The commercial is set in a dark, futuristic videogame world in which the South Korean firm's rodents turn the battle between alien robots and humanoids into a dancing party under the sounds of electro-pop group LMFAO's summer hit, "Party Rock Anthem".
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The Rio will be available at launch only as a five-door model but a three-door bodystyle will be added to the range early next year.
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Pricing for the entry level Soul with the 1.6-liter engine and a manual gearbox starts at $13,900 or (*) $14,650 after a $750 destination and handling (D&H) fee, while the automatic model starts at $15,700 or $16,450 if you include D&H.
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At the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show in September, we're going to get a taste of Kia's newly found ambitions with a dramatic looking four-door coupe concept that may hint at a future production model.
Revealed alongside the second generation of the five-door model at the Geneva Salon this past March, the three-door Picanto will go on sale in the UK from the 1st of September with prices starting from £7,795 for the base 1.0 ‘1’ and rising to £12,295 for the 1.25 'Halo' with an automatic transmission.
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It is a reputation built over more than 30 years, starting from the first generation of the Civic in the ‘70s and continuing throughout the years with novelties such as VTEC, the futuristic first generation Insight hybrid back in 1999, the S2000's high-revving 120HP-per-liter engine, the first practical supercar, the NSX – and the list goes on.
However, something seems to have changed, and not for the better.
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Kia’s progress in the American market was impressive as it recorded a 67% increase in profits and 36% in sales, largely due to the surge in sales of its new Optima sedan and Sportage SUV.
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The other three awards were won in the Exterior category by the latest Sportage, the Optima sedan and the new Rio.
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Michael Sprague, Kia’s VP for marketing and communication describes their relationships to the New York Times likes this:
“Kia Motors America operates as a completely separate sales, marketing and distribution organization in the United States. [Hyundai and Kia share engineering efficiencies] similar in many ways to other global automakers.”
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The agreement between GM Korea and the union includes a raise of basic salaries by 4.7% and, more importantly, a $6,140 (6.5 million won) bonus to each worker.
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That’s no mean feat, though intriguingly Kia Belgium have found that a lot of new car buyers believe the seven year warranty scheme is too good to be true. Either there’s a catch, or it doesn’t cover all Kia models, or there’s some extra charges that need to be paid first.
To counteract these rumours, and gain some additional customers, Kia Belgium hooked its General Manager Benoit Morrene up to a polygraph (lie detector) and let the general public ask him questions in an online, streamlining environment.
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However, two decades is a very long time in the automotive industry. Since then Kia has changed remarkably on its way to become an important player on a global scale. In 2010, Kia sold a record 56,114 cars in the UK and, for the first time ever, more than 2 million units worldwide.
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The South American nation’s US$6 billion (€4.19 billion) trade deficit has already led to one Porsche distributor agreeing to export wine and olive products, while similar deals have been struck with carmakers Chery, GM, Peugeot-Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Fiat and Ford.
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Muno, Sock Monkey, MR. X, the vintage robot and teddy bear will star in two new 30-second TV spots for the 2012 Sorento CUV. As with the original campaign, "Joyride 2" was created by David&Goliath, KMA's advertising agency of choice. The first commercial begins airing today and will be followed up by the second spot next month.
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The numbers for U.S. auto sales for the month of May are out and as expected, Japanese automakers continue to be hit hard by the ongoing production disruptions caused by the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in their home market. As a result, Toyota’s sales plunged 33.4% over the year-ago month to 108,387 units, while rivaling Honda saw its sales fall 22.5% to 90,773 vehicles, Nissan recorded a 9.1% drop to 76,148 units and Mazda 17,875 vehicles, down 20.9%.
General Motors dealers in the United States delivered 221,192 vehicles in May posting a decline of 1%, while the Ford Motor Co. said its sales decreased by 0.1% to 192,253 cars, trucks and SUVs.
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So sayeth market research firm Polk, and I’m tempted to agree. Hyundai and its partner-brand / internal rival Kia have steadily been evolving into truly world-class carmakers. They’re keenly priced, inoffensive to look at and comprehensively covered quality-wise – everything the vast majority of new car buyers want in this day and age.
