a handful of updates.

All versions of the Seltos get a new acoustic-glass windshield to help reduce interior noise, while the S trim adds standard rear cross-traffic alert with automatic braking and an active blind-spot monitoring system that can attempt to prevent you from making an unsafe lane change. You can also add a reasonably priced Navigation package to the Seltos S, which upgrades the SUV with a larger infotainment system display, connected services, satellite radio, and a navigation system.

This crossover SUV's name is reportedly rooted in Greek and Roman mythology, based on Celtus, the son of Heracles (Hercules). Does this matter? Not one bit, but since the Seltos is the rare SUV that doesn't have a rugged-sounding, geographic-based nameplate, I thought you might want to know.

Small SUVs are increasingly popular, and the Seltos deserves its ascendancy in the segment. It's an excellent all-arounder, but like so many of its rivals, the powertrain selections are the least appealing thing about it. At least Kia offers turbocharging, which is missing from some of the Seltos' competitors.

Kia offers the five-passenger Seltos in five trim levels: LX, X, EX, Nightfall Edition, and SX. In addition, two different powertrains are available. A torque-vectoring AWD system with a locking center differential is standard on all Seltos models except for the S trim, which offers a cost-effective front-wheel drive (FWD) version of the SUV. With FWD, however, the SUV has smaller brake discs and a less sophisticated rear suspension design. You can get AWD as an option with S trim.

So, what will a new Kia Seltos cost? This year, 2023 Seltos prices range from the low $20,000s to the high $20,000s, including the destination charge to ship the crossover SUV from the Gwangju, South Korea factory that builds it to your local dealership.

For this 2023 Kia Seltos review, I test-drove the Nightfall Edition in Southern California. It came with a black-painted roof, carpeted floor mats, and a cargo mat, bringing the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) to $28,925, including the $1,295 destination charge. Kia provided the vehicle for this Seltos review*.

*The test vehicle was a 2022 model-year Seltos but is identical to the 2023 Seltos except that it did not have the new acoustic glass windshield.

Christian Wardlaw

2023 Kia Seltos Review: The Design

Sometimes unusual headlight placement works, and sometimes it doesn't. The Seltos has running lights and turn signal indicators in each upper corner of its face, fog lights in each lower corner, and headlights in between flanking the SUV's grille. The headlights look out of place, especially when illuminated, so I think the Seltos would look better with thin, LED headlights where the turn signal lights currently reside. But otherwise, Kia makes no grievous errors with the Seltos' styling.

That's true of the interior, too. It's not going to dazzle you with style, but the mix of materials, the control layout, and the overall user experience are what you expect to find in a small SUV. My biggest gripe is with the violet accent hue used for the infotainment system's neon-inspired graphics, but I don't like any shade of purple.

Quality is the rule inside the Seltos, but there is plenty of hard plastic with a glossy sheen. Details such as the contrast-color dashboard pad, matte-black control surfaces with clear white markings, a hazard flasher button that is easy to find, a properly shaped steering wheel, and floor mats that cover the majority of the carpeting they're trying to protect all demonstrate the thoughtfulness Kia puts into the Seltos. Best of all, the shifter feels hewn from granite, imparting a sense of indestructible quality to the SUV every time you change gears.

Every Seltos allows the driver to adjust the seat for height, and the Nightfall Edition offers a six-way manual adjuster. In combination with the standard tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel, it's easy to find a comfortable driving position. Front-seat passengers are also happy since their four-way manually-adjustable seat is mounted high enough off the floor to supply proper leg support.

The test vehicle included an automatic climate control system and heated front seats, and the Nightfall Edition's cloth upholstery (with simulated leather bolsters) is warmer in the winter and less sticky in the summer. If there is anything to complain about concerning comfort, it has to do with the hard plastic Kia uses on the upper part of the front door panels, where you might rest an elbow on longer trips.

