Next month will be the big one for Kia Motors, as it prepares to take the wraps off the Soul and show it to the world-wide public for the first time.

We have already seen an assortment of spy shots of the camo-covered exterior of the Soul. Now we have our first peak at the interior. As the early spy shots proved, the production Soul interior will stay very close to the concept car.

Center stack console retained the shape, as well as did attractively designed, three spoke steering wheel and three gauge instrument cluster. The leather-wrapped steering wheel has a concept-like sporty look and features some controls on the left – possibly for cruise or audio control, and Kia emblem in the center.

There is one more thing that I noticed when I put the concept and production image, side by side. In the concept car, there is a pretty large speaker mounted at the top of center stack, that seems to be missing on production Soul. That part is still covered with some plastic vinyls, so it’s difficult to see if the speaker is still there! What do you say? [Source: GlobalMotors]

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I’m doing this mini survey to find out which color for Soul is preferred by our readers. As you know, the Soul will come in a rainbow of colors and you can choose which one you like the most. The survey refers to the post where I showed you 11 different colors that will be available on Kia Soul. Check it out here and then choose your favourite one. Let us help predict the most popular color choice. You can vote at the sidebar, below categories box.

Paul Willis quits Kia role and returns to Volkswagen: Former Volkswagen UK boss Paul Willis is leaving his current post as chief operating officer of Kia Motors Europe after barely nine months in the role. On October 1st,  he will take over responsibility as managing director of Volkswagen Group Ireland from Bob O’Callaghan, who is retiring.

Hyundai-Kia workers to launch partial strike: Unionised workers at Kia and Hyundai plan to stage partial strikes over a wage deal and working conditions on Thursday and Friday, if they fail to reach agreements with management… Read more.

Kia VG: Leftlane shows more images of the “nearly naked” VG sedan, which was caught recently, wearing less camouflage. They have a set of 7 images, worth to look at! Head over to their site to check on them…read more.

Rondo review:
The 2008 Kia Rondo may not be exciting, but it shines when it comes to utility. With good fuel economy and room for seven, it’s ideal for young families…read more.

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It has been a while since we last saw the spy shots of the small Kia MPV that was spotted several times before, but today, we have more images for you. This time, the lime green coated prototype was spied somewhere in France during some more testing sessions. Though the car is still wrapped in camouflage, some new elements, such as Kia’s new corporate grille and larger part of front bumper, have peeked out.

The online media reports suggest that the forthcoming “cee’d plus” mini MPV closely relates to cee’d hatchback, but sources close to Kia told us this is actually the Soul based minivan, built on Hyundai-Kia’s new, B-class, platform that will soon bring us several new small cars, including next generation Rio and Hyundai i20.

Set to go on sale in 2009, the “cee’d plus” will compete against Opel Meriva, Renault Modus, Nissan Note and Citroen’s yet to come C3 Picasso. No doubtly, we can expect to see a fierce battle for customers in the popular mini MPV market. [More images @ GlobalMotors]

These might not be the best quality spy shots we have ever seen, but still give us quite a good impression of the crossover’s interior layout. As much as we can see from the images, we can say that center console, gauges, steering wheel and other interior parts retained the shape that we have seen on Soul concepts at the auto show in Geneva.

The Soul model we see here lacks the metallic accents from Soul Burner or gold door handles spotted in Soul Diva. It’s also full of shiny plastic, that screams “cheap”, but you should know that this is a pre-production model and by the time Soul goes on sale, the interior will be fitted with higher grade materials.

Click image to enlarge!

Kia Soul color palette revealed…

When Kia released the first batch of official images of it’s new Soul crossover, we really missed a small detail on it’s front fascia. Most of us, Kia fans, were disappointed to see production Soul model not having the H-grille. But surprisingly, these latest images reveal that Kia decided to put it back on the Soul. We are not sure if the grille will come standard or optionally, as an accessory, but at least it’s there again! And it gives the Soul a lot more of character and makes it’s face much prettier to look at!

Buyers of the all-new Kia Soul will be able to select between several different colors. Some of them are definitely striking and surprisingly attractive. The eleven-color palette includes Green Tea Latte, Cocktail Orange, Java Brown, Tomato Red, Blue Stone, and Moonlight Blue. Other colors offered are Black Soul, Clear White, Titanium Silver,Vanilla Shake and Bright Silver.

You can see most of them below, in our Kia Soul gallery. We have been told that new color options will be added every six to twelve months, therefore you can expect to see some other funky coatings on the Soul in the future.

Koreans plan to officially unveil Kia Soul crossover at the 2008 Paris Auto Show in October. Production is due to start in South Korea in September. It will first go on sale in Europe and should arrive to the States by April next year. Pricing details are yet to be announced.

UPDATE: More Kia Soul images added, after the jump!

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This is the official press release in English, that Kia Motors released on Thursday, when Forte was revealed to the citizens of South Korea. In addition to the official text that provides some interesting info about the all-new Forte sedan, you can see some new images that were not included in our post from Friday, which featured the gallery of 28 official Forte images. Some of the photos (the first four) are taken from Korean Forte brochure.

