Kia Seeks World Domination
Kia, no longer content to occupy the second tier among carmakers, yesterday held a virtual press conference to announce their plans for world domination.
Dropping Motors America from their name was the first indicator, as the company now known as just Kia moves forward. We reported the other day on Kia’s new logo, a bold move like Nissan made a few months ago with its logo revamp, and coincidentally days before General Motors dropped the Mark of Excellence that has served them well for decades in favor of a new, rather flaccid logotype.
Of course, changing your name requires something to back up your play, and Kia didn’t disappoint, creating a new tagline, ‘Movement That Inspires’, to perhaps inspire you to look at its vehicle lineup in a completely different way than you may have previously.
The presentation started with comments from average people on the street about Kia if your street happened to be in Seoul or Southern California. The agency who put the reel together didn’t appear to have gathered opinions from the heartland, nor those from deep in the heart of Texas for that matter. Whether that would invalidate the feelings expressed about who and what Kia is debatable, although they lacked the sort of passion you get when asking Android or Apple, country versus rock.
The most salient point came late in the presentation, with less fanfare than that surrounding the total brand redesign that Kia is launching. No, the proclamation that Kia will introduce seven new EVs by 2027 was the highlight of the show, followed by shadowy images of vehicles, more or less still lumps of clay in the design center at this point in time.
What Kia spent to light up the night with drones equipped with fireworks to illustrate the new logo is anyone’s guess, but it was significant enough to warrant another mention at the top of the show. Too bad there were no fireworks surrounding the seven new EVs.
[Images: Kia]
With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.
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The old logo meant "GENERAL MOTORS". The new logo means "gram".
I own a 2007 kia optima 2.4 automatic and I agree with everyone especially as it relates to quality. I have learned alot about fixing cars since owning this one. As a comparison, my neighbors own a 2010 Toyota Prius and both of our cars have roughly 210k miles. The Prius had bad piston rings and a recall for the intelligent inverter for the battery. My main problem has been the pathetically weak suspension systems. I have spent alot more money on my car than theirs. Kia likes to brag about their so called quality, but thats based upon short term leases and ironically you don't hear about 5 and 10 durability surveys like in the past. Maybe their rear drive models would do better, but their fwd models would fall apart. Kia only grew because of cheap prices relative to the competition, but overall their vehicles are too expensive and don't have the quality engineering to command a premium. The Telluride may be an exception. Also none of the automakers are producing perfect cars either, but I would gladly take a Toyota over a Nissan despite the recalls.