Now the prospect of driving to the other end of the country in something a) inexpensive b) Korean might look like a bit of a let-down after the chance to test the Aston Vantage earlier in the week, but actually I'm rather looking forward to it.
First, Newcastle is one of my favourite Verdict destinations - I'll be sure to get to the Sage centre for a cup of tea at some stage. Second, the cee'd is one of my favourite industry stories at the moment - it's a cracking car that isn't particularly Korean at all. Designed in Germany and built in Slovakia, it's Kia's first 'European' model. Even if it weren't a great product, you'd almost have to buy it because of its unbeatable seven-year guarantee.
I'm also hoping for some good B-road driving on my favourite Lincolnshire routes, which I've written about here before; this time I also want to investigate whether I can pick out a similarly interesting north-south B-road option through East/North Yorks. beyond the Humber Bridge as well.
PS - the c'eed has one decidedly non-European feature - a right-hand indicator stalk. I'm sure it was on the left at one stage on pre-production or early production cars, although I could be mistaken. Not that I'm complaining too much - this used to be considered correct for RHD cars and can still be found on Australian and Malaysian models (e.g. Holden/Vauxhall Monaro). For some reason, quite lot of Korean cars have a right-hand indicator stalk, but I'm not sure why, given that Korea is not an RHD market.
