Leaked in Photo, the 2018 Kia GT Sports Sedan Faces a Mountain of Adversity
A photo of what looks like a pre-production Kia GT was leaked to the interwebs today, revealing the upcoming premium midsize tapped to carry the brand’s performance torch.
Bowing next year as a 2018 model, Kia’s rear-wheel-drive sports sedan faces an uphill battle against a well-established competition, changing consumer preferences, and itself.
It isn’t known if the GT name will carry over to production models, though the model revealed in a photo posted to kia-world.net certainly looks like the GT Concept of 2011. Typical concept car elements like clamshell doors have disappeared, though the model adopts a similar profile, along with tell-tale Kia styling cues.
The GT is expected to borrow the 365 horsepower turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 found in the Genesis G90 and upcoming G80 Sport. Lesser powerplants, including a four-cylinder and possible hybrid, should join it.
Sharing a platform with the upcoming Genesis G70, the GT has a mission: set Kia apart from its Hyundai sister division. Earlier this year, the automaker’s performance development chief laid out how the company planned to build up the identities of its brands. Kia becomes the emotional brand — meaning spirited motoring and edgier styling — while Hyundai becomes the sensible, buttoned-down sibling. Genesis will handle the luxury credentials.
The model is positioned to battle the likes of the BMW 3 and 4 Series, but competition will come from all quarters. It arrives at a worrying time for a premium midsize sedan. With conventional passenger car sales declining, Kia’s recent experience with larger cars — the midsize Cadenza and K900 range-topper — hasn’t paid off in sales. Nor have those models endowed the brand with any newfound reverence, despite positive reviews and awards that nary matter.
It won’t be hard to top the dismal sales of the Cadenza and K900, which appear in the background of photos less frequently than Sasquatch. But maybe that’s not the GT’s purpose.
Volume is everything to an automaker, but image can’t be discounted. Kia wants to be seen as South Korea’s performance brand, meaning it needs a competitive sports sedan to gild the edges of its portfolio. It also needs that model to make enough of a splash — and sell in enough numbers — to be visible to the buying public, even if they’re only interested in an Elantra or Rio. The remaining models will then soak up some of that performance mystique through osmosis.
[Image: kia-world.net]
More by Steph Willems
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Nobody cares about RWD sedans anymore. Everyone who used to drop big bucks on them is now down at the Range Rover or Bentayaga store getting something with a low range in case they have to park on the grass. And you obviously can't have a sedan if you have kids, because even if the kid is on the small side, you're helpless against the avalanche of antibacterial wipes and armored carrier/stroller hybrids that are apparently mandatory, unless you want your progeny to grow up dead. I genuinely want Genesis and Kia and Alfa Romeo to succeed here, because they're making cars that *I* like. But in terms of the overall market, they seem to be awfully proud of that shiny new cordless phone - with a built in answering machine! that they've just released.
I really can't conceive of people wanting to buy a $55K sedan at a KIA dealership. I just bought a 2016 Hyundai Genesis (last of the Hyundai badged Genesis) and the dealer experience was a real trip. The other customers on the floor were salt of the earth types hoping that their credit was good enough to swing the payments on a base Accent. Personally I would buy a car off the back of a pickup truck if the price was right (and the price WAS right) but I really can't see the typical $55K car buyer being comfortable rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi and with a sales staff that is geared toward dealing with them. I happened to score the sweetest car salesman ever but at the next desk was Mr. Sleazeball in a toupee selling the key replacement warranty for $1,295 to some poor schnook for whom $1,295 meant 100 hours of work - have you no mercy? As nice as the cars may be (and the Genesis is very nice) it's a whole different experience than a Lexus dealership and until they get Genesis under its own roof it's going to be a problem for the brand.