Kia re-trims the Sonet for 2026: a new middle variant and assistance kit lower down

Kia has run the mid-life playbook on the Sonet, and the interesting part is what it chose not to touch: the ₹7.99 lakh to ₹16.20 lakh band in MotoSutra’s sample catalogue, the 120 bhp turbo, and the seven-speed dual-clutch at the top of the ladder. What moved is the equipment architecture — a new HTK+ variant wedged into the middle of the range, and two features dragged down from the GTX+ flagship where they had been parked.

This is how an update competes without repricing. The Sonet’s recorded problem in our catalogue is not desirability but context: it is the segment’s benchmark options list attached to a three-star Global NCAP adult score, while the Tata Nexon and the Mahindra XUV 3XO at overlapping money both record five stars. A reshuffle that puts the touchscreen on a ₹9-odd-lakh trim and makes adaptive cruise orderable below the flagship attacks the value half of that gap, which is the half Kia controls.

The new middle step

The HTK+, at ₹10.45 lakh in this update’s sample pricing, sits between the recorded HTK at ₹9.89 lakh and the turbo HTX+ and takes the equipment that used to define the HTX+: the 10.25-inch touchscreen, rear parking camera and alloys. Practically, it changes what a careful buyer compares. The recorded HTX+ turbo at ₹11.99 lakh was the value hero of the range — 120 bhp, 172 Nm from 1,500 rpm, the biggest boot in our compact SUV set at 392 litres — and its equipment premium was the tax on that engine. This update splits the tax: the turbo still costs more, but the screen comes cheaper.

The second move matters more on paper. Level-2 driver assistance with adaptive cruise, recorded in our catalogue as standard kit on the ₹16.20 lakh GTX+ DCT, becomes optional on the HTX+ turbo. Read the function list rather than the badge before trusting it — our ADAS explainer covers exactly how variable these suites are — but a radar-and-camera package orderable at around ₹13 lakh is a genuine shift in this segment, where even the Creta’s refresh, as we covered, only nudged assistance down the ladder.

A company brief around the launch describes the change as “democratising” the connected and assistance features, and notes the cooled glovebox and ventilated seats carried over unchanged; the reshuffle’s actual job is to make the mid-range feel less like a compromise between the bookings desk and the parts list.

What the buyer still has to accept

The mechanical specification is exactly the recorded one: a claimed 18 kmpl from the turbo against owner reports of 11-13 in the city, a 185 km/h top speed on a 1,275 kg car, 205 mm of ground clearance, and the rear torsion-beam suspension our listing calls firm enough to report expansion joints to the second row. The three-cylinder gruffness at idle survives a model-year update for the same reason it survived the first four years: it is an engine characteristic, not a trim decision.

And the crash score survives all of it. The refresh is, read honestly, Kia fighting on the two grounds where it leads — equipment value and pace per rupee — because the ground where it trails is immovable within this body shell. In our head-to-head against the Venue, that trade already decided the argument; this update simply restates Kia’s side of it, at the same prices.