2011 Kia Optima Sx Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Kia slices K900 pricing amidst slow sales

Kia is learning the same hard lesson that Volkswagen learned so many years ago – it's not easy for a volume brand to sell a luxury car. The K900 luxury sedan has suffered through slow sales, moving just over 1,300 vehicles last year, and now the South Korean company is trimming the cost of entry to entice consumers. A new K900 Premium lowers the sedan's price by $5,000, from $59,500 to $54,500, not including a $900 destination charge, Motor Authority reports. While the price is lower, previously standard items, such as LED headlights, Nappa leather and a 17-speaker Lexicon stereo have been packaged as part of a new Luxury trim, which will maintain the original starting price. The two-tier scheme will force consumers to make a new decision about their K900, but that won't extend to the brute under the hood. A 5.0-liter V8 remains a standard item, making even the K900 Premium a tempting option for anyone that values straight-line thrust in a comfortable package. What are your thoughts? Is Kia merely rearranging the deck chairs on a sedan-shaped Titanic, or do you think trimming the price will do some good for the slow-selling K900? The new price is already reflected on Kia's consumer website, so head over, mess about and then come back and have your say about the move in Comments.

Kia using quality and technology to increase sales and brand prestige

Kia is a long way from hawking the anonymous lozenge known as the Sephia on our shores. That was only 1994, though, and in less than 20 years the company has gone from judging its aspirations against Japanese budget competition to walking auto show floors checking out the German standard-bearers for tips on how to increase sales and brand prestige. In an interview with Automotive News, Kia executives laid out their plan for carving out a Volkswagen-like niche for the company whereby they could be viewed as the premium pick in a volume segment. Concepts like the Kia Cub, above, would seem to point in this direction.
Kia is keen to make sure its sales targets don't impinge on its quest for better and better quality.
Kia's prime directive is "an unrelenting focus on quality." The Japanese brands earned a reputation for bulletproof reliability, and Kia is keen to make sure its sales targets don't impinge on its quest for better and better quality - neither in-house nor for its suppliers, a trade-off we've seen go wrong before. It has a Pilot Center that studies each new model for potential production problems before being given the approval for manufacture, and it isn't until the quality control department gives the okay that manufacture can begin.

Hyundai and Kia introduce new predictive transmission tech

Hyundai and Kia have announced that the two have developed a new transmission control system that optimizes shift logic to both improve efficiency and reduce "gear hunting." The system utilizes real-time traffic data, built-in 3D navigation and the same sensors that feed the cars' advanced safety and driver assist tech to proactively choose the right gear — even neutral in some cases — to reduce both fuel consumption and wear-and-tear. The Korean sister brands call it the "Information Communication Technology Connected Shift System," or "ICT" for short, and Hyundai says it delivers not just improved frugality, but a better all-around driving experience. ICT programming allows the transmission control unit to collect and interpret traffic, camera, sensor, navigation route, elevation and topographical data.  "Using all of these inputs, the TCU predicts the optimal shift scenario for real-time driving situations through an artificial intelligence algorithm and shifts the gears accordingly," the announcement said. "For example, when a relatively long slow down is expected and radar detects no speed irregularities with the car ahead, the transmission clutch temporarily switches to neutral mode to improve fuel efficiency." While this sounds like a primarily green play, there are quality-of-life improvements too. For example, ICT can also optimize gear selection and shift points for safer highway merges, effectively implementing the equivalent of a "Sport Mode" driving profile when a little extra punch is called for.  Hyundai says the resulting decrease in shifts was significant; in some test scenarios, such as roads with lots of curves, the number of shifts executed by the transmission was reduced by almost half. As an added bonus, these vehicles also utilized their brakes less often (11%), which would reduce wear (and accompanying maintenance costs) over time.  ICT is somewhat future-proof, too, as it was developed to incorporate vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) data should such networks improve down the line.  The announcement did not say when the new tech would reach customers, committing only to introducing the technology "on future vehicles." If we're betting, the smart money says it will probably on a new Genesis model and trickle down from there. Related Video: