One million cars from Kia

The Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia has just built its 1,000,000^th car – a white, diesel-engined cee’d SW. The car was handed over to a Slovakian children’s charity, the Red Nose Clowndoctors. The cee’d is also the 600,000th version of the Zilina factory’s first car, plus the factory now produces the Sportage and Venga as well.

“Kia Motors Slovakia has achieved an important milestone in its history with the production of the millionth car. We decided to donate it to an organisation which will bring pleasure to children during their stay in hospitals,” said Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia.

New Kia c'eed

The new Kia c’eed is set to be officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012 and in the meantime Kia has just released the first image of the new car.

The styling resembles a sporty coupe and has design features like chrome framed windows and muscular lines on the bonnet. The new Kia c’eed will be available in Europe from the second quarter of 2012 and in the UK by June.

New Kia Optima saloon

The all-new Kia Optima goes on sale on the 1st February as Kia targets the business fleet car market with this new model, with a diesel-only line-up. The car is available in six-speed manual or automatic transmissions with four trim levels available – all with a very high level of standard specification. The new Kia Optima offers class-leading space and CO2 emissions as low as 128g/km of CO2 and a combined mpg of 57.6, so is an ideal shortlist for any company car driver.

The Optima was unveiled at the New York Auto Show and became Korea’s top-selling car within a month of going on sale. To date nearly 300,000 Optimas have been sold worldwide and the car was designed by Kia’s Chief Design Officer (Peter Schreyer) and his team.  

Kia Optima

It now joins the Kia family of Sorento, Soul, Venga, Sportage, c’eed, Picanto, Rio and provides Kia a full range of vehicles to offer across a fleet company car policy.

The UK model line-up and pricing  

Kia new four-door sports sedan

Kia is planning to unveil a brand new four-door sports sedan (saloon) concept at the IAA 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, plus the world premiere of the three-door version of the all-new Rio and a facelift version of the Kia Soul.

The new four-door sedan concept has a powerful, dynamic, forward-looking style and this new design clearly signals a new styling direction for the Kia brand. The car has rear-wheel drive and the sleek and muscular proportions of this sports sedan are married to a sophisticated and elegant four-seater cockpit.

Peter Schreyer, Kia Motors Chief Deign Officer, commented,”No matter from which perspective you look at it – this concept car is roaring with energy and ready for take-off. I believe the car is a strong statement from Kia: we are ready to fast forward to an all-new chapter”.  The new concept is certainly eye-catching and Kia continues to excel in attractive, yet affordable quality cars. We have Kia contract hire on the site now on all of their current range, including Picanto, Sportage, Sorento, Carens, C’eed, Rio, Soul and Venga.

Kia Picanto

Kia Motors (UK) Ltd has identified that up to 468 cee’d models could suffer from insufficient brake force from the master cylinder, on vehicles featuring Electronic Stability Programme systems. They are getting in touch with users who acquired their vehicles between April 1st 2008 and March 30, 2009, to arrange for the no-cost work to be carried out to replace the brake master cylinder.

In the Picanto, because of the harsh weather conditions 0f 2009-2010, where high levels of de-icing materials were used, there is a possibility that material in the fuel filler neck could be damaged and a fuel leak could occur. Owners of the 6,585 Picantos built between November 2009 and February 2010 are also being contacted to arrange for the fuel filler neck to be replaced free of charge.

Hamish McCowan, Director of After-Sales and Logistics said, “Safety is always our top priority and our on-going product assessment and research has revealed these two potential problems. We have immediately put in place a process to contact owners and the work will be conducted by Kia dealers at a convenient time for customers. I would apologise to any owner whose vehicle may be affected and at the same time I would like to assure them that we believe we are acting before anyone in the UK has experienced any issue.

Car recalls are quite common and if you ever want to check whether your vehicle has had a manufacturer recall then visit the VOSA site (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency).

Kia Motors (UK) Limited has appointed Michael Cole to the role of Managing Director. He will take up his role in early August and replaces Paul Philpott who was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, at Kia Motors Europe. Mr Cole joins the Korean car company from Toyota GB, where he was UK Sales Director, having gained significant experience during his 15 years with the Japanese brand.

He said ” I am very excited by this opportunity- the Kia brand is poised to grow dramatically over the coming years with a strong ambition to achieve in excess of 50,000 sales in the UK. The product line-up is already expanding, but their high quality, design led new models will really offer something different.” Kia recently lauched the Kia Soul which backs up this statement by Mr Cole, with strong sales being reported at the time.

Mr S. Huh Kia Motors (UK) Limited President commented ” We are excited and delighted to have Michael join Kia as our new Managing Director. He brings a wide range of experience to the role that will help develop the Kia brand as it grows”.  He went onto say ” Kia Motors has launched some exciting product in recent times – cee’d, pro_cee’d, SW and Soul, but we will build on this with more models in the coming years”.

Michael lives in Horsham, West Sussex, with his wife and two children and is a West Ham supporter.

During these tough economic times it is great to report that Kia has ended the year with a new car sales figure of 31,323, an increase of more than six per cent on 2007.

This is in a market where overall car registrations have fallen 11.3 % to 2.13 million vehicles. Kia’s winning package of modern, attractive and excellent value for money vehicles, appeal to motorists looking for a perfect package to suit their requirements in these tough times.

The Kia c’eed range leads the way with a remarkable seven year warranty.

Contract Hire a Kia Ceed Hatchback Special Edition 1.4 SR-7 5 Door from £156.11 pm excl VAT at Compare Contract Hire.com, the UK’s first contract hire price comparison site for small businesses and consumers.

Contract terms are based on non maintenance business contract hire, 3 years, 3 rentals deposit followed by 35 subsequent rentals and 10,000 miles per annum.

Co2 output is 145 g/km and Combined MPG is 46.3

See www.comparecontracthire.com fo more Kia prices or compare any make and model on line.

Personal Contract Hire prices are also available