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A closer look at the Kia GT4 Stinger Concept

When we named the Kia GT4 Stinger Concept as our top debut at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, our comments section had, let's call it, a tantrum. People were not pleased. Debuting alongside hugely significant production cars like the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Ford Mustang, Ford F-150, Lexus RC F, BMW M3/M4 and Chrysler 200 (not to mention great concepts like the Toyota FT-1, Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge and Volvo Concept XC Coupe), what business did a tiny, turbocharged, rear-drive Kia concept car have winning the prize as the best of Detroit?
Well, as it turns out, it has every right to be there. Our own Michael Harley sat down with the head of US design for Kia, Tom Kearn, to discuss the GT4 Stinger and find out just what the brand was thinking when it decided to create such an enthusiast-oriented concept. The interview gives a great insight into the car and its design, while Harley goes into some detail at the end of the video about why the GT4 was the Autoblog Editors' Choice of the 2014 Detroit Auto Show.
Scroll down to watch the full interview.

Kia's second Super Bowl commercial lets booth professionals have their revenge

This is more like it, Kia. After last year's highly successful Adriana Lima-infused Super Bowl commercial for the Optima, we weren't that impressed with this year's Super Bowl ad for the new Sorento called Space Babies that Kia showed us earlier in the week. Its second spot for this year's big game, however, gave us a chuckle.
Called Hotbots and starring Miss USA Alyssa Campanella as a futuristic robot, the ad plays out a fantasy that we know for certain has crossed the minds of many booth professionals. These are the attractive set of women and men who plant themselves next to new cars at auto shows. More than just eye candy, they're usually extremely well educated on the product's specs and features. Despite that fact, they have to put up with constant oogling and questions like, "Do you come with the car?" What this T-1000 won't put up with is fingerprints on her shiny new 2014 Kia Forte, and she does something about it. Watch for yourself below.

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.