2014 Kia Sorento Lx on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Kia Cadenza First Drive

"Garbanzo? Costanza? Credenza?" I can't tell if the guy at the bakery is trying to be funny or if he's genuinely forgetting the name of the car – I've told him twice; it's the 2017 Kia Cadenza. But you know, maybe the miscommunication is just fine. Like the Cadenza itself. It's fine. You shouldn't read that negatively. Every now and then in this job, you drive a car and simply come away thinking, "it was fine." And if you're building a car in this particular segment, that's practically the response you hope to elicit. A comfortable jack-of-all-trades at a price that isn't going to bankrupt the owner. Consider the Cadenza's competition: Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima, Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse. These aren't groundbreaking luxury vehicles, masters of utility or fuel economy, or Nurburgring-smashing sports sedans; they're... fine. You almost feel bad saying it – from a very reasonable angle it's a great segment, populated with cars offering a lot of the same equipment and a little more bang for the buck than a full-on luxury sedan, and tending to be roomier, too. And yet it's that dilution of dedicated purpose that keeps these models stagnant in showrooms compared to the more luxurious – and certainly to the more economical. It's hard to raise an eyebrow here. So it goes with the Cadenza. Despite looking a heck of a lot like the previous car, the new Cadenza has been reworked significantly – the use of high-strength steel has doubled, to over 50 percent; the use of hot-stamped steel has tripled; the doors are 16 percent more dent-resistant; the chassis has 35 percent greater torsional rigidity; there's a new subframe (similar to that of the Optima); the front windows are now laminated and there's 13 percent more sound insulation in the A-pillars; there's a full underbody cover and wheel air curtains; it has a new eight-speed transmission – developed in-house; there are 40 fewer pounds of unsprung weight thanks to aluminum parts; the brakes are bigger; and there's a bevy of upscale tech features – but we lost you halfway through that paragraph. The styling is a little sharper than the outgoing model's – it's not going to blow your pants off, but it's hardly a bad-looking car. The updated design features Kia's now-trademark quad-LED setup within the lower front grilles, and the main grille is a concave affair – base models get a "Diamond Butterfly" insert you know from other Kia models, and higher-end Cadenzas get "Intaglio" vertical slats.

Hyundai, Kia want to improve fuel economy by 25 percent

Hyundai and sister company Kia are giving themselves a little bit of time to make up a lot of ground in the fight for better fuel economy. We wonder if a recent multi-million fine might have something to do with this public target. The connected South Korean companies are vowing to increase their fleetwide fuel economy by 25 percent by 2020, Reuters reports. This will be done by further advancing their powertrains, looking at other ways to reduce weight, upgrading diesel engines and improving transmissions. That will all take money, but Kia and Hyundai will have $300 million less to invest thanks to a recent fine of more than $300 million from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for incorrect fuel economy numbers on around 1.2 million vehicles from the 2011-2013 model years. The civil penalties – $100 million of the total – are the largest in EPA history. In late 2012, Hyundai and Kia admitted to overstating the fuel economy of a number of models and said they'd change the official MPG figures and compensate owners. Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford confirmed to AutoblogGreen that the company set the dramatic fuel-economy improvement targets. In the US, where Hyundai and Kia are operated as separate entities, Hyundai "remains committed to meeting the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirements that have been set out by the US government," Hosford said The EPA recently released a report on fuel-economy and put Hyundai fourth in overall fleetwide fuel economy in the US among vehicle makers for the 2014 model year. The top three were Mazda, Honda and Subaru.

Kia confirms Cub "four-door coupe" concept for Seoul

Kia has announced it is headed to the Seoul Motor Show with a new sedan concept. Details are still scarce, but the Kia CUB Concept should be small, at under 13 feet long and come with coupe-like proportions. Kia wants the vehicle to "appeal to trend-setting urban dwellers," a notoriously car-hungry market. The automaker says the Cub has a cheerful face decorated with two-point LED headlamps just like those found on the Quoris flagship, but the teaser image above looks a bit more sinister than happy to us. Kia plans to give the Cub a proper unveiling on March 28.
Hyundai has also given us a glimpse at what the company has planned for Seoul with its HND-9 luxury sports coupe. You can refresh yourself on that machine by checking out the post here. You can also take a closer look at the brief press release below.