dimanche 31 janvier 2010
2010 Kia Sorento Review
Longer and lower, the new Kia Sorento brings sleek styling and a futuristic touch to the world of the urban CUV. With its longer front overhang, wedge profile, crisply defined greenhouse and accentuated wheelarch volumes, Kia’s new CUV looks thoroughly modern and sporty.
The 4.7-metre long new Kia Sorento moves vehicle design in this segment up to a new level of sophistication.
As part of Kia’s drive to expand market coverage with its latest CUV, the new Kia Sorento will be manufactured with a total of four engines – with different engines being available in various regions around the world in order to best suit local requirements and with CO2 emissions from just 173 g/km.
The original Kia Sorento was a ‘landmark’ vehicle which took the Korean brand into a whole new section of the automotive market all around the world. Introduced in 2002, it marked a huge step for Kia, challenging many established 4×4 and SUV brands and starting the process of changing public perception of Kia as a ‘maker of small cars.’
MIMS 2009 - Best of the rest
Here is one last wrap up of images from the media day at the 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show.
There’s pics from Honda (Insight, Civic Type R), Hyundai (i10 Blue, i30 Blue, Genesis Coupé), Kia (Soul), Lotus (Europa SE), Suzuki (Alto), Toyota (fully sik RAV4, fully sik Yaris, Hybrid Camry) and a few other bits and pieces, including the AutoHorizon FR-1, a charity-based project helping young kids.
So, what was the media day like? I have to say I was a bit nervous attending with a room full of battle-hardened journos around me. However, it was not really an issue and it was pretty cool moving around from stand to stand with nobody looking at me funny when I went up to various cars and opened them up, taking photos or just generally pushing and prodding around. Certainly a bit different, and better, than attending the show as a member of the general public.
Personally, I didn’t make the most of the networking opportunities on offer. Something I’m usually not good at, so I guess I’ll need to work on that.
Overall, though, it was a fun and valuable learning experience. It’s interesting seeing how many different ways there are to pull a cover off a car. Or not! My flight time meant I missed the presentations from Ford, Holden and Toyota, so maybe I missed a few new and innovative sheet pulling techniques!
Full marks to the catering, too, the Asian style lunch provided was very tasty, and after a few hours following Glenn Ridge around from presentation to presentation I was pretty damn hungry.
It was a long day, getting up at 4:30am to catch a plane from Canberra to Melbourne and not getting back to the hotel until 5pm. Before turning around and going back to the show as a casual observer with my wife.
I hope the coverage on AUSmotive has been interesting for all the readers out there and the audio clips provided on a few of the posts have brought you a bit closer to the action.
See you in Sydney in October 2010!
Kia introduces ‘Eco-Dynamics’ sub-brand
be applied to the most eco-friendly cars within each Kia model range.
The sub-brand will feature only those cars that possess innovative fuel-stretching and emissions-cutting technologies as they are progressively introduced.
The EcoDynamics vehicles at the show will be equipped with Start/Stop (ISG) to automatically switch off and then restart the engine in congested city driving, an engine-power saving alternator management system, a gear-shift up/down indicator to encourage an economical driving style and low rolling resistance Michelin tyresdiesel hybrid.
Future EcoDynamics vehicles will also feature additional CO2 and pollutant reducing technologies such as streamlined body parts, alternative fuel capabilities, high-efficiency transmissions and hybrid, electric or fuel-cell powertrains.