Rumour Mill: Some analyst predicts Kia not long for this world.

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Kia Motors Corp. is one of the two car brands of Hyundai of South Korea. It has always been a marginal brand. Its stable mate, Hyundai USA, has a reputation for high quality cars like the Sonata and Genesis. Kia sells "low rent" cars and SUV nameplates like the Sorento and Rio. As GM and Ford (NYSE: F - News) have already discovered, it is expensive to maintain multiple brands and storied car names, including Pontiac, Saturn and Mercury, are disappearing. Most Kia cars sell for $14,000 to $25,000. Hyundai has several cars in the same price range. Hyundai's Sonata has quickly become one of the best-selling cars in America, and its Genesis flagship model competes with mid-sized BMWs and Mercedes. The parent company will take a page from several other global car companies and dump its weakest brand.

On the other hand, Hyundai is also announcing a fairly large amount of new product for Kia and is trying to position them as some sort of cool Hyundai. The entire reason this guy has for Kia being cut seems to be that well, Pontiac, Saturn and Mercury were, so Hyundai is totally going to do it too, because it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Sauce.
 
This is just stupid. It's written as though Kia just makes 2 crappy cars.

Bravo, very good journalism.
 
I disagree. Kia is a huge volume seller.
 
well, I predict that some analyst makes more money than me for absolutely no reason. or wanted exactly whats happening with this article to happen (it gets posted all over the internet so a bunch of car enthusiasts read the parts of the article that potentially make sense while arguing over the obviously fake predictions, like the kia one)
 
Kias are all over the place around here, I don't see them going anywhere.
 
we could ask paul the octopussy whether kia is to stay or not. :)
 
I think the most interesting thing is he really doesn't seem to understand why Pontiac, Saturn and Mercury were canned, and why Hyundai isn't in the same situation. He also doesn't understand that having Kia as a "low rent" budget brand is actually going to be an asset if Hyundai keeps inching upmarket.
 
I've always thought that Hyundai should become the the luxury brand, and Kia the cheap car. Like the Lexus/Toyota setup.
 
Kia is definitely not going anywhere. I see way too many sold to see that happen.
 
What? Nooo! They are finally releasing half-way decent, vehicles and improving! I liked the look of the Cadenza, and a Rondo suprised me by how suprisingly un-shit the car was. I mean, it was no Golf, but still...it wasn't an Aveo, either.
 
What? Nooo! They are finally releasing half-way decent, vehicles and improving! I liked the look of the Cadenza, and a Rondo suprised me by how suprisingly un-shit the car was. I mean, it was no Golf, but still...it wasn't an Aveo, either.

Remember, it's some analyst talking out of his ass.

I posted it to make fun of him.
 
I've always thought that Hyundai should become the the luxury brand, and Kia the cheap car. Like the Lexus/Toyota setup.

Problem is (over here at least) that Hyundai still holds the "budget Korean car" image, and is directly competing with Kia for the buy of those who just want a car that can get them from A to B. So in Aus at least, they are hurting each other

(we only get the i30, Getz, Santa Fe, etc style cars over here- pretty sure the Genesis has never been released, but I may be wrong. Either way I don't like Kia/Hyundai, but they are pretty popular still around here)
 
Hack journalism at its best I say.
 
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