"I bought a 2012 Kia Sorento recently and overall it was a great car buying experience. So far I'm very impressed. The sales experience was very good, not high pressure, we knew what we wanted to get and we got a very good deal. (I also recommend the Costco auto buying program; it was fantastic.) I had a minor complaint in that there was some confusion about how our credit was run. We didn't get the promotional interest rate of 2.9% because of some kind of non-standard Kia credit score criteria, which didn't make much sense to me when I was told later by the finance guy that they were using the standard FICO score. We still got an excellent interest rate based on very good credit, but it was a little weird. However, the customer service post-sale has also been very good and we've been happy overall. The Sorento is a joy to drive and we're really having fun with it." - Jesse
This Kia Optima is a lot of value for the money, with standard power features, cruise control, a USB port and satellite radio. Plus Santa and us think it would look great under your Christmas tree. Learn more about this vehicle special.
• Kia and Kinetic Motorsports continue partnership to build and campaign two Optima SXs in World Challenge
• Additional motorsports activities for 2012 include B-Spec racing with the all-new 2012 Rio 5-door and Optima Hybrid serving as the official pace car at United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) events
Source: Kia
Kia Motors America (KMA) is the fastest growing car company in the U.S.(1), and the brand, which has recently undergone a design-led transformation, continued to turn heads today at the Los Angeles Auto Show with the North American introduction of the striking Kia GT concept vehicle during the show. The forward-looking Kia GT concept – originally shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show – signals the company's distinctive new design direction with graceful yet confident styling and is the first rear-wheel-drive concept in Kia's history.
"Over the past three years Kia's design-led transformation has delivered more new products than any other brand, and the first showing of the striking GT concept on U.S. soil provides a glimpse into our future showroom and the continuing role world-class design will play in the development of our vehicles," said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing & communications, KMA. "With its rear-wheel-drive platform and powerful engine, the GT concept represents exciting possibilities for Kia as we move forward to the next chapter in brand history."
Triangular swept-back headlamps with pronounced outlines flank the grille and transition seamlessly to the sloping hood and up to the wide windshield. The extended hood along with the rear-wheel-drive configuration also allowed for the design team to push the front wheels to the extreme front of the car to increase its sporty design. The swooping angle from windshield to rear window enhances the GT's aerodynamic presence, while vent-like tail lights, powerful rear shoulders and truncated rear end add to the vehicle's hunkered down appearance. Propeller-style rims complete the dynamic look.
The GT's front and rear-hinged back doors open slightly upward to ensure easy ingress and egress, and the spacious cabin provides comfortable seating for four, assisted by the concept's unusually long wheelbase of 112.6 inches and overall length of 184.6 inches. Despite its low stance, an overall height of 54.3 inches allows for plenty of headroom.
The GT is not all looks, however, packing plenty of heat under the hood. Coupled with an eight-speed automatic transmission is a 3.3-liter turbocharged Lambda V6 Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engine, allowing the rear-wheel-drive sports sedan to offer a thrilling 395 horsepower and 393.5 pound-feet of torque.
Source: sacbee.com
Consumers Digest just named four Kia vehicles “Best Buys” – the 2012 Kia Optima, 2012 Sorento, 2012 Soul, and 2012 Sportage. This latest recognition comes after Kia Motors America (KMA) announced the company’s best-ever October sales and setting its 14th consecutive monthly sales record.
“Kia’s design-led transformation continues to attract new customers to Kia showrooms with stand-out design, fuel efficiency, a host of standard amenities as well as residual values that continue to outpace the industry,” said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing & communications, KMA. “Receiving four ‘Best Buy’ designations from Consumers Digest reflects the increasing awareness and consideration for the Kia brand, which we expect to continue with the 2012 Rio 5-door and Soul, now arriving in showrooms.”
Vehicles chosen as Consumers Digest “Best Buy” deliver the most value for the money in their classes based on purchase price and cost to own relative to criteria such as comfort, performance, and utility.
Source: kiainthenews.com
This year’s all-new 2012 Kia Rio, available as a sedan or a four-door hatch, has a revised look that gives it more edge and attitude. The new Rio is based on the same platform as the Hyundai Accent, but is very different visually from the scaled-down Elantra looks of its platform-mate. This is the best-looking Rio ever, a far cry from the rental-car appearance of the first two gens. The platform has a longer wheelbase, and the hatch—the Rio5 replacement—is wider and longer, and sits lower than before.
