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Kia to launch four-door coupe next year

Kia has been toying for some time with the idea of building a sporty four-door model. But according to the latest reports from Seoul, the Korean automaker intends to stop showboating and finally put one into production. And it could come as early as next year. Reuters reports that the project known internally as CK will join Kia's lineup as its second rear-drive model, alongside the larger K900. Power would reportedly come in from engines displacing 2.0, 2.2, and 3.0 liters. The target would apparently be the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, but with a sportier, more youthful edge. That's something which Kia has been keen to capitalize on since the success of the Soul. It took similarly unconventional approaches with the new Sportage and the recent Telluride concept, but has not managed as of yet to transfer that youthful, unorthodox vibe to the lower-slung side of its lineup. With parent company Hyundai having recently launched the Genesis premium sub-brand, the sporty, young image could be left for Kia to pursue. Only time will tell if Toyota's abandonment of its Scion brand will leave room for Kia to swoop in, or if it'll be a dead end. Reuters anticipates the new Kia to launch in May 2017, with a targeted annual production of 60,000 vehicles worldwide. Expect some elements to carry over from recent four-door coupe concepts like the Novo (pictured) from last year and the GT concept of 2011. Reports have been circulating since then that the latter would reach production. Related Video:

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Kia recalls over 50k new Soul compacts over steering issue

Kia is recalling certain 2014 models of its adorable Soul due to a bad adhesive used in the steering system. According to the bulletin from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the "thread-locking adhesive" that attaches the plug between the pinion gear and steering gear assembly could come loose.
Should that happen, the condition could lead to a "loss of steering," which, of course increases the likelihood of a crash. The 51,641 affected cars were built between July 21, 2013 and January 17, 2014. There have been no reported accidents, let alone injuries or deaths due to this issue.
Kia is in the process of notifying owners of the affected vehicles as well as dealers in possession of the faulty Souls.