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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.

2016 Kia Sorento First Drive

Teenagers are awkward, predictably provocative and generally horrible to be around – at least unless you, yourself are one. There's just something about those angst-ridden years spent trying on identities, none fitting quite right. Luckily for Kia, the automaker has just celebrated its 20th birthday in America, and fresh out of the driver's seat of its 2016 Sorento – dare we say it – we sense a touch of self-assured maturity. Don't worry; we expect the automaker's antics – including super-freak athletes jumping over an Optima at the NBA All-Star game and the employment of urban hamsters – to continue. Thankfully, offering unremarkable vehicles in pretty competitive segments seems officially a thing of Kia's history e-book. To be fair, we've seen a pleasing Korean Renaissance for a few years now, and we're not just talking hot pots and bulgogi – 2015 Hyundai Genesis, anyone? Kia Optima SX? Soul? So where exactly does this third-gen 2016 Sorento fit in? Actually, we're not sure Kia knows that either; its product planners tell us that this miraculous crossover competes with variously sized vehicles including the compact Jeep Cherokee, markedly larger Grand Cherokee, and even the family-hauling three-row Toyota Highlander. But Kia is also not completely off its rocker, because the Sorento suffers (benefits?) from severe bipolar disorder in terms of pricing. While you can get a base L model for $25,795 after delivery – there are five trim levels including L, LX, EX, SX, and top-of-the-line SXL – the fancy SXL 2.0T with all-wheel drive we tested was priced at $45,305. That's a difference of almost $20k, with the latter model reaches a completely different, almost premium demographic. And there's more. Sometimes the Sorento seats five, other times it can party hard with seven. There are three very different engine flavors to choose from: a carryover 2.4-liter four-cylinder will greet entry-level buyers with 185 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque. A meatier V6 – good for 290 hp and 252 lb-ft – will come on three-row models only, while the new 2.0-liter turbocharged four option, good for 240 horses and 260 lb-ft comes on two-row models exclusively. Kia will offer all-wheel drive on all Sorento models.

2019 Kia K900 flagship sedan debuts: Reserved luxury reimagined

After those teasers and brochure shots, the 2019 Kia K900 flagship sedan is here in the metal, presented at the New York Auto Show. Kia reminds us that the only thing carried over from the old car is the name, but the car's design is still reserved rather than ostentatious. The information withheld in Kia's K900 news to date was the available powertrain, but it's now announced to have the same 3.3-liter twin turbo V6 as the Stinger. It produces 365 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque, and it's paired to an eight-speed, homegrown automatic transmission like in the Stinger. The V6 is the sole engine choice, and likewise the K900 has torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive as standard. The previous generation car was rear-drive, and the Stinger has rear-drive variants, but for the new K900 it's AWD all the way. The system can distribute up to 50 percent of power to the front and as much as 80 percent to the rear. Kia performance chief Albert Biermann says the new K900 is 33 percent stiffer than the outgoing car, for improved ride and handling. In its home market, the K900 will reportedly be available with a five-liter V8, but that's not part of the U.S. portfolio. Inside, the K900's cocoon-like leather and wood interior ambience can be enhanced with its Pantone-assisted mood lighting system. There are seven color settings, which are meant to convey the feel of oceans, forests, skies — and presets can even imitate the aurora borealis. Another feature of the interior lighting is that proximity sensors can brighten the dashboard controls by 20 percent when the driver reaches for the switches. The 12.3-inch HMI touchscreen supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and the car's settings can be toggled using a bespoke UVO telematics system. Four cameras provide the driver with a stitched-together 360-degree view of the car's surroundings, and HUD is an option. Driver assists include smart cruise control with lane functions and a driver fatigue monitoring system. In addition to the K900, Kia is also introducing the refreshed-for-2019 Optima and Sedona. The facelifted Optima now comes with optional two-tone sport leather seats, and it shares some of the K900's driver assist systems as standard: collision avoidance and warning, lane keeping assist and driver fatigue monitoring.