Kia continues its dramatic design makeover with the all-new 2011 Sportage SUV. Slated for a world debut at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show next month, this compact SUV is lower, longer and wider than the current model.
No other details were released, but it's safe to assume it will have four-cylinder power and a choice of front- or all-wheel drive. Worldwide sales are expected to start late this year.
Continue reading 2011 Kia Sportage Headed for 2010 Geneva Auto Show.
You might be thinking, "2011 Kia Sorento? Did he just type 2011? I'm still trying to get used to writing 2010 on my checks."
Yes, it's true. Kia has decided to sell the all-new Kia Sorento as a 2011 model. They're allowed to do it, too, because the regulations say that anything produced after January 1st 2010 can wear the 2011 designation if the manufacturer so chooses.
Frankly, I think it's silly and confusing. Not to mention the fact that Kia will end up selling the 2010 car for some 20 months before the routine 2012 model change comes out a year after this coming September or October.
But Kia must have a very good reason. They have apparently chosen this path because the 2011 Kia Sorento is utterly different from the outgoing 2009 model. Perhaps the forward-looking number and the model-year gap it creates with the past (there is no 2010 Sorento) helps them make their point. "That's how all-new the 2011 Kia Sorento really is," they might say.
And they do have a point. Kia Sorentos of the "2009 and before" variety were body-on-frame SUVs with rear-drive architecture and optional 4WD systems that had a low-range transfer case. This made them fairly stout off-road performers, but a sold rear axle imbued them with a sometimes truckish ride. And they were built in Korea and sent here on huge Ro-Ro ships (roll on, roll off).
The 2011 Kia Sorento (available now) shares none of that. It's now a suburban crossover utility (CUV) that rides on front-drive unibody architecture loosely derived from the Kia Optima sedan (code-named MG). Its all-wheel drive system is more than suitable for snow and maintained dirt roads, but it's not designed to tackle rocky off-road trails. It now rides rather well on a compact multilink independent rear suspension that leaves sufficient interior room for a newly-available third-row seat. And last but certainly not least, the 2011 Kia Sorento is built in Kia's first U.S. plant, located in West Point, Georgia.
Enough, already. This one deserves a look.
The changes start up front, where the 2011 Kia Sorento rides on a MacPherson strut coilover (green) instead of 2009's double wishbone setup. The stabilizer bar is direct-acting, which means its link connects directly to the strut housing (yellow) for a motion ratio that's as close to 1-to1 as you can get with a strut.
Continue reading 2011 Kia Sorento: Suspension Walkaround.
Kia just released this teaser shot of its Ray concept car that will debut at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show. It was drawn up in Kia's American design studio and is intended to give some direction to the company's idea for a plug-in hybrid vehicle. Doesn't look half bad. We'll see the rest in a few weeks when the 2010 Chicago Auto Show opens for the press on Feb. 10th.
Kia Motors announced at 2010 CES their new in-car communications and entertainment system, "UVO powered by Microsoft." UVO is short for "Your Voice" and will be available on the new 2011 Kia Sorento in the second half of 2010.
UVO uses voice commands primarily and a touch panel to control your vehicle's mobile phone and media/music entertainment. A 4.3-inch touch panel screen, which doesn't require navi but always includes a back-up camera, is the visual-manual input solution.
Kia said it is differentiated from the Sync system (also powered by Microsoft) in that it has "flat grammar" capability, which allows simple, quick voice commands without having to go through several menus. UVO claims to understand complex grammar, and thus needs only short voice commands to initiate the function. But the new version of Sync also has flat grammar capability.
UVO uses a Microsoft voice engine and generator, while Sync uses the highly touted Nuance system. UVO's voice engine worked well during the demo and practical differences between the two couldn't be distinguished.
And although UVO performed well, it's not a game-changer like the original Sync, and it doesn't include mobile app capability like a number of new similar production and prototype competitor systems.
So the impression UVO made was completely underwhelming.
What is remarkable is that Kia, which barely has a navi program, let alone an abundance of advanced-tech devices and driver assist systems in its vehicles, becomes only the second carmaker to release a production version of a voice engine-controlled mobile phone/entertainment system -- beating out all the big boys from the U.S, Europe, and Japan.
Rest assured, other major carmakers will take notice and come out with similar systems in the near future.
Albert Austria, Senior Engineer, Edmunds, Inc.
