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Dancer who portrays Kia hamster accused of disability fraud

Tsk, tsk, dancing hamster. Kia's trio of anthropomorphic rodents may be down a member, as the actor that portrays one of the dancing hamsters has been arrested on charges of disability fraud. According to The Huffington Post, 27-year-old LeRoy Barnes accepted over $51,000 in disability payments following a workplace injury in 2010. While accepting the money, he's accused of performing under aliases, in addition to his costumed work for Kia. "Fraudulently collecting disability benefits is not only illegal, it disrespects legitimately injured Californians who are unable to work," Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in a release obtained by HuffPo. Barnes was arrested back in March and posted $50,000 in bail the following day.

Kia's brand perception still painfully lags behind reality

I can't tell you how many times I've been driving with friends or family in a decidedly nice Korean press car, only to have a passenger notice the logo on the steering wheel and exclaim, "Wait... this is a Kia?" For every time I roll my eyes at a story with a lede about how Hyundai "is really gaining momentum these days," I get equally annoyed when people comment on how Kia is finally starting to make decent cars. This is hardly news. The brand has been pumping out really solid stuff for a while now.
But as it turns out, not everyone knows that. According to Ward's Auto, speaking to Kia marketing chief Michael Sprague, the automaker recently placed third-to-last in a recent ALG Brand Perception of Quality study, only besting Suzuki and Smart. Wow.
Ward's notes that Kia recently earned a credible sixth place in J.D. Power & Associates' Initial Quality Study, and yet still fell way behind pretty much every other brand in the ALG study. The Korean automaker's cars have also won numerous awards in recent years, and have generally earned positive reviews from the media, Autoblog included.

2017 Kia Cadenza is a redesigned head scratcher

The second-generation Kia Cadenza has unexpectedly bowed at the 2016 New York Auto Show, and we're left wondering how this thing even survived to get a second generation. The Cadenza has been on sale since 2013 and it's never sold over 10,000 units in one year. Even if you combine US and Canadian sales, Kia's best year for the Cadenza was 2014, where it sold just 9,427 cars. So, what's Kia done to the second-gen car to improve on that disappointing stat? Perhaps the biggest change is the platform the Cadenza rides on. It's lighter and stiffer, which means it's probably going to be a far better dancer than the boat-like first-gen model. Cutting the weight also allowed Kia's engineers to fit more sound deadening, which alongside a sound-absorbing laminated windshield and front windows will likely lead to a quieter ride. Better handling and a quieter ride? Okay Kia, we're paying attention. The Cadenza's 3.3-liter V6 still sits under hood, but it's paired to an eight-speed automatic for the first time. That, alongside a new tune for the engine, should improve on the current Cadenza's 19-mile-per-gallon city and 28-mpg highway stats. Kia hasn't released an estimate of how much of an improvement it will be, but we suspect it'll be modest. Frankly, we're still a bit confused about why Kia is carrying on with the Cadenza. Its rivals sell in far higher volumes – in 2015, the Nissan Maxima sold over 40,000 units, the Buick LaCrosse did 42,000, and the Toyota Avalon did 60,000 – and two of those cars, the Maxima and LaCrosse, have just been fully and completely reworked. Then take into account America's increasing disdain for sedans/infatuation with crossovers, and Kia pushing through the second-gen Cadenza is just a puzzling move. Still, the visual updates, platform improvements, and powertrain changes are positive – will that be enough to turn around the Cadenza's struggling sales? We have no idea, but things can't get much worse.