The ‘teasing’ is over – Kia has spilled the beans on its new three-door hatch.The Korean firm had previously released two taster pictures of the Pro_cee’d.

But now, we can bring you a full set, including one of the interior.Outside, a longer nose and reduced height give the hatch a much sleeker appearance than its five-door Cee’d brother.

There’s a shallower grille, new-look headlamps, a wider, lower bumper with a prominent lip spoiler, deeper air intake and updated foglights. In addition, a raked windscreen, longer doors, a steeply rising waistline and a tailgate spoiler set the car apart. Yet the Pro_cee’d is said to offer just as much versatility and practicality as the five-door. At 4,250mm long, Kia says it delivers class-leading passenger and load space, with generous legroom front and rear.The hatch’s front doors open wider for improved access, and the 60:40-split rear bench has been reworked so that the seatbacks can be folded flat without removing the head restraints. It’s offered with the same five-strong engine range as the Cee’d – all of which comply with Euro IV emissions regulations. There are three transmission options as well.As with the five-door and SW, it will come in a trio of spec choices.There’s also an optional Sports Pack, bringing 17-inch alloy wheels, stiffer dampers, special trim with ‘tyre track’ fabric and alloy pedals. The Pro_cee’d will make its public debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in two weeks’ time, before going on sale early next year.

A high-performance variant is also likely to be added to the line-up at a later date. An insider at Kia has revealed to Auto Express that instead of a turbo petrol engine, this model will probably have a revised version of the 2.0-litre diesel tuned to around 180bhp.

[Source: Autoexpress]

The all-new Kia cee’d family car has been awarded a 5-Star safety rating in the latest Euro NCAP crash test results published today. The cee’d safety ratings – 5-Stars for Adult Protection, 4-Stars for Child Protection and 2-Stars for Pedestrian Protection – place it among the C-segment’s safest cars.

“The latest Euro NCAP result is a major landmark achievement for Kia. The cee’d is designed, engineered and built in Europe, to meet or surpass the expectations of European consumers in every respect – including safety,” commented Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice President & COO, Kia Motors Corporation. “The combination of the car’s many talents, plus the 5-Star safety rating and the unique Kia 7-Year warranty, will make the cee’d even more attractive to European consumers, offering real peace-of-mind and low ownership costs.

“Kia’s safety engineers developed the new cee’d to provide the highest levels of occupant protection in real-world accident scenarios. Our engineers predicted that cee’d would achieve a Euro NCAP 5-Star rating and this result confirms the major advances made by Kia with its latest C-segment family car,” added Mr. Kim.

For cee’d, Kia engineers initially concentrated on ensuring that the car had high levels of ‘active safety’ with good visibility, responsive and agile handling, and powerful braking, to enable Kia drivers to avoid accidents and other everyday motoring hazards.

The cee’d family will be soon become complete, when the five door cee’d model will be complemented by the stylish cee’d wagon – in dealer showrooms from September, and the launch of the exciting new three-door pro_cee’d model at the Frankfurt Show.

According to Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President, Kia Motors Europe, “The cee’d is the first Kia product and the first Korean-brand car ever to be awarded the top rating by a European safety organisation. The introduction of the Kia cee’d has brought about a qualitative revolution for Kia, and together with our highly-productive factory in Slovakia, is beginning to change the way Kia is perceived by consumers. Most of the cee’d five-door buyers are new ‘conquest’ customers switching to the Kia brand for the first time and we expect the cee’d wagon and three-door pro_cee’d models will accelerate this trend.”

  kia-ceed_side.jpg    

Click image to enlarge or follow the link for more crash data:

EuroNcap test report (click here)

Kia Motors’ Cee’d has been awarded a five-star safety rating in the latest Euro-NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) crash test results, according to the South Korean automaker Wednesday.

Euro NCAP is greatly encouraged with the five star result achieved by the Kia Cee’d, as it is the first Kia and first Korean car to do so since Euro NCAP first tested this make of car in 2003!

Front impact
The passenger compartment remained stable during the impact. Structures in the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the knees and femurs of the driver and the passenger. The clutch pedal moved rearward more than 100mm, but there was no rupture of the footwell.

