The latest Kia cars have fantastic design

thats interesting

Who'd have thought it?

The latest Kia cars have fantastic design. The Sportage is great looking on the street, and I was just looking at the new Rio online and it looks great.

Well done KIA.

Ford stunned the world with the first Focus in 98.

They bored me to tears when i saw the new one last week.

-Corkie-

Sportage looks great I think but the dash just dont do it for me but I would live with it though.

The pro ceed is a good looking car too I would have it anyday over an Auris.

mondeo

The fit and finish of those kia's are really good these days. I'd buy one and I would not have said that 3 years ago.

coolbeans

They've gotta be the most improved MoCo of the last ten years. I remember looking at a Rio in 2001 and thinking "what an ugly ****ing car".

EPM

thats interesting wrote: »

Who'd have thought it?

The latest Kia cars have fantastic design. The Sportage is great looking on the street, and I was just looking at the new Rio online and it looks great.

Well done KIA.

Ford stunned the world with the first Focus in 98.

They bored me to tears when i saw the new one last week.

No KIA has moved the yardstick on like the mk 1 Focus did. Sure the 1.4 was slow, the interior wasn't a patch on a mk 4 Golf for perceived quality but it was greater than the sum if it's parts. It drove very well for what it was and was class leading in that regard, had loads of room, was reliable, was well screwed together and genuinely looked modern. No rival could do all that.

The Sportage (misleading name) looks well yes, has a decent interior (but it's origins are apparent) and good engines but it's hardly revolutionary. A great effort relative to other KIA products but KIA are only converging to what is expected in recent years. All this just happened to coincide with European manufacturers going a very conservative route.

I'm not knocking KIA - looked at proceeds for myself and convinced my sister to buy a ceed based on her use but they are only par for the course now.

pburns

A friend bought a Kia in 07 - semi-blindly, based mainly on the fact he knew someone who knew the salesman. I was really surprised when I saw it - great spec, neat looks and a great little diesel engine smooth, powerful and economical.

The C'eed was the firsr competitive one. Every one since has been more than credible.

Kenny Logins

Audi/ VW designer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schreyer

Eric Cartman

I always thought the designs were fine, the new sorento is well designed (pity about the engines though , if they can push 197bhp out of a 2.2 they can atleast push 250 out of a 3 litre and offer me that ) I even thought the old sorento was well designed, very few of the plastic parts were horrible hard plastic, everything was functional and well placed and the wood trim didnt look half bad

its definitley not groundbreaking stuff, but its put kias up there with a lot of mid range brands (its obviously not going to get the attention a 5/7 series or jaguar/bentley etc... would put in, but for the average family car its a nice step up

thats interesting

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Audi/ VW designer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schreyer

I'd forgotten who it was, but I knew alright 'twas a European was at the helm in Kia as regards design.

The narrow strip lights look terrific on the Sportage when they are switched on.

Matt Simis

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Audi/ VW designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schreyer

Damnit, this undermines my recent liking of Kia designs!

I even posted about his move before (then forgot), his Kia #3 is considered a kinda follow up to the Audi A2:

Patsy fyre

thats interesting wrote: »

I'd forgotten who it was, but I knew alright 'twas a European was at the helm in Kia as regards design.

The narrow strip lights look terrific on the Sportage when they are switched on.

Yeah the same guy who designed the A3 designed the pro ceed hence why they are always being mixed up!

Bluefoam

In the Middle East they do a car called the Cerato Koup. It looks wicked, but I can't find photos online of the spec they sell here (with nice paint job & body kit)...

http://www.kia-ceratokoup.com/main.html

squod

Sonata still looks better than any other Japanesey saloon yoke out now.