Somali pirates recorded their first major hijacking of 2010, capturing a ship carrying 2,388 Hyundais and Kias on January 1. The ship, "Asian Glory," was hijacked 1,000 miles off the coast of Somalia as it approached the Suez Canal on its way to Saudi Arabia.
Even if the ship is never recovered, Hyundai will suffer no financial losses on the cars, which had evidently already been purchased by the company's regional distributor.
"As soon as the vessel embarks, all risks related to the vessel are the responsibility of the distributor," Hyundai advised Bloomberg. "All payments for the cars have been made, while the cars are also insured."
Hyundai has issued a plea via the ship's owner, Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd., for the safe return of the 25 crew members.
Although we have our eyes on the Detroit show, the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is next week in Vegas, and one of the big announcements there will be Kia's UVO voice control system -- the first serious challenge to Ford's Sync technology.
Very likely, the UVO user experience will be similar to Sync. Both systems were developed with Microsoft. Hyundai-Kia formed its partnership with Microsoft in May 2008, and at the end of that year, Ford's exclusive development contract with Gates and Co. expired.
Kia hasn't announced which model in its current lineup will get UVO first, but we'd be very surprised if it wasn't a Forte.
Automotive News (sub.req), Autoblog
Although it just debuted for 2009, Kia has put its seven-passenger Borrego SUV on ice for 2010: There will be no 2010 Kia Borrego. The long-term prognosis appears doubtful, too, as a Kia official told the Car Connection's Marty Padgett, "TBD."
We questioned Kia's decision to launch a traditional, body-on-frame SUV, particularly one with a V8 engine, in mid-2008. Fuel prices were uncomfortably high when it launched, and though they've since moderated, most people aren't looking to old-school trucks anymore for family transportation. This makes it doubly hard for a newcomer to get noticed, and evidently, the Borrego hasn't. Only 9,500 have been sold in 2009 as of November.
Toyota recalled nearly 4.9 million vehicles in 2009 -- the most of any automaker in the U.S., the Detroit Free Press reports. This is the first time Toyota has ever led in annual recalls, and of course this milestone is the result of the floor mat debacle during which 4.3 million vehicles were recalled.
Free Press writers crunched the numbers on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Web site. Ford came up second with 4.5 million recalled vehicles -- most of them covered by recalls for cruise control switches that can catch fire, a chronic defect in older Fords.
Next up was GM was 2.2 million recalled vehicles, followed by Hyundai with just over 1 million and Nissan with 700,000+. Chrysler rounded out the top five with 590,000.
You can see the full list in the Free Press article.
Sales of the 2011 Kia Sorento begin in January and this week Kia launched the "build your Sorento" tool on its consumer website. A base front-wheel-drive Sorento with a 175-horsepower 2.4-liter inline-4 and six-speed manual gearbox starts at $19,995 plus a $795 destination charge. It comes with the safety basics, plus 17-inch alloy wheels, a telescoping steering wheel, Bluetooth and satellite radio.
Next up is the LX which moves you into an obligatory six-speed automatic transmission, but gives the choice of front-drive ($23,190) or all-wheel-drive ($24,890). There's not a lot of difference in features compared to the base model, save for an auto-up power driver window, but the Sorento LX does provide access to an optional third-row seat (taking capacity to 7) plus a convenience package with a back-up camera, rear sonar, heated seats and foglights.
Finally, there's the 2011 Kia Sorento EX. It's the only member of the Sorento family that comes with either the four-cylinder or the more satisfying, and nearly as fuel-efficient, 276-hp 3.5-liter V6. Four-cylinder EXs will cost you $25,390 with front-drive and $27,090 with AWD.
Step up to the V6 and you're looking at $27,990 for the front-drive version and $29,690 for the AWD. All Sorento EXs have 18-inch wheels, automatic climate control, keyless start and cloth/leatherette upholstery. The EX V6 also has a standard third row and a separate rear air-conditioner. Leather, a navigation system and an Infinity sound system are optional on all EX models. And EX V6 customers have their choice of a giant sunroof or a rear entertainment system.
A fully optioned 2011 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD costs $34,920.
If Kia can make a business case for offering a fizzy, turbocharged version of the 2012 Kia Forte Koup, as sales VP Tom Loveless suggested yesterday, that engine will be smaller than you might think. In talking to Kia's marketing director in Korea last summer, Inside Line learned that the company is already developing a turbocharged and directed-injected, 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder engine for the Forte Koup. The target would be 200 horsepower.
