Kia to Unveil New 2006 Rio in Detroit Next Month

In a press release Kia's Senior Executive Vice-President and COO Yong-Hwan Kim commented, "Building on the overwhelming success

Kia released two official sketches on December 14, 2004, showing a much more stylish Rio. (Photo: Kia Canada)

of its predecessor, Kia's new Rio is challenging the B-segment by establishing a new level of style, performance, and dependability that matches the needs of our young sporty customers."

The South Korean automaker also states that the 2006 Rio will also offer more room than the outgoing model inside, with greater front and rear legroom and higher levels of comfort overall.

The new design is based on Kia's Sport concept car that debuted at the Paris Motor Show in September of this year (see Concept archives under Kia for Oct 25, 2004: 2004 Kia Sport Concept), a racy looking subcompact hatch

The new design is based on Kia's racy Sport concept that debuted at the Paris Motor Show in September. (Photo: Kia Canada)

that looks to be a sure winner among the sport compact tuner crowd.

In North America the 2006 Rio will get a 1.6-liter gasoline powered four-cylinder that Kia only says "boasts additional torque and horsepower compared to its predecessor." The current Rio features a 104-horsepower 16-valve, DOHC 1.6 liter engine, with 104 lb-ft of torque.

Being that Kia is wholly owned by Hyundai, when its Spectra was upgraded for this year the automaker chose to adopt the general architecture and drivetrain from the next-generation Elantra, to cut costs through economies of scale and arrive at a higher quality product more capable of fighting it out in the competitive C-segment.