Front impact
The passenger's chest was compressed more by the seatbelt loads than the driver's and was used in the calculation of the adult occupant rating. Rearward pedal movement represented a risk to the driver's lower legs and was penalised. The car lost points for areas of the facia which could potentially be injurious to the front seat passenger's knees and femurs.

Side impact
In the side impact, forces transferred in an unrealistic manner up the test dummy’s spine, reducing the forces recorded by the instrumentation in its chest. The car was penalised for this and the chest ended up scoring zero points. The abdomen scored only 0.08 out of a possible 4 points as a result of the loads to which it was subjected during the test. Although the car was eligible, Kia did not choose to sponsor the optional pole test to demonstrate the effectiveness of the curtain airbag.

Child occupant
Rearward-facing childseats should not be fitted in the front passenger seat of the Cerato as there is no way of disabling the airbag for that seating position. The label warning against the use of rearward-facing child restraints in the front passenger seat was in English only and was not visible when the sun-visor was stowed: it was not given any points.

Pedestrian
The bumper and bonnet leading edge scored no points for pedestrian protection. The protection offered to an adult pedestrian's head also scored no points.