Demonstrators in some UK showrooms. In my area (NW England), same demonstrator seems to be 'going the rounds' of various dealers.

There was literally a queue to test drive the First Edition when I turned up at the dealer's forecourt !

It seems a pleasant drive, very tractible engine/gearbox combination, as you would expect from a 2L diesel. I was not able to get on the motorway during my test drive, so can't comment on the high speed ride charateristics.

I won't even attempt to go into detail about the car, HJ does it so much better than I ever could.

According to the dealer I visited more cars expected in showrooms by end of August, but word on the grapevine is, many of the dealers already have orders for their allocation of the 800 First Editions scheduled for the UK.

Remains to be seen if this is purely 'sales hype', rumour or fact.

I visited my local dealer today to take one for a test drive. Got a decent trek on some different roads, some twisty, some town, then a blat up a dual carriageway for about 5 miles.

It's a great little beast... comes with every toy under the sun as you can tell except for sat nav (tho I've got a tomtom already... not too fussed). Strong case against the Kuga - similar spec Kuga would be approx 25,500 - against 20,777 for the Kia. With 7yr warranty too... Also, we'll see how realistic 47mpg claimed is... on the test drive I got 39 although the engine was cold to begin with, I had the AC on, and I was pushing the car a bit once we got going to see what it was like.

No grumbles about noise or anything like that. My current car is a 2002 Golf GT TDI 115, the Kia's not as quick but significantly quieter at speed. The handling actually feels pretty good to me. Maybe not quite as planted as the Kuga but a million times better than my mate's Qashqai which really makes me want to be sick when on the twisties...

The steering will take a little time to get used to... it's stupidly light at parking speed but stiffens up as you get moving. Surreal at first touch.

Anyway, the test drive went well, and it looks good on paper...

So I bought one. Originally wanted to get a black one, but that orange that looks so hideous in the pictures? Very nice in the flesh. So orange it is!

The first shipment of customer ones are apparently due in mid October... so mine will arrive then.

It's definitely worth a punt and this "first edition" with all the extras looks like a really good deal. How much of it was sales twaddle I'm not sure, but apparently when the other models are launched, the same spec will turn in maybe £1,500 more.

Oh, and while I was sat in the dealer doing the paperwork, they sold at least 3 and were on their way to taking another order as I was leaving...

Jules