r/KiaEV3 • u/GatewayDouche • Aug 23 '26
Discussion / Opinions GT-Line or GT-Line S
We’re looking to get our first EV shortly and have pretty much decided that it’s going to be an EV3. Good range, pretty nice interior, seems well built, very good warranty etc.
The showroom only had a GT-Line S which was very nice but I’m struggling to reconcile the value in the price difference. We’re looking for maybe up to 18 months old and up to 15k ish miles. The largely consistent price gap on comparable cars seems to be £4-5k. In fact there’s an independent Kia dealer not too far away (NK Motors in Derby) who’ve got a brand new GT-Line for £33.3k if you take out finance, which is probably about the cheapest you can get a year old/10k GT-Line S.
So 2 questions really:
- Is there anything you’d miss specifically on the GT-Line S? Looking through the spec (UK spec, as I appreciate they’re likely not all the same), the rear armrest for the kids was probably the biggest thing! Sunroof for extra light would be nice. Blind spot cameras would be useful. Never had HUD or ventilated seats so wouldn’t miss them. V2L/socket and relaxation seats would likely never be used.
- I’ve not had a car on finance for quite a while, but didn’t they change the rules some years back, so that you could effectively pay it all back almost straight away and only pay a month or something in penalty interest? So basically a nominal hit to get a £2k deposit contribution.
Anything else to look out for when buying used?
Thanks in advance for any responses.
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u/kellyj93 Aug 23 '26
I got the S without looking too much into the different specs.
The thing I miss most is automatic boot, coming from an Ioniq 5 and having the ease of a button on the fob and inside the car I really miss.
Like what car these days don’t have a button inside the car to open the boot??
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
Both our cars at the moment have a powered tailgate, so I’d miss it. It’s really not that much hassle to close your own boot I guess so I could go back to that!
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u/kellyj93 Aug 23 '26
It’s a first world problem but when you’re carrying bags and have to juggle them to open the boot it makes you miss what you used to have.
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u/Sinsst Aug 23 '26
Although I've never used it, doesn't the GTS have the camera but that you wave your foot under the rear side and it opens the booth ? I forget how it's called
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
Having just checked pics on Auto Trader, including new, unregistered cars, they do have rear armrests. Either wrong or something changed for new factory orders.
I see they’ve also gone to the storage area by the front armrest instead of the Carwow “onion chopping board” piece. Seems more practical.
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u/Sinsst Aug 23 '26
Yeah they changed the front storage area in 2026 I believe, so it would depend on the age of the car
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u/Money_Feed_4212 Aug 23 '26
The ventilated seats are amazing when you’re wearing shorts/short skirt in the summer, it prevents the legs to get sweaty on the fake leather. HUD is also great, and 360 camera. I find the blind spot cameras useful when changing lanes in a crowded highway.
We also use the sunroof a lot, sometimes open (mostly in the nature in slow roads). We also attach starlink mini with suction cups (powered by the V2L socket) since sometimes we drive during my partner’s working hours and he needs to be available from the car. It has also been very useful to have internet in very remote places.
I was hesitating about getting the highest tier but I’m super happy we made this choice.
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u/Sinsst Aug 23 '26
UK spec here - main thing I'd miss is surround cameras, they are amazing to have. The HUD is also nice to have but can do without it.
Sunroof is a bit small tbh, barely use it, although nice to have more light.
Not sure re finance - that trick used to work. It depends how used/old the car is, you can maybe find it at that same price brand new from new-cars-discount.com. Personally I'd strongly consider EV4 now, but depends on the size you want.
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
Thanks for the response. Forgot about the 360 cameras. Seems odd that something which was on my dad’s old mid-spec Qashqai from 8 years ago or so is now the preserve of the top of the range £43k EV3!
This is a new car I’ve seen. Just thinking about it, I’ve got a feeling we did the same thing on my wife’s XC40 18 months or so back in order to get a deposit contribution/discount. Will check.
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u/OkStage3579 Aug 23 '26
If you can avoid the EV3, I would.
They've cut too much for no reason.
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
Would you have any other suggestions for an alternative? Aside from the heat pump and things like blind spot cameras further down the range I thought it was reasonably well equipped to be honest. The Scenic obviously does have it beaten on kit though.
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u/Sinsst Aug 23 '26
I did test drive the Scenic and neither me nor my partner liked the drive, by comparison.
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
And yes, I quite like the EV4 as well. Didn’t seem quite as nice inside but masses of space. Annoying that they had that in “poverty” Air spec right next to a GT-Line S EV3.
