After a careful Canadian start with a couple of aging models, Kia Motors will open the flood gates on new products and triple the size of their line-up from Korea in the next year or so.
Joining the Sportage SUV and the Sephia compact sedan will be the Spectre sporty sedan, which should just now be turning up in dealer lots. In a couple of months we will see the Rio subcompact sedan, followed by a larger and more upscale sedan after the turn of the year, and then the full-size 2002 Sedona minivan by next summer.
These products move hew very closely to the existing Kia philosophy of going into volume segments and selling a product for less than anyone else.
What Koreans officials of the Nissan-controlled company say will be different is the level of quality across the board.
Senior Kia management says the company hopes to get its J. D. Power Things Gone Wrong scores down from 350 per 100 vehicles in 1999, to 270 in 2000, to 200 in 2001, which would put them only slightly behind the current industry average.
Kia's approach to marketing new cars will not do much to fire the hearts of enthusiasts, but people looking for inexpensive transportation should be glad since the selection at the low-priced end of the market will increase significantly.