Kia Motors America has announced official pricing information for it’s highly anticipated Soul crossover yesterday. Due to hit the Kia showrooms across the USA by March this year, the Soul will be available in four different trims: Soul, Soul+, Soul! (exclaim) and Soul Sport with starting price at around $14,000 for the entry level 2010 Kia Soul.

Official Kia Soul pricing information:

Kia Motors America, Inc. (KMA) today announced pricing for the all-new highly anticipated Kia Soul will begin at $13,300*. Even with the $695 freight charge included, Soul’s price tag of $13,995 is still under the $14K mark. And with all boxes checked on the highest trim level Soul sport, the vehicle will still come in below $20,000.

Recently debuted at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, Soul will join the C-segment as an early 2010 model year vehicle and allow buyers the chance to truly personalize their vehicle with more packaging and styling combinations than any previous Kia model.

The 2010 Soul will be available in four trims: Soul, Soul+, Soul! (exclaim) and Soul sport. Soul+, which includes standard keyless entry remote, solar glass and 16-inch alloy wheels, will start at $14,9501 and top out at $17,100 when options including the Audio Package and power moonroof are included.

Enhancing to the Soul! will add the power moonroof, fog lights and 18-inch alloy wheels and will be priced beginning at $16,9501 and peak at $17,900 with all available options included. The Soul sport, designed for those with active lifestyles, will include side sills, a rear spoiler, 18-inch alloy wheels and unique front and rear fascias, and will start at $16,9501 and end at $18,600 with all available options included.

*Starting at MSRP excludes freight, taxes, title, license, options and dealer charges. Actual prices set by retailer. [Source: Kia Motors America]

         

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As we all know, Kia will unveil an all new, Soul based, concept car at the 2009 North American International Auto Show. Kia’s press conference and concept’s official unveiling are scheduled for January 11th at 2:20-2:45 pm.

So far, the company has not revealed us much of information on it’s secret show-stopper, but we have been informed that the concept will be wearing the Soulster nomenclature and it will demonstrate the flexibility of the original Soul design.

In addition, Kia has also released a pair of Soulster teaser images. None of them has revealed us much of the exterior design, but both hint at something that’s more “fun to drive” than original Kia Soul. Let it be a two door Soul coupe or a soft-top Kia Soul, this concept seems to be attractive and should gain a lot of attention among the visitors of Kia stand in Detroit.

What I wanted to show you today, is the first rendering of Kia Soulster. Made of two teaser shots put together, the final picture gives us a great first-look at the Soulster concept car. I’m not saying that this is how the final shape will look like, but it can’t be far away from that, right?

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UPDATE: 11 high quality Kia Soulster concept car images released today!! Click here

Kia Motors America has released the second teaser image, which previews the upcoming Soul based concept car. The Kia Soulster concept is due to be displayed at the upcoming North American International Auto Show.

The Soulster concept car foretells a possible two-door Soul variant with topless rear-hatch-end. The name Soulster is a derivate of two words: Soul + roadster; so judging by the concept’s name, there is a great chance that indeed, we are looking at the two-door Soul variant with removable soft-top.

This is the second teaser shot released by Kia in the last fourteen days and since it doesn’t reveals us much of the overall concept’s shape (and keeps us guessing how the actual concept car’s going to look like), we think that there will be another teaser image released before Kia Soulster concept makes it’s official public unveiling. [Source: Kia]

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2010 Kia YN spy shots

New series of Kia spy shots have surfaced to the web today and they preview an eagerly awaited mini-MPV from Kia, which is expected to make it’s European public debut as a concept vehicle at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, opening it’s doors in March.

The test mule seen on the spy shots is heavily disguised and it reveals less details than YN prototype we have seen here a few weeks ago. These picture do however showcase the YN’s design will speak a completely different design language than the similar-sized Kia Soul.

The Soul has a box-like exterior design, while the YN features more rounded body shape and softer lines. At quick glance, the YN looks like a cross between Fiat 500 and Toyota Yaris.

Kia has yet to provide concrete details, but production ready Kia YN is expected to bow later in the year with it’s official debut rumoured to happen at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The YN mini-MPV will be powered by the same range of diesel and gasoline engines as one can find in Kia’s recently launched Kia Soul crossover.

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Kia Motors America announced it’s sales for the month of December. As expected, sales has gone down sharply and the numbers are not that pretty. Last month, sales at Kia has been down 39 percent from a year earlier.

In December 2008, Kia sold 14,644 vehicles, down from 24,016 units sold in 2007. Kia’s 39 percent decline shows that company’s popular fuel-efficient models were little help as consumers steered clear of showrooms due to the dismal economy.

December sales were led by Sorento posting an 88.7-percent increase over the same period last year with sales topping at 3,087 units. Sorento was also the only Kia that improved it’s sales over the previous December (2007). Sorento was followed by Spectra and Sportage SUV with sales of 2,720 and 2,182 respectively.

Kia Motors America also reported a 2008 sales volume of 273,397 vehicles, down 10,5 percent, compared to 305,473 vehicles in 2007.

Click here for the latest Kia sales reports!

Kia Motors has launched the 2009 Model Year Forte sedan in South Korea last Friday. Since the model is fairly new and has been on sale since June of last year, the 2009 Forte has not received any exterior or interior upgrades.

However, Kia announced it has upgraded the engine software and applied the Forte with an eco-driving system -eco lamp on the dashboard that guides the driver to drive in the most economical way- to improve it’s fuel efficiency. The ECO lamp was successfully aplied to the Lotze Innovation last year.

Kia Forte now provides higher fuel economy, which now comes in at 15.2 kilometers per liter, a 7.8 percent improvement over the 14.1 kilometers per liter fuel economy of the earlier version. This makes the 2009 Forte the first compact car in Korea to achieve the fuel economy rating which enables it to travel more than 15 kilometers on a liter of fuel.

Since it’s official Korean launch, Forte has been recognized as the most fuel efficient car in the compact car segment and that has also been one of the reasons for a relatively good sales in the past year. During the first six months, more than 17,600 Fortes were sold in Korea.

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