Zastava_101

http://wot.motortrend.com/five-year-...#axzz2EHcg1vWf

According to New Zealand-based Scoop Independent News, Kia Motor’s vice-chairman Lee Hyoung-keun announced the company’s new goal while speaking to a group of the automaker’s global dealers and distributors. Hyoung-keun said Kia should be among the list of "first class" brands” by 2017, on par with premium automakers like Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi.

Flagstang

will never happen. people buy kia because its cheap..

burningman

If they can keep the prices down while making a car that could actually compete in that m,arket they'd be golden. Kia makes some of my favorite cars now. The Optima is awesome and I love the Forte Koup. They might be able to pull that off. But yes the name Kia is synonmous with cheap for the most part. lets hope they can change that stigma from cheaply made to just cheaply priced.

Knight

Not necessarily. What Toyota did to get so big is to constantly make changes to their cars based on their aging consumers, so that generation of young kids that could only afford a Kia before will soon be looking something more expensive and nicer as they get established in life and then they retain that loyalty of a car they had trusted. If Kia followed the newer generation as Toyota did since the 70-80's they could move up market.

Edit: this was to Adrian, not Doug.

Zastava_101

I think Koreans are capable of making luxury cars just as good as the Mercedes or Lexus, with Hyundai Genesis being the perfect example.
However, Kia has been known for making cheap cars and many people (especially in the western Europe) buy Mercedes/BMW/Audi simply because of their names.

If Hyundai/Kia would start additional brand, named Genesis for an example, and if Genesis' lineup include the current Genesis sedan, Genesis coupe, Equus and a crossover like the now discontinued Veracruz, I think Koreans have a good chance of succeeding.

dmhines

I just watched a show the other night on what went into the design and building of the new Optima. I was very impressed with their design and quality control.

Kia Optimas placed 1st and 2nd in their second race of the Pirelli World Challenge series and places 4th place for the season. They were racing against Cadillac, Porsche, Mustang, etc ...

http://www.world-challenge.com/news/...php?story=2702

http://colinbraun.com/kia-racing-and...of-long-beach/

rhumb

While not a slam dunk, I wouldn't underestimate KIA either. Look at how far the once derided Hyundai has come lately. That Quoris, while fairly derivative design wise, does nonetheless seem to be like a serious effort towards that end.

Evil_Capri

I saw that show as well and it is always nice to see manufacturers embrace motorsports!