Unlike many small SUVs, the Seltos can easily hold grown-ups in the back seat. Kia chooses to panel the front seatbacks in hard plastic, which isn't kind to knees and shins, but as long as the people in front don't recline much, tall people will find enough legroom aboard the Seltos. Most versions of the SUV also have rear air conditioning vents and a rear USB port, relative rarities in the segment.

Interior storage is decent, and the wireless smartphone charger gets its own tray, so it's not living at the bottom of a bin that might otherwise contain other items. Behind the back seat, the Seltos' boxy styling pays dividends with 26.6 cubic feet of cargo space. The maximum cargo volume measures 62.8 cu-ft.

In many ways, the Seltos looks and feels a class above most of its rivals, making it feel like you got a real bargain. But this only serves to increase disappointment with the preponderance of plastic surfaces.

Christian Wardlaw

2023 Kia Seltos Review: The Technology

With the Seltos, Kia hasn't skimped on technology, though like most small SUVs, it is mainly limited to infotainment systems and safety features. But within those silos, what Kia supplies is impressive.

An 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system is standard with LX and S trim. While the list of features is relatively short, it includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in addition to Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, when you get a Seltos with the larger 10.25-inch touchscreen, you must use a cable and the USB data port to run Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which is an odd step backward.

However, the larger screen also equips the Seltos with appealing features, including SiriusXM satellite radio, a navigation system, and Kia Connect connected services. Four Kia Connect plans are available, ranging from Lite with 911 Connect (complimentary for five years) up through Care, Plus, and Ultimate, with stair-step improvements in features and functions. For example, Care includes safe teen driver settings and a panic-button notification system, while Plus adds a remote engine starting with cabin preconditioning and a find-my-car function. The Ultimate plan equips the Seltos with Amazon Alexa, Google Assist, Voice Assist for a natural voice recognition experience, and connected routing for the navigation system.

The Seltos Nightfall Edition test vehicle had all of these features, but Kia Connect was inactive. That meant I couldn't use the natural voice recognition system, which, based on experience driving a Kia EV6 with the Ultimate plan, is excellent. Since the standard native voice recognition system is awful, I plugged in and ran everything through Apple CarPlay instead. It saved a ton of aggravation, and I suggest you do the same.

The user experience is good, thanks to the large touchscreen, stereo volume and radio tuning knobs, and a helpful row of shortcut buttons underneath the display. However, while I find them inventive, Kia's color themes and iconography haven't won me over. From the old-fashioned radio tubes with electric current numerals to the neon-style violet-hued menu icons, Kia is trying too hard to be different in an area where clarity is king. As a result, it looks busy in an otherwise clean, simple, and straightforward vehicle.

Kia Drive Wise refers to the Seltos' standard package of driver assist and safety features. It includes forward-collision warning, pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, and lane-centering assist. Every Seltos also has a rear-seat reminder system and a driver monitoring system that can recommend a break when it detects you're drowsy or distracted.

For the 2023 model year, an active blind-spot monitoring system and rear cross-traffic alert with automatic rear braking are standard on all but the base Seltos LX. Upgrade to the top-trim Seltos SX, and the SUV includes a cyclist detection system, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability, a safe exit warning system, and Highway Driving Assist. Since the Nightfall Edition test vehicle didn't have these upgrades, I couldn't assess them. However, in other Kia models, Highway Driving Assist has proven to be an impressive semi-autonomous driver assist system.

That left me to actively sample the Seltos' lane-keeping and lane-centering assist technologies, which demonstrated smoothness, accuracy, and refinement. In turn, this behavior means it is more likely that an owner will use them instead of turning them off.

If you can't avoid a collision, the Seltos does a good job of protecting its occupants in a crash. However, there is room for improvement. For example, in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) testing, the Seltos gets a four-star overall rating due to its sub-optimal protection for the front-seat passenger in a frontal-impact collision. In addition, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gives the Seltos top marks in most assessments. Still, you’ll want the SX trim, which has LED headlights for improved road illumination.

