South Korea’s indigenous automobile manufacturer, Kia, is now in league with the kind of advancement it is making in sustainable mobility, design, and technology. Two decades back, it was one of those brands that people tended to ignore unabashedly as it was known for its obscene designs, just decent build and offering nothing beyond its relatively more robust Japanese and American contemporaries. The ride and handling balance was monotonous, and the masses lampooned specific wannabe luxury car designs for cheaper alternatives.
However, one might regard the brand’s atrocious past as if a legend were in the making, as it made tremendous stirs on all grounds that were indispensable for any value-conscious buyer. Since the 2010s, Kia has juggled the automotive market with light and heavy, compact and grand, value and luxury offerings that inked a bonified present and, plausibly, a secure future.
The new Kia cars, especially the Rio, Pegas, Sportage, K5, and K8, are a stunning departure from the past. They are already giving their Japanese and American counterparts a stiff battle, not forgetting to mention the brand that spawned it, Hyundai.
Whether in the budget segment or premium, it has nailed the show game. The cars look stunning and striking and exhibit those design trickeries that one wouldn’t usually glance at in other vehicles commanding exact prices.
A few years back, it ambitiously launched a sedan that wonderfully blended sportiness and luxury. That was the Stinger. It wasn’t attested with smooth destiny and died a slow death. Cars K5 and K8, which took the baton in the sedan space, yielded generous payoffs to its coffers and highlighted and endeared the people.
Budget cars such as the Sonet, Seltos, and Pegas offer a wide range of features combined besides a good build and texture motley, such as dual front airbags, ABS, cruise control, digital instrument cluster with a digital interface on the center console, navigation, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, ventilated seats, sunroof, and climate control.
While some of these features might have become basic by today’s standards, having these cars at this price level is uncommon in the UAE. It goes to show the extensive effort put in by Kia for the packaging.
In terms of performance, its cars are nowhere sluggish as they used to be. Reliable engines that produce decent power outputs while optimizing fuel efficiency are a norm with their compact and mid-sized vehicles. This guiding force has enabled the brand to rack up volumes and margins.
Clearly, with new Kia cars, offering more for less appears to be the brand’s mantra, and persistently sticking to this has made several buyers and enthusiasts raze off the brand’s erstwhile reputation and restore it with something that everyone would respect. Kia cars 2023 is all proof enough of how its engineering finesse, customer sensitivity, and insightful market study have shattered all boundaries preventing them from scaling up and playing its game.
It’s intriguing how every manufacturer is ditching other body types for SUVs as they perceive these aren’t profitable.