Its direct-injected 1.6-liter provides 138 horsepower, up from 110 in 2011, and 16 lb-ft more torque. While a six-speed manual transmission is offered with the base model, our EX tester came with the six-speed automatic. Zero-to-60 times improved by 0.5 second compared with the last Kia Rio5 we tested. Not only that, but fuel economy improved, too: For 2012, the Rio hatchback achieves 30 mpg city, 40 highway, compared with the 2011 Rio5’s 27 and 36.
The Rio hatchback offers plenty of value and safety for the money, gets good fuel economy, and is certainly a competent subcompact with great looks.
Do you think the 2012 Kia Rio’s changes are enough to make it Car of the Year? Stay tuned as we preview every car that Motor Trend tested for its 2012 Motor Trend Car of the Year competition in alphabetical order in advance of the official announcement on Nov. 16.
Source: motortrend.com
The automobile industry knows design is important, so enormous energy and funding is applied to it, but it's famously difficult to know how effective those efforts and expenditures really are. Except in one precise, clear-cut case: Kia's. Six years ago, Kia cars were nondescript tin boxes of no particular consequence in the grand scheme of things, sold on price and certainly not as world-class desirable objects. Today's Kia range is admired, respected, even envied. Its cars are well-made, good performers, and -- above all -- good-looking. That quality can essentially be attributed to one man, Peter Schreyer, chief design officer for Kia and our unanimously chosen Man of the Year. Despite his youthful appearance and vitality, Schreyer, 58, is an industry veteran, having spent more than half his lifetime in automobile design, first with Audi in 1980, then at Volkswagen, and back to Audi as its chief designer from 1994 to 2002, wherein he was instrumental in Audi's worldwide recognition as a premium design brand. Schreyer was personally acknowledged with the highest design award of the Federal Republic of Germany and an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art, where he studied in 1979 and 1980. Schreyer doesn't have to claim to be a car guy; he's the real thing. Impressed in his youth by the Jaguar E-type and the Porsche 911, he owned a Fiat X1/9 at twenty-one, and today he has a supercharged Pininfarina Spider Azzura (Fiat 124) roadster and a V-12-powered E-type coupe. He has a Frankfurt apartment during the week, but he kept the family home near Ingolstadt so his teenage children weren't uprooted from their schools when he joined Kia in 2006.
"I've been to Korea eighty-two times now," he says, and although he is meant to do the trip once a month, "on average I make about twenty trips a year." Given that he is responsible for the European studio in Frankfurt, another in Irvine, California, the main studio near Seoul, and a new satellite studio in Shanghai that he hasn't visited yet, he spends a lot of time in airplanes. He sold his own Cessna a couple years ago, never having time to fly on his own.
As with many multinational studios, the principal language for Kia design is English. Schreyer is "trying to learn Korean, but it is so different from anything else I know" that he doubts he'll ever master it. "Their minds work differently. I have to keep everyone on the same wavelength, and English works for that." He says that Kia's management is demanding, but they want to progress and are really supportive.
When Schreyer arrived at Kia, the Soul was almost finished, and he added only the characteristic grille now common to the line. Subsequent models from his regime have impressed us enough that two of them, the Rio and the Optima, recently competed in the final round of our our All-Stars test. Kia's first rear-wheel-drive car, the dramatic GT concept presented at Frankfurt, shows there's more good work to come from Peter Schreyer and his team.
Source: automobilemag.com
The Rio also provides an unbeatable combination of power and efficiency, too. In addition to two body styles, it also offers two transmissions (both a six-speed automatic or a similarly cogged manual) in three well-contented trim levels, and all offer both 30 mpg city/40 mpg highway and a class-leading 138 hp. Helping the Rio achieve these marks: An advanced 1.6-liter I4 engine with gasoline direct injection (GDI) technology, as well as the first stop/start system ever seen in the segment. Kia’s Idle Stop and Go feature shuts off the engine when the Rio comes to a stop, then quickly and seamlessly restarts the powerplant as soon as the driver’s foot comes off the brake pedal. Before being introduced on the Rio, this technology was only available on hybrids and expensive luxury vehicles.
Other high-tech goodies the Rio is bringing to the segment include UVO, Kia’s Microsoft-powered, voice-activated infotainment system, with a 4.2-inch color touchscreen and rear-view camera, along with other standard and available features like:
Significantly, the Rio also is fully covered by the automaker’s industry-leading warranty package—standard on all Kia vehicles—which includes a 10-year/100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty, a five-year/60,000-mile limited basic warranty, a five-year/100,000-mile anti-perforation warranty and a five-year/60,000-mile roadside assistance plan.
The 2012 Kia Rio 5-door is on sale now, with the sedan slated to enter the marketplace later this year.