That's a lot less than the upcoming 2.0-liter D.I. turbo making 250+ hp we hastily gushed about yesterday, but still quite a bit more than the 173 hp you get with the 2.4-liter engine in the current Forte Koup SX.
Presumably, a smaller 1.6-liter motor could return even better fuel economy than a 2.0-liter, and it might just keep curb weight down, too.
In an Automotive News story about Kia adding former Saturn dealerships to its dealer network on the East Coast, Tom Loveless, vice president of sales for Kia Motors America, mentions in passing that a turbocharged engine might be offered in the 2012 Kia Forte Koup.
And we've got a very good idea where Kia might source that engine: the Hyundai Sonata. Although the redesigned 2011 Sonata starts out with a normally aspirated, direct-injected 2.4-liter engine, it's scheduled to get a turbocharged and direct-injected 2.0-liter inline four for the 2012 model year. And at least in the Sonata, Hyundai is promising upwards of 250 horsepower along with 35 mpg on the highway.
Drop that engine in a Forte Koup, and Kia would have a real sport compact and perhaps a legitimate rival to the Honda Civic Si and Volkswagen GTI.
AN writer Kathy Jackson quotes Loveless as saying a turbocharged engine in the Forte would be "a natural extension if it makes financial sense."
Automotive News (sub.req)
We've shown you the Kia Cadenza, the sedan that will replace the Amanti, but is there room for a sedan above that? Maybe, if parent company Hyundai's upward drive, with the Genesis and Equus, is any indication.
In Korea, the Cadenza is called K7. This photo was apparently taken at a design conference in Korea, during which Kia's director of design, Peter Schreyer, showed a glimpse of another car possibly to be called the K9.
Photos like this are always sketchy, but if real, we like the direction Schreyer is taking here.
We're a bit late with our quick-take review of November sales (full analysis available on Auto Observer), but the short answer is that, at 746,544, they were flat compared to November 2008. But not everyone was flat.
Hyundai-Kia was up 33.8 percent over Nov. 2008, and the company is 6.2 percent overall for the year. The new models in the Kia line helped, but even the Sonata, about to be replaced by the visually arresting 2011 model, was up 52 percent.
Subaru sales increased 24 percent for its best November ever, and the company is up an impressive 14 percent for the year. Every model posted gains, except for the Tribeca, arguably Subaru's weakest offering in the U.S.
Nissan was up 21 percent, even as its incentive spending dropped. Maxima sales climbed 84 percent to 4,995.
Mercedes-Benz was up 19 percent, and virtually all the credit goes to the E-Class -- 4,824 examples of the midsize Benz sedan found homes, up a staggering 113 percent year over year.
Auto Observer: Automakers See Glass Half-Full After Flat November Sales
Graphic courtesy of Bob Holland
Continue reading November Sales in Review: GM, Ford Flat, But Hyundai, Subaru, Mercedes Climb.
Not sure if Dick Clark will be on hand to watch the ball drop in Times Square this year, but Kia is paying big bucks to make sure its all-new 2011 Sorento has a front-row seat. A big screen at the corner of Broadway and 7th will display the new unibody crossover prior to its mid-January arrival in dealerships.
Priced under $20K, Kia says the more carlike Sorento will cost approximately $1,500 less than its outgoing body-on-frame predecessor.
A new 273-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 will be offered only with a six-speed automatic transmission.
Built at Kia's brand-new manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia, the first 2011 Sorento rolled off the line just 16 days ago as the first Kia model to be built in the U.S.
A historic day for the Korean automaker, one it'll likely celebrate straight through the new year. -- Kelly Toepke, News Editor
Continue reading 2011 Kia Sorento Debuts at 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show.
You can see plain old running footage of the 2011 Kia Cadenza, unveiled last week in Korea, anywhere, including after the jump in this post. But perhaps you missed this dramatic new film in which a Cadenza dramatically flees from a Sorento in a dramatic chase scene on a South Korean expressway.
If nothing else, this promotional film offers a chance to see details of the interior, though perhaps not all of these will translate exactly to the U.S.-spec version. Oh, and the car goes by K7 in the movie, because that's evidently what Kia will call it in the Korean market.
Continue reading Video: 2011 Kia Cadenza Stars in Suspense Thriller.
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