Side impact
The Cee’d scored maximum points in the side impact and pole tests

Child-protection
The car scored maximum points for the dynamic performance of the 3 year old dummy in the frontal and side impacts. The front passenger’s airbag can be disabled, allowing a rearward facing child restraint to be used in that seating position. However, information provided to the driver about the status of the airbag is not sufficiently clear. The label warning of the dangers of using a rearward facing child restraint in the passenger’s seat without first disabling the airbag was not clear and was not permanently visible. The presence of ISOFIX anchorages in the rear outboard seats was not clearly marked.

 Click image to enlarge!

[Source: EuroNCAP]

Longer, lower and lighter than its five-door sister car, the pro_cee’d brings more style and more sportiness to the C-segment in Europe.

“The new Kia pro_cee’d offers consumers sensationally stylish looks with a truly sporty feel to the driving experience, while also retaining most of the practicality and versatility of the popular cee’d five-door hatchback,” enthuses Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe. “With performance, ride and handling that is even more responsive, the pro_cee’d will attract European consumers who find three-door cars particularly appealing.”

The 4250 mm long pro_cee’d delivers class-leading passenger and luggage space. The cee’d family wheelbase (2650 mm) is retained, so despite its lowered, sporty appearance, pro_cee’d provides generous legroom front and rear, and luggage capacity with the rear seats upright matches the five-door model.

“With the pro_cee’d we have communicated sportiness mostly through the car’s exterior design,” explains Gregory Guillaume, Chief Designer Kia Motors Europe. “At the front, we have extended the nose by 10 mm and introduced a shallower grille, new-style headlamps, a wider, lower bumper with a prominent lip spoiler, a deeper central air intake and larger fog lights set in elliptical depressions.

“It is the side profile that makes pro_cee’d truly distinctive. The windscreen is much shallower and the vehicle height is reduced by 30 mm. The doors, which are 276 mm longer than the front doors of the five-door cee’d model, have a unique design with a more prominent swage line that highlights the sporty character of this model and a beltline that rises much more steeply towards the rear of the car.

“The side window, C-Pillar and tailgate spoiler are all new and although the rear screen is steeply raked, rear headroom remains good. Unlike other cee’d models, the exhaust tailpipe on the pro_cee’d is boldly displayed,” concludes Guillaume.

The larger pro_cee’d doors, with their extra-wide 70 degree openings, ensure good access to the rear seats. To boost practicality, Kia’s designers re-styled the rear seat cushion, which is now fixed, and re-engineered the 60/40 split backrest so that it is easy to release and simply folds down onto the cushion with no need to remove the headrestraints.

With pro_cee’d, Kia is offering customers the full choice of cee’d family powertrains – five Euro4 compliant engines, with power outputs covering a 90 ps to 143 ps range, and three transmissions – as offered in the five-door hatchback and wagon models.

Like its siblings, pro_cee’d will also be available with three equipment levels, LX, EX and TX, plus 12 exterior colours and a wide range of optional extras – so that each customer can create a ‘personalised’ vehicle to suit their needs and tastes.

The optional Sports Pack, which comprises 17-inch alloy wheels with 225/45 R17 tyres, stiffer dampers, sport-concept interior trim (with ‘tyre-track’ pattern fabric and silver stitching, plus alloy pedals and stainless-steel door-scuff plates) is expected to be a popular choice with pro_cee’d buyers.

Click on image to enlarge!

Find more about Pro_cee’d here:

http://www.kia-world.net/index.php/2007/08/06/kia-draws-attention-with-sporty-pro_ceed/

Let’s see what Autoexpress has to say about recently released Cee’d Sporty Wagon! This is their first opinion:

We’re big fans of the Cee’d. It’s a great-value family car – and a refreshing alternative to established models from Ford and Vauxhall. The estate has plenty of space, is well built and, hard ride aside, drives well. If you want a flexible load-lugger that’s cheap to run, add it to your list.

Click here to read an article: 

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/209778/kia_ceed.html

Kia Motors will launch a SUV model globally next year and this model will be introduced to the Chinese market late 2008, according to sources from the company.

