2002 Kia Sportage Base Sport Utility 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Kia teases B-segment concept headed to Frankfurt

It's not uncommon to see an automaker go a little outside of its comfort zone when creating a concept car, but Kia seems to be going all out for a new small concept it plans to unveil at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Although there is not much information to go on about this unnamed concept, Kia does say that it "hints at a possible future B-segment contender."
With headlights that would look at home on a C7 Corvette or Jaguar F-Type and door cut lines reminiscent of a Ford GT, we can only imagine how sporty this car will look in the flesh. The wide door openings also give a good glimpse inside the car revealing details deep, flat-bottomed steering wheel with paddle shifters and the peculiar rotary-style shifter, but our attention is on the instrument panel switches. If you look closely, the second switch from the left seems to be for a center differential possibly hinting at a future sporty all-wheel-drive Kia. Yes, please! Scroll down for the brief press release on the car, and stay tuned for more info as we'll be on hand covering the show next month.

Kia plies SEMA attendees with beer and ice cream food trucks

Kia's 2014 SEMA Show theme is "A Day At The Races," and in addition to a very powerful K900 luxury sedan, the company has revealed several vehicles that would make any day at the track more comfortable - and tasty.
The Ballast Point Sedona is a complete about-face for Kia's minivan, turning the family hauler into a beer truck for infield parties. As the name implies, the Sedona features beer on tap from the Ballast Point, a San Diego-based craft brewery. The vehicle also has restaurant-grade stainless steel counters, extra space for kegs and audio speakers integrated into the roof.
After seeing this Sedona, we actually now kinda like the idea of a minivan-based truck model. Are we nuts?

Provo concept name has Kia embroiled in terrorism controversy?

In the relatively lengthy press release that Kia composed for the launch of its Provo concept car at the Geneva Motor Show this week, the company never mentioned where the name came from, or what it means for the car. A very basic web search for "Provo" reveals that the inspiration for the hatch could have been a city in Utah, a township in South Dakota or a village in Bosnia. The name could be a reference to either an American (Fred) or Canadian (Dwayne) football player, and Provo might also accurately reference a "Dutch counterculture movement in the mid-1960s" or a ship in the US Navy. More likely than any of those, however, is that the Kia designers of the concept - a car that was wholly a product of the Korean automaker's design studios in Frankfurt, for the record - meant it as a play on the existing Pro_cee'd hatchback.
What the designers and Kia executives that signed off on the Provo almost certainly did not have in mind was a reference to a street name for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. That "Provo" was, according to TheDetroitBureau.com, an outlawed army faction that was blamed for some 2,000 deaths in Northern Ireland during a period stretching from 1970 to 1997.
And yet, it was that association that led Gregory Campbell, a member of parliament from Northern Ireland, to introduce legislation that would ban Kia from selling a car under the name Provo. Kia, quick to realize the sizable gaffe it has stumbled into with the name, has reportedly already promised not to use the name for a production vehicle.