Press release:

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s No. 2 carmaker, unveiled its new Forte compact sedan Thursday, hoping that the fuel-efficient car will help boost sales amid higher fuel prices.

The new model, which goes on sale next week, is the latest entrant to the country’s 1.6-liter vehicle segment and marks the automaker’s newest model after another 1.6-liter version of Cerato was released in November, 2003.

The Forte, equipped with a gasoline or diesel engine, will compete with the Avante by Hyundai Motor Co. the SM3 by Renault Samsung Motors Co. and the Lacetti by GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co.

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The 2010 Kia Sorento made an official debut today!

Kia intends to distinguish itself in the crowded automotive marketplace with distinctive and exciting designs of the new cars. First evidence of that, is the Soul crossover, which will be making it’s world premiere at the Paris Auto Show in October.

It was designed to defy classification and encourage customers to build an emotional bond with their new car by providing a creative platform that they can customize to match their own character. Several inside reports suggest that Kia will offer a variety of options, accessories and colors on the Soul. I have also been told that Kia team in Korea was working on vinyls and that the version of the dragon vinyls, as seen on images here, will be available.

Click image to enlarge!

This is a very cool video where Kia’s chief designer Peter Schreyer shows the all-new Forte from different points of view. He talks about the importance of the car design and explains the most exciting exterior and interior elements that were implemented on the car.

I have looked around on the web for some other videos and found a short video preview from launching ceremony. Hit the jump to watch it. (more…)

Kia Forte update: As you may already know, after the deluge of official and unofficial reports, Kia has finally debuted it’s all-new Forte sedan today. It seems like we have been waiting for this day to come forever, but it’s finally here, and at last, we can show you the car that has been eagerly awaited by many Kia fans around the world.

Kia Forte is a very important vehicle for Kia Motors Corporation. It was developed not only to succeed it’s best selling vehicle (Spectra/Cerato), but also to show the world that Kia is capable of building good, quality and attractive cars at the same time.

The costs of Kia Forte development exceeded $200 million and it took the company 29 months to to bring the car from the paper to the showrooms. This year, Kia plans to sell 20,000 units on it’s home market and export about 10,000 units.

The Forte will be exported to Eastern Europe, Asia and South America, as well as to Australia and USA. You can expect to see it at North American dealers in the first quarter of the 2009. Next year, Kia Motors hopes to more than double Forte sales numbers. The automaker plans to sell 50,000 units at home and export more than 200,000 units abroad.

The Forte has been fitted with 1.6-liter gasoline and 1,6 diesel engine. The gasoline engine puts out 121 brake horsepower, while the diesel engine packs a maximum output of 128 brake horsepower. Both engines outperform domestic competitors in terms of power and fuel consumption.The Forte will also be available with more powerful 2,0L engine that will be added to the range at a later date.

Kia Forte comes equipped with new features such as navigation system with voice recognition, smart key button ignition system and Bluetooth technology. In addition to the high technology features that are normally reserved for larger cars, the car comes equipped with complete safety fetures, such as side and curtain airbags, a VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) system and active headrests.

The price for the 2010 Kia Forte ranges from 11.9 million won (US$11,300) to 19.6 million won, depending on accessories and engine types.

For the beginning you can take a look at the gallery of 28 images, that leaked to the web a few hours prior Kia Forte made it’s official Korean debut. Later on, I hope I can provide a video preview of the ceremonial unveiling and even more official images to you.

Kia Forte gallery:

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This is a guest post, written by our daily reader JoshyLofty. He came across the facelifted version of Kia Sportage that was parked at the local mall. He grabbed his mobile phone with integrated camera and took some images for us.

I took some great pics today of a brand new Sportage LX AWD model this morning @ a local mall. I called the dealership I used to work at (Southwest Kia/Hyundai) and asked a friend of mine I worked with if they had any of the new bodystyles and she reported they’ve only seen pictures but not the actual car.

What else was weird was there was a lot of plastic on the interior you can see a little in the interior pic. I don’t know for sure if this was a tester or what because the car had no cladding or covers outside.

The rear end definitely had the new rear, a slightly changed & sculpted bumper and taillights were the imediate giveaways. The tails had a while backup and turn signal with the turn signal sporting an orange bulb. The front looked VERY much like the Rondo in person and had a more rounded front reminiscent of the Spied Sorentos and Rondos alike.

Another interesting tidbit was the sunroof. It had a LARGE sunroof rather than the older small ones. It wasn’t a “skylight” sunroof but more of something found in the latest model BMW X5 and Mitsubishi Montero Limiteds.

The interior was slightly changed and I noticed a first in the Sportage. “Infinity” was written on the stereo along with “MP3, MDA, & 6DISC”. I also counted 9 speakers with one being a subwoofer in the rear. The windows, however, were too dark to get a good picture. The dash looked the same with minor changes (I used to own a Sportage so i noticed this right away) to shape and material looked of higher quality. This car did not have leather.

Related link: Find more information and some great official images of the 2009 Kia Sportage here.