The SUV MESA is based on the concept car KCD II MESA, which was launched in 2005. The KCD II MESA was designed and developed in the R&D centre of Kia Motors in California, the United States. This is a model specially designed for North American market.

The MESA will be powered by a 3.8 L V6 Lambda engine, which is equipped on the VERACUZ model, a SUV made by Hyundai Motors.

Korean brands seek to get beyond cheap, bland

Are Americans ready to pay a premium price for a Hyundai? Can they feel cool in a Kia? 

The two Korean automakers are planning their products to ensure the answers are yes. Hyundai wants more upmarket vehicles in its lineup. Its first effort – the Veracruz crossover, with a sticker price of just over $37,000 for a fully loaded version – went on sale in the spring, so it is too early to judge its success. The second vehicle will be a big, rear-drive, V-8-powered sedan due next summer that will carry a similar price. “We’ve got to make our brand a lot more powerful than inexpensive and long warranty,” says Steve Wilhite, COO of Hyundai Motor America.

Kia, on the other hand, has a design challenge. Its cars are bland, and it wants to be youthful and sporty.“Our next step will be breakthrough design,” says Len Hunt, COO of Kia Motors America. “We’ll get overtaken by the Chinese if we keep doing value and warranty.”In November 2004, Kia snared Tom Kearns from Cadillac, where he was on the team that designed the 2008 CTS sedan. In the fall of 2006, Kia landed Peter Schreyer from Volkswagen AG. Schreyer spent eight years designing Audis, including the TT sports coupe. “Kias don’t stand out when you see them approaching you on the road,” Schreyer says. “I want to give Kia more character.”While Hyundai and Kia are owned by Hyundai Motor, each brand likely will continue to do most of its vehicle development independently. A big exception is fuel cell echnology, on which they will work together.One project apparently has died at both brands. Neither Hyundai nor Kia is considering a pickup truck,” says a Kia company source. “A truck is absolutely off the radar screen.”Here are the 2008-11 model year vehicle plans for Kia.Rio: A freshening is slated for the 2009 model year; a hybrid may arrive for the 2010 model.

Soul: Kia’s new sporty small car goes on sale as a 2009 model. The five-seat, front-drive vehicle will have a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine. The Soul will be 159.3 inches long, the same length as the three-door Hyundai Accent hatchback.The car was designed at the Kia design center in California and will be produced in Korea, primarily for the United States. The Soul name came from two influences: It was introduced in Detroit, the home of Motown soul music, and Seoul is the capital of South Korea.

Spectra: No changes are planned for the near future. Optima: A redesign is planned for 2010 model year.

Amanti: Freshened for the 2007 model year. No changes are due in the near future. Rondo: New for the 2007 model year; no significant changes are planned. The small, five-door vehicle comes in five- and seven-seat configurations. Sportage: No major changes are planned.

Mesa: Kia’s first crack at a large SUV is tentatively scheduled to reach U.S. showrooms in the third quarter of 2008 as a 2009 model.Korean models will get a 250-hpV-6 diesel mated with a six-speed automatic transmission. While Kia has officially released information only on the Korean model, U.S. dealers expect to get a V-8 gasoline engine, Kia’s first in the United States.The new SUV is developed on a stretched version of the platform used by the Sorento. The Mesa will have three rows of seats, but it will be shorter than the Hyundai Veracruz.Sedona: Redesigned for the 2007 model year; no major changes are planned for the minivan.Sorento: A redesign is slated for the 2010 model year.

[Source: Automotive news]

How do you draw customers and car enthusiasts attention? First step; you show an attractive concept car to the world public. Second step; you produce that car with not many styling changes made on it. And that is just what Kia did! 

Today, Kia released their second preview image of it’s latest hatchback model named Pro_cee’d! This is the third model in Kia’s Cee’d line up, after the well recived five door hatchback and sporty wagon. The production three door Kia remains very close to the concept car shown in 2006.  As we look at the official pictures we can see that the new rear end shot reveals a sloping rear hatch and thick C pillar that meet a near vertical end. It gives a very clean and solid appearance to the Pro_cee’d.

