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On the heels of the Kia Soul totally transforming the automotive design world in 2011, Kia has released a concept vehicle called the Track’ster that, quite honestly, blew everybody’s mind at the Chicago Auto Show last week. While the Kia higher-ups have given us zero indication that they plan to send this vehicle to production—and to be frank there’s about a 99.9% chance that it never will be available for purchase—we here at Classic Kia still think it’s a pretty sweet design study, especially as it could pertain to the future of the Soul. Continue reading →
It’s Super Bowl season again, folks, and that means it’s time for another slew of fantastic Super Bowl commercials. We know that there are going to be cameos in various commercials by Ferris Bueller, Darth Vader, and Jerry Seinfeld (complete with Soup Nazi), but it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that every Kenosha Kia dealer is most looking forward to seeing what Kia comes up with this year. Continue reading →
If you sat down and drew out a list of all the different groups and organizations an automaker like Kia could decide to work with, you’d end up with a pretty long list. There are child safety organizations, racing organizations, and any of a number of various charities and activist groups. However, an organization like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is one that no automaker can ever afford to ignore.
Of course we all know that driving under the influence of alcohol is a bad idea, but that doesn’t stop thousands upon thousands of people to continue driving drunk every year. This puts in harm’s way not only the people doing the drunk driving, but also the innocents who have to share the roads with those yahoos. Raised awareness of how these sorts of deadly accidents affect families is one of the best ways to help getting people to stop doing it, and that’s why Kia is teaming up with MADD to sponsor the “I Pledge” campaign in Canada.
It’s precisely the sort of PR campaign that any Kia dealer would love because it promotes positive change in the community. To show their support, Kia has donated some vehicles to MADD so that they can take them around to high schools and actually have students sign the vehicle as a pledge that they’ll never get behind the wheel of a car if they’ve been drinking.
But it goes beyond that, as the vehicles also will be used by MADD at these high schools to educate kids about the potentially dangerous consequences of their actions. We all know it sometimes takes dramatic action to get them to change their habits, and this feels like an excellent approach to affecting adolescent minds in a positive way.
Waukegan new car dealers like ourselves might not be actively involved in this particular campaign, but we thought it was worth drawing some attention to, anyway. Kia does this sort of thing all over the world, but signing a car as a public show of support for a very positive cause is particularly creative. This is the sort of thing that could work well in Chicago, too. Maybe we’ll have to ask the ol’ parent company to send some of that activism our way.
It’s the time of year when news outlets all over the globe start doing those “Best Of/Worst Of 2011” lists, and there’s something a little disturbing that keeps showing up on the “Worst Of” lists. Chevrolet’s first all-electric vehicle, the Volt, was supposed to be a game-changer in the auto industry, pushing EVs ahead of standard hybrids in the race for finding the most fuel-efficient vehicle automakers can provide. Things simply didn’t add up, however, and sales for the vehicle have been poor amid faulty chargers that, sadly, cause small fires. In short, that whole experience was a nightmare.
But Kia isn’t Chevrolet, and not all EVs are created equal. Continue reading →
There’s no question that in that in the business world, one man can absolutely make an unbelievable difference. Michael Jordan turned the Chicago Bulls from a ho-hum middle-tier NBA property into the most globally recognizable basketball brand in the world. When Sammy Hagar took over lead singing duties for Van Halen in the ‘80s, the group barely missed a beat. And when Kia hired Peter Schreyer as Chief Design Officer to help transform the look of their vehicles back in 2006, they couldn’t have ever imagined things would’ve gone this well.
But, they have. And now Schreyer is Automobile Magazine’s 2012 Man of the Year. Continue reading →
We’ve talked about this ad nauseum in this space over the course of the last several weeks, but the auto industry really hasn’t been hurt at all by this recession kicking the rest of the country’s rear end. In November, yet again, Kia has seen a significant uptick in sales compared to the same month a year ago, and like any Waukegan new car dealer, we here at Classic Kia are absolutely ecstatic about the overwhelming success of our vehicles this year. Continue reading →
We’ve always kind of felt like the Forte, especially the 5-door version, was a bit underrated. With the Sorrento topping sales and the Soul hoarding all the media attention, our poor, practical little hatchback often gets left in the shadows of these other vehicles. That, however, simply isn’t fair because the 2012 Kia Forte truly is a solid little vehicle. Continue reading →
Demographics are everything in the business world, yet interestingly enough, most Top Ten lists involving all sorts of cars for all sorts of reasons don’t really take demographics into consideration. It’s just, “Top Ten Green Cars” instead of “Top Ten Green Cars, According to African-Americans,” or “Top Ten Green Cars for People Over 50 Years Old.” Continue reading →
We’ve talked about the Kia Soul in this space on more than one occasion, and with good reason—this is one of the most unique vehicles on roads right now, and for younger drivers looking to purchase something unique, spacious, and affordable, there really aren’t a whole lot of better options out there. This thing is definitely hip, drives great, and has the sorts of features that those younger drivers are most likely looking for. Continue reading →
I remember when I was growing up, my parents bought two Fords in a row. There wasn’t anything particularly special about the cars other than they must have been the best deal at the time on a make of car that they’d heard of before and so assumed it must be trustworthy. They didn’t subscribe to “Consumer Reports,” and they certainly did have the internet (this was the late ‘80s, after all), so they ended up with two Fords pretty much based on name recognition alone.
They also ended up with two vehicles that felt like they were in the shop more often than they were on the road. Continue reading →
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