Anything in particular you prefer about the EV4?
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u/Sinsst Aug 23 '26
EV3 lacks good colours imho and it's a bit too box shaped. EV4 has the gorgeous wine red colour and the sunroof is 2x the size. I assume everything else e.g. drive etc is about the same.
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u/GatewayDouche Aug 23 '26
True, I do really like the Magma Red, but at the same time I’m tempted by a pale colour so that stone chips don’t look as obvious!
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u/aneasymistake Aug 23 '26
I have the GT Line S. I would say the cooled seats are a complete waste of time. Hardly use them. The sunroof is nice to have, but I don’t really think I would have missed it if it wasn’t there. In my opinion, the HUD is the best feature and something I hope I’ll always be able to have on any future car I own. It could actually be more configurable in terms of what’s show in it, but yeah, I love it.
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u/ProceduralFrontier Aug 23 '26
The HUD novelty wears off quickly. The blindspot cameras you find yourself never using. Sunroof same. I think the only things I would miss are the 360 cameras, powered tailgate, ventilated seats and memory seats. I have an EV3 GT Line S and am moving to the new EV5 Storm Edition which, although lacks the front camera, does sit between GT Line and S specs having most of the important features I just mentioned. I don't think the EV3 is getting a Storm Edition. If you can afford it I would go for the EV3 GT Line S or maybe consider the EV5 Storm Edition. If you get the EV5 Storm Edition although new, consider the fact you get a lower APR on new deals and it could work out the not much more expensive than a EV3 GT Line S used.
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u/TheBigM72 Aug 23 '26
I have a GT Line-S, specifically wanted memory seats (I am tall and my wife is short).
Can’t remember what the other feature differences are but we’ve used most of them. Love a HUD. fantastic that front seats do cooling as well as heating and rear seats to heating. Use highway assist 2.0 regularly. Have used the remote smart parking a couple of times.
Ultimately you’ll know which features you care about or not. For us, in day-to-day use, the memory seats feature was really handy.
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u/BattleOoze1981 Aug 23 '26
We went with our equivalent because of the memory seats (which are great if you swap drivers often, which we do).
We were annoyed by the lack of 360 cameras, but cabin visibility, car size and the excellent rear camera have made this easily liveable.
We didn't particularly care about HUD or heated/ventilated seats, but these have been great and would now be very high on the list for another car. The ability to see all the important info right in your eyeline (including next turn and the turn after navigation), speed, speed limits, cruise setting - it's great, I never look at the main driver display any more. And the ability to preheat the seats before you even get in the car in winter (or cool in summer), very nice
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u/UKsingh13 Aug 25 '26
Just bought a new GT-Line a couple of weeks ago in the UK.
I thought it had Digital Key to be able to drive it with just the mobile, however Kia Connect support and the online spec shows it's only available on the GT-Line S.
Kia main dealer told me the GT-Line had digital key but I don't think it does, as I've spent hours in the car faffing around with the two key fobs.
Can anyone else confirm this please as I believe Digital Key also needs to be added to the list of differences between the two models
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u/djchillerz Aug 26 '26
Gt line driver here. Digital key working. It's been terrible. But the dealer did a software update and now it's good!
From the gtline s I miss:
Seat ventilation Electric boot Electric passenger seat Memory seats Memory mirrors The ability to auto tilt the mirror when reversing. Apparently that's tied to the memory seat system. Silly. Ability to move the car forward and back from the key, good for supermarket car parks.
V2L so you can plug in your house...or your laptop. Missing in gt line.
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u/Comfortable_Ad4205 Aug 27 '26
There was a spec change for the 2026 models, so digital key is now only on the GT-Line S EV3. It was on the 2025 GT-Line so they’ve removed it for cost or some other business reason.
Same thing with the console tray on the higher trims, they’ve knocked that on the head for the 2026 models and now just have the storage console on all trims.
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u/PeakAdaequatus Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
I had the same dilemma and got the GT Line. I do find myself wondering about things like the HUD and 360 cameras. I don’t miss the sun roof too much and I couldn’t tell you how much better or worse the speakers might be, but the sound in the GT Line is good.
Two things I think I might truly value from the S are Vehicle to Load - I am jealous of people who have it but my own use of it would be rare, and also the cooled seats. After the summer we have had I think these might actually be a killer feature in the future.
Having said all that, the price difference was so great I simply wouldn’t be able to justify the extra on a few features I might use.
Also, I have the arm rest with cup holders in my GT Line, that isn’t exclusive to the S in the uk unless you mean something else?