Christian Wardlaw

2023 Kia Seltos Review: The Drive

Small SUVs are not known for their power, performance, or overall drivetrain refinement, and that's true of the Kia Seltos. This vehicle's base engine is underpowered, a 2.0L four-cylinder delivering 146 hp and 132 lb.-ft. of torque. It uses a continuously variable transmission (CVT) to feed power to a torque-vectoring AWD system with a locking center differential, except in the S trim, which has standard FWD.

I briefly drove a Seltos LX two years ago in a city environment. The CVT behaves better than most transmissions of this type in terms of its responsiveness, feel, and sound, but the lack of power is problematic in all but urban environments.

That's why you'll want to upgrade to the Nightfall Edition or the SX, which come with a turbocharged 1.6L four-cylinder cranking out 175 hp and 195 lb.-ft. of torque. That gives the AWD some torque to the vector, and because it arrives at 1,500 rpm, the Seltos turbo effortlessly scoots along.

Unfortunately, it pairs with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT), which exhibits quirky behavior from time to time. It can let revs drop below the torque peak, for example. It can also pause and hesitate as it changes gears. Nevertheless, I prefer the DCT to the CVT, and the turbocharged engine to the non-turbo engine, so the Seltos turbo is my favorite.

Normal, Smart, and Sport driving modes are available, and I think Normal is the best one overall. Using that mode on most of the evaluation route, switching to Sport for the twisty mountain road sections, the Seltos Nightfall Edition returned 27 mpg, matching the official EPA fuel efficiency rating in combined driving.

Kia provides an AWD Lock function for the Seltos. At low speed, this evenly distributes the power between the front and rear wheels to maximize traction and works well on slippery surfaces and bumpy trails. A couple of years ago, when Kia introduced the Seltos in San Antonio, I had a chance to drive one under both conditions, and the system worked well. But remember that you can't scramble to the same places some of this SUV's rivals can, such as the Ford Bronco Sport, Jeep Compass, and Subaru Crosstrek.

With AWD, the Seltos has a multi-link independent rear suspension design. It represents superior engineering to the beam-axle setup you'll find in the front-drive Seltos S and typically produces better ride and handling. However, these are the least satisfying of the Seltos' dynamic traits.

When traveling on anything but a smooth surface, the Seltos feels sloppy. The suspension allows too much vertical and lateral body motion, and the little Kia bounces and rocks its way down undulating two-lane roads. In town, the Seltos feels more nimble and sure-footed, but it cannot fully absorb the sharper bumps and holes in the pavement, allowing impacts to shudder up through the SUV's structure. On freeways, drivers enjoy an expansive view out, and the steering provides a secure on-center feel, but excessive noise can detract from the experience (though the new-for-2023 acoustic windshield should help in this regard).

Despite my seeming dissatisfaction with how the Seltos Nightfall Edition drove, I'd prefer to get behind its steering wheel than those in many of its rivals. Unfortunately, the small SUV segment is chock-full of slow, loud, unrefined models. So, from a driving dynamics perspective, the Seltos Nightfall Edition ranks mid-pack in the class, with the Mazda CX-30 setting the standard for driving enjoyment in a small SUV.

Christian Wardlaw

Is the 2023 Kia Seltos a Good SUV?

The answer to this question depends on how you define "good." There are many things to like about the 2023 Kia Seltos, but several aspects of this small SUV could foster long-term dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, appealing prices, a strong value equation, a roomy and useful interior, and a comprehensive tech package will likely override any potential complaints about the inexpensive-looking interior plastics and busy driving dynamics.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris says his first word was "car." For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. He is a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but is most passionate about the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. He began his career as the editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com in the 1990s, and for more than 30 years has created automotive content for CarGurus, J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, the New York Daily News, and others. Chris owns Speedy Daddy Media, has been contributing to Capital One Auto Navigator since 2019, and lives in California with his wife, kids, dog, and 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata.