Sedan Cd Aux Port Large Cargo Good Mpg Low Miles Hatchback Power Locks Windows on 2040-cars

Auto blog

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Kia GT to debut in Paris, production in 2017

After years of waiting, the Kia GT four-door coupe (concept pictured above) could finally debut in production guise at the Paris Motor Show in October, and the brand would start making it in 2017, according to Autocar. The South Korean automaker could also create a hotter variant of the pint-sized Rio in 2018 to give the lineup a dash more performance. Kia debuted the rear-wheel drive GT concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, and the svelte four-door offered some speed thanks to a 3.3-liter turbocharged V6 with 389 horsepower and 394 pound-feet of torque and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Kia seemed primed to build the model several times over the years as a US-focused vehicle, but the latest report hinted that production wouldn't happen until 2017. Autocar claims that the final design incorporates cues from the sporty GT4 Stinger concept. Kia also intends to introduce performance-oriented models with the GT moniker lower in its range. According to Autocar, the Rio GT would ride on the vehicle's lighter next-gen platform and offer about 180 horsepower from a 1.6-liter engine to compete against the Ford Fiesta ST, which already has 197 hp. However, the South Korean automaker might want to consider a more potent powerplant to keep up in the hot hatch arms race, because spy shots already suggest the Blue Oval's development of a Fiesta RS with around 250 hp. Related Video: Featured Gallery Kia GT Concept: Frankfurt 2011 View 13 Photos News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / AOL Design/Style Rumormill Paris Motor Show Kia Hatchback Concept Cars Performance Sedan 2016 paris motor show kia rio kia gt kia gt concept

Kia chasing dinero using Robert De Niro to sell e-Niro

Robert De Niro is living the ideal blueprint for a respected veteran actor. At age 75, he's continuing to make films (Martin Scorsese and Joaquin Phoenix films nonetheless), he's set to be honored at the Marrakech Film Festival, and he's still getting those advertising checks. His newest source of cash flow is coming courtesy of Kia, with the announcement at the Paris Motor Show that De Niro will lead a new advertising campaign for the Niro crossover. The new campaign was introduced in tandem with the European debut of the all-electric version of the Kia Niro. Likewise, the De Niro campaign will strictly be used for the European market. It will include not only TV spots, but digital and print advertising, as well. In a culture that is so dependent on social media that is fueled by memes, the Niro connection seems like a no-brainer. "The communication plan for the e-Niro will be as special as the car itself," Vice President for Marketing and Product Planning at Kia Motors Europe Artur Martins said in a press release. "These advertisements will draw on Robert De Niro's unique ability to entertain, as he educates drivers about the e-Niro — a car that breaks down many of the obstacles to electric vehicle ownership in a way that few others have." The e-Niro, which claims a 301-mile range on a single electric charge by European measurements (280 miles in the U.S.), is part of a larger Niro family. In the U.S., Kia currently offers a hybrid variant, as well as a plug-in hybrid variant, and is expected to launch the all-electric version in the future. Related Video: