Archive for Koreans

Kia has added the Peter Schreyer grille to the Kia cee’d facelift, and here we are shown some initial glimpses of both the normal hatchback model and the wagon model. The grille looks a little out of place on the cee’d in my opinion, as it is very angular and works well on angular cars like the Forte and the new Sorento, but not very suitable for a more curvy car like the cee’d. The new bumpers make the new facelifted cee’d about 25mm longer but no changes to wheelbase. Kia says there are also some changes on the interior such as all-red instrumentation lighting as well as new suspension settings. The facelift range will also debut a new variant with automatic start-stop for the 1.6 diesel under the new ECO-dynamics label. The new U2 family 1.6 liter turbodiesel will get a new 6-speed manual. Look after the jump for more photos of the new facelifted cee’d.

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Hyundai has updated the Hyundai Grand Starex with a new front grille that features a slatted design rather than the original Starex’s mesh grille with a chrome surround and a chrome bar going through it. The new model is called the Hyundai Grand Starex Royale. The wing mirrors are also now body-coloured instead of black, and now feature signal indicators on them.

One of the gripes that we had in our Grand Starex review was also the absence of a rear windscreen wiper – this has now been added onto the Grand Starex Royale. On the interior there is a new Pioneer touch screen LCD DVD player that is linked to a 7 inch LCD screen located at the middle top of the MPV for rear passenger enertainment purposes.

For more details on whether the Grand Starex is a worthy addition to your fleet of vehicles especially if you have a growing family (the Starex has a total of 11 seats with seatbelts – that’s alot of people!), check our our test drive review of the Grand Starex. Or look after the jump for more photos of the updated Hyundai Grand Starex Royale. It’s priced at RM148,888 OTR in West Malaysia and RM153,997.50 OTR in East Malaysia. Four colours are available – Crystal White, Stone Black, Sleek Silver and Carbon Grey.

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These are the initial batch of 3 images of the new Kia large sedan codenamed “VG”, which will replace the Opirus/Amanti. I’ve actually seen the Amanti around KL before, probably driven by some Korean expatriates. It’s somewhat like Kia’s take on the now discontinued Jaguar S-Type, meant to look large and stately. Before you argue that these kind of cars don’t fit well in Kia’s image, they are all over the roads in South Korea. The people there tend to buy Korean cars exclusively from the low end to the higher ends of the model segments.

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One of the first Hyundai cars to feature the new i naming scheme is now in Malaysia, but it is not the first i car in Malaysia, as that honour has gone to the i10.

The Hyundai i30 is a C-segment contender designed by their European center for the European market, but that has not stopped it from offering it elsewhere unlike the Kia cee’d’s European exclusivity. The i30 shares the same platform as cars like the cee’d and the upcoming Forte. Proof of that is the fact that the i30 is now here in Malaysia and the wagon version is even in the US, called the Hyundai Elantra Touring.

Three variants are sold here, and the good news for manual fans is that there’s a manual version for the 1.6 liter. The following are the prices of the Hyundai i30 variants here in Malaysia:

• Hyundai i30 1.6 (M) – RM92,388.00
• Hyundai i30 1.6 (A) – RM97,888.00
• Hyundai i30 2.0 (A) – RM112,888.00

The 1.6 liter engine makes 121 PS at 6,200rpm and 154Nm of torque at 4,200rpm, while the larger 2.0 liter unit makes 143 PS at 6,000rpm and 186Nm at 4,600rpm. The 2.0 liter engine is the same as the one in the Elantra/Avante, and not of the GEMA series found in the Sonata.

The 5-speed manual 1.6 gets 15 inch wheels with 185/65R15 tyres, the 1.6 auto goes up one inch with 205/55R16 tyres while the 2.0 auto gets 17 inch wheels with 225/45R17 tyres for a sportier stance. The car rides on a 2,650mm wheelbase chassis (the i30 wagon/Elantra Touring has an extended wheelbase of 2,700mm) with MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link suspension setup at the rear.

In terms of safety features, all cars get 2 SRS airbags at the front as well as ABS brakes, and good news is that the 2.0 liter automatic gets ESP stability control. Another safety feature for your wallet – a 5 year or 300,000km warranty.

Hyundai is offering 1.99% loans for 5 year tenures, and this also applies to the rest of the Hyundai range except the Starex. Speaking of the rest of the Hyundai range, it looks like the Elantra has been renamed the Avante in the new Hyundai-Sime Darby line-up.

This probably happened when the Hyundai franchise was unified here in Malaysia – there are no longer two separate companies selling different Hyundai models, only the Sime Darby unit. The i30 will be in showrooms August onwards. If you like the car and are already thinking of how to pimp it up once you’ve bought one, here’s some inspiration.

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Kia has updated both the sedan and hatchback versions of the Kia Rio in Korea, where it is called the Kia Pride. The front end is much more sportier now thanks to the Forte-like front bumper and it also gets the new Schreyer grille, a common feature on all new Kias all the way from the smallest Kia Morning (Picanto) up to the large Sorento. The interior has also been modernized and now features red backlighting.

The Rio/Pride is Kia’s B-segment compact car, which is basically their version of the Hyundai Accent. Under the hood is a choice of either a 1.4 liter DOHC engine, a 1.6 liter CVVT engine or a 1.5 liter diesel engine with a variable geometry turbocharger. In Malaysia, only the 1.4 liter hatchback is sold.

Look after the jump for a full gallery of the facelift.

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Kia has revealed the first image of the new Kia cee’d, Kia’s European hatchback offering that has been so instrumental in changing the South Korean brand’s image in the eyes of the European customer. Kia Motors (UK) managing director Paul Philpott commented proudly that the cee’d is the one of the first Kias that customers have bought based on emotional reasons rather than practical. It’s not that it’s cheap, customers actually desired it! The cee’d platform also underpins the new Kia Forte sedan and coupe that will be making its way to Malaysian shores through Naza KIa. Full details on the cee’d will be revealed later this year at Frankfurt 2009, alongside two all-new Kia models.

Here’s another version of the Kia Forte Koup promotional clip that was published on this blog earlier this week. This time you get to see two Koups in action – one red and one blue. The previous 30 second promo clip actually used snippets of footage from this one. This one is actually longer, clocking in at over 1 and a half minutes.

Watch the video after the jump.

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The first images of Hyundai’s mid-life refreshing of the Hyundai Santa Fe has been revealed, and it looks like the odd grille that first appeared on the facelifted “angry crab” Accent/Verna Transform will be making its way onto many other Hyundai models. The most significant change is under the hood, where the new R-Engine turbodiesel engine family will be installed. The 2.0 and 2.2 liter engines have an all-aluminium construction and produce 184PS/392Nm and 200PS/436Nm respectively. These are pretty strong numbers for turbodiesel engines of these size, especially with only a single turbocharger. More details and pix to be revealed as they are released.

The Kia Morning receives another update after it was first updated in 2007 since its launch. The Morning is the car’s Korean market name, in Malaysia we used to know it as the Kia Picanto, and then later the Naza Suria. In fact the Suria name was penned based on the car’s original Morning name.

The 2007 facelift still retains the new headlamps that were introduced back then, but this time there are minor changes with the front grille, and a complely new front bumper with a blacked out lower section. But wait, this is just one of the two new looks that this 2010 facelift brings!

The other look is reserved for the “Special” trim level, which includes a Schreyer grille, and a different design for the front bumper. On the interior, both models get their dash and various other lighting changed from orange to red.

In its homeland of South Korea, the Morning is powered by 1.0 liter engines, either running on gasoline (72hp up from 64hp on the 2007 model), or a LPI natural gas version producing 67 horsepower. Both models have an ECO light on the dashboard to help you drive more economically by letting you know when you are driving in a fuel sipping manner.

Look after the jump for a full photo gallery of both exterior, interior and launch pix of the new 2010 Kia Morning.

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Kia has released a new TVC for its new Kia Forte Koup. The Koup still looks as good as ever, who would have ever imagined a Korean car could ever look so desirable? The Koup looked pretty darn good in silver when I test drove it in South Korea, but here in this ad it looks even better in red. Though catchy, I didn’t really understand what the ad was trying to say until the end, then it made sense to me. Two is enough, haha.

Watch the video after the jump.

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