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The Kia Rio has never looked this good

The word "Rio" immediately conjures images of the Olympics, which ended just days ago. But recalibrate your brain. It's Kia's best-selling model around the world and it will be revealed in September at the Paris Motor Show. The fourth-generation Rio gets a fresh look inside and out. It has a longer wheelbase with a longer hood and front overhang, which Kia says is meant to convey confidence. The sketches released today look similar to the current generation – as we'd expect – but Kia designers dressed it up with a fancier front end and "straight lines and smooth surfacing" which is evident on the sides. Kia also touts the new Rio's safety, connectivity, and improved handling, though it didn't specify the features. You can compare the sketches with the spy shots of a Rio caught running around this week. Rumors also suggest a hotter Rio GT hatch could arrive for 2018. The sketches show the hatchback variant. Kia also sells the Rio as a sedan in the US market. Globally, the Korean automaker moved more than 473,000 Rios last year, and the new model will launch production near the end of this year for Europe. Timing for launches in other markets was not announced. Despite low fuel prices and consumer demand for crossovers, Rio sales have inched up slightly this year to 18,699 units, 1,637 ahead of last year's pace through July. Much of those gains came last month, when Kia sold 1,104 more Rios than it did in July 2015. The Rio was last updated in the US market for the 2016 model year. Related Video:

Kia Cee'd GT and Pro_cee'd GT are Korean for "hot hatch" [w/video]

Kia has pulled back the curtain on its sportiest offerings to date at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. The Cee'd GT and Pro_cee'd GT benefit from a direct-injection, turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine good for 204 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers are up 51 percent and 61 percent over the models' base engine, respectively. A six-speed manual transmission puts power to the front wheels, and Kia says the hatches can spring to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds. Top speed for both sits at 143 miles per hour. Penned by design guru Peter Schreyer, the cars wear tweaked front fascias complete with new grilles, headlamps and fog lamps.
Out back, dual-exit exhaust separate GT models from their common kin, and 18-inch alloy wheels are standard equipment. Indoors, buyers can expect to find a set of Recaro sport buckets and a specially designed TFT instrument cluster. Take a peek at a brief video of the Pro_cee'd GT and the official press release below.

2018 Kia Stinger GT Long-Term Review Update | A romp in the snow

After driving a slew of family sedans and crossovers, I was excited to take home our hard-charging, corner-craving 2018 Kia Stinger long-term car for a weekend of some sports car fun. Then Saturday came, bearing between three and four inches of snow and single digit temperatures. Lovely. But, the weather did offer an opportunity to put the Stinger through its first serious snow of the season, as well as the snow tires Nokian generously donated to us. And the big sedan hatchback did fine in the snow, but not exceptionally well. I appreciated the extra traction from the front wheels, which helped make crawling out of the deep snow in my driveway and accelerating through corners and at intersections easier. I didn't have much trouble breaking the rear wheels loose, either, confirming that the Stinger does indeed have a rear-wheel bias. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to control when the car would break traction, but it was easy enough that it felt as though the all-wheel-drive and traction control weren't doing much to optimize traction until the car really got loose. Then the traction control would quickly bring the car to a crawl to stabilize it. Cornering and braking were just OK, and it seemed to mostly be hampered by the Stinger's roughly 4,000-pound curb weight. I could feel that the car really wanted to keep forging straight ahead, and if I turned too fast or braked too late, it would take its opportunity to do so. Naturally this applies with any large vehicle, but it still feels surprising considering how agile the Stinger is on dry pavement. I hate to think what it would have been like driving the Stinger without the snow tires. On the low-profile all-seasons, I'm sure the traction control would be having conniptions, and I'd be crawling through corners and up to stops. Leaving my driveway probably would have taken a few forward and back attempts, too. Aside from the driving experience I was immensely grateful for the heated seats and steering wheel, both of which seemed to warm up quickly. Boy, though, I sure wish the Stinger had remote start. I'm sure it's not great for the environment, but oh how I wish I could have stepped out the door to an already toasty cabin this weekend. So there you have it. The Stinger GT definitely loses a lot of its fun character in the snow, but it will get you through it. And when things clear up, you'll be happy to have something sporty on hand.