“We are proud that the appearance of the Pro-cee’d production car remains so close to the concept we showed at the Paris Motor Show in 2006″ explains Gregory Guillaume, Chief Designer, at Kia Motors Europe! “The three-door Kia Pro-cee’d is such a comprehensive re-working of the Cee’d design theme that only the bonnet and the front wing panels are carried over from the five door model. All other exterior panels are new and exclusive to this car.”

“We wanted to make Pro-cee’d as ‘sporty’ as cee’d could possibly be, while still remaining a member of our cee’d family,” added Gregory.

The new Kia Pro-cee’d hatchback will make its World Premiere at September’s Frankfurt International Motor Show, held on 11th of September and will go on sale across Europe in early 2008.

Click here for larger images:

You can now watch Kia Picanto presentation video.

For those who might wonder why this little funky Picanto looks a bit different, KIA-WORLD wants yout to know that Picanto has just been facelifted for 2008 model year!

Enjoy!

“Longer, lower and lighter than its five-door sister car, the new Kia Pro-cee’d is going to be a great drive,” enthused Mr Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe.  “Combining real style and genuine practicality, our new three-door cee’d is sure to delight existing Kia customers and attract a new group of European consumers who have not yet considered our brand.”

Kia Motors Corporation recently released the first preview image of its exciting new Kia three-door hatchback model which will make its world debut at this year’s Frankfurt International Motor Show on 11th of September.

Manufactured in Slovakia, the Pro-cee’d will be the third member of the Kia cee’d family, joining the popular Cee’d five-door and the soon to be released Cee’d SW models to make Kia an especially strong challenger for C-segment sales in Europe.

Production of the Pro-cee’d model range is scheduled to begin in November with first customer sales during the early months of 2008.

Click here for larger picture

First Kia cee’d reviews with many great images appear on the web…

The very first cee’ds are already hitting European streets. The model has been on sale for a few months now and the demand is exceeding Kia’s expectations (which is good, isn’t it!?).

With days passing by we see more and more reviews coming in as well. Several publications have already published their very first impressions of the Kia’s new C-segment ride. The reviews seem very positive! It’s not just consumers that like the cee’d but also automobile magazines.

One of those reviews has just recently been published at the avtomoto portal from Slovenia. They had written a complete cee’d test drive report ans posted a number of really nice shots.

We are posting on of the images here, but you can find many more at the link posted below. Check it out and enjoy the pics!

UPDATE: Link has been excluded due to deleted source article at the avtomoto portal. Sprry for that.

Kia cee’d quote from  UK’s Autoexpress:

Previous Kias have been designed to be adequate, rather than class-leading. But the cee’d is an impressive compact family hatch. Inoffensive styling and a well built cabin aren’t all the cee’d has to offer – it has the dynamic abilities to challenge many rivals, too. Add in an unbeatable seven-year manufacturer’s warranty, and this is a Kia that will give rivals a run for their money.

To read the full article, head over to Autoexpress.co.uk and search Kia Cee’d CRDI.

First sales statistics reveal that Kia has a winner on its hands. The company received thousands of orders for the all-new cee’d hatchback since its launch. At the moment, Slovakian factory does not work at full capacity, but production will gradually expand during the coming months.

When fully operational, Kia’s first Euroean factory will be capable of producing as much as 300.000 new vehicles. Majority of the vehicles will belong to cee’d family, but the plant was designed to build at least two other models. It is very likely that Kia will move the production of Sportage SUV from Korea sometime by the end of 2009.

Back to Kia cee’d. The all-new cee’d features dynamic exterior design, which is attractive to European consumer’s tastes. Those looking forsportier versions of the cee’d will have to wait until Kia brings a hotter, 200-hp cee’d to the market. If you can’t wait for it, you can buy a sporty kit and fit it to the cee’d right now.

Incus XR body kit is available in most European countries and can be fited to the vehicle. The XR kit from INCUS includes a redesigned front bumper with more agressive air intake, as well as updated sporty grille. At rear, there’s an updated bumper with integrated tail-pipes (looks really attractive and sounds nice as well), while side of the car also features the “skirts”.

The cee’d XR also features redesigned alloy-wheels and XR badging in the grille!

Here are some images of the XR body kit, built by INCUS: