Kia Planning Two Seat GT86 Competitor
 

http://thekoreancarblog.com/2013/04/...ta-gt86-rival/

http://thekoreancarblog.com/wp-conte...905_230524.jpg

Looks pretty nice :burnrubber:

That picture is just a Genesis Coupe with a photochopped Kia front end.

I actually hope something like this turns out to be true.
I know everyone's going to flame me for this, and probably say "But it's a Kia..." but I do like what Kia has been doing recently. They've been putting a lot of good features in their cars for far less money than the competition, and their styling has been really good too.
Kia is really turning itself around, and should be given a second chance.
Hey, Toyota was all about economical Prius's and dated Corolla's but they brought us the twins. Everyone deserves a second chance. :)

Chief Designer California Studio would like the South Korean automaker to produce a small rear-wheel-drive sports car

does not equal to

Kia planning to build an 86 competitor


It won't happen. A large part of the public still dismisses the Genesis Coupe for being a Hyundai, how many would even look at a Kia?

Oh, you'd be surprised... You may not see it where you live. But in L.A. Kia/Hyundai is a common household name as the Prius. I see more of them on the street than the Camry.

Public perception of the Hyundai group is changing immensely fast. The only thing that has stopped the 20%+ year-over-year growth that they were seeing in 2009-2012 is that they literally cannot make vehicles fast enough. Despite doubling their domestic production capacity in the past couple years, they still remain unable to produce fast enough to meet demand.

In just the 4 years they've been seeing these huge 20+% increases in sales every year, and their market share has doubled here. In 15 years, their market share has increased by 10 TIMES. Today, 1 in 10 cars sold in the US are from the Hyundai Group, and they split that pretty evenly between Hyundai and Kia.

They totally leap-frogged Nissan in market share a couple years ago leaving them in the dust, and are nipping on the heels of Honda (and surpass them many months). If they can fix their capacity issues and produce the vehicles they need to, they will surpass Honda in the next year or two, and put a new name in the Top 5 automakers in the US for the first time in over 30 years.

While normally a design study is a long leap to 'planning' on building a car, in this case, it is not 'news' that Kia is considering a vehicle of this sort. In fact, Kia has demonstrated physical concepts in the past, numerous times over the past couple years stated that it was developing a production RWD coupe, and has recently confirmed plans to produce a RWD coupe for release in approximately 2 years and confirmed that the powerplant is to be a twin-turbo'd V6 powerplant. So this view of the (or 'a') car is no surprise.

Besides, in a world where KIA releases a full-size V8-powered luxury sedan, can one really be surprised that they're working on anything? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Kia said they were working on a jet car.

Fisker Karma ripoff photo.

I don't see it happening... Korea just doesn't have much of a car enthusiast culture.

That car looks a bit too big. I feel like it will turn out to be a genesis or something.

everybody had to start somewhere and a cheap car company making a cheap sports car kinda makes sense. also, im pretty certain that, like mentioned above, the pic is just a genesis with an optima front end shopped

That's because LA's minorities are mostly Korean.......

Did I do that right?

Oh, I think they'll do it.

Hyundai (now owns Kia, I believe) is aggressive and AMBITIOUS. Their rise to prominence is remarkable. They're not close to being done. They want to be the new Honda/Toyota. I'm not betting against them. ;)

I suspect it's not WHETHER they build such a car, it's merely a question of WHEN. :thumbsup:

I think it COULD be competitive but if they miss the mark like the Gen does I don't know how successful it would be. I wanted to like and buy a Gen but after seeing how the aftermarket supported (or didn't) and the gimmickiness of the r spec not having cruise control made me DO NOT WANT

Ya, I'm pretty sure Hyundai owns Kia now, so then they'll be positioning Kia like Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti. They just recently upped their factory warranty as well. I must say, I do like their new designs for sure. In some ways much better than the other big automakers.

I've owned a Forte (2011) and still have my Sorento (2011) and they are both great vehicles... I WILL buy Kia or Hyundai to replace the Sorento.

When shopping the only cars I considered were the Genesis and the 86; however, I felt the Genesis was too big and heavy. I also never could find a Genesis in my local area to try out their manual transmission... From what I hear they are VERY numb so if Kia/Hyundai plan on attacking this market it sounds like they'll really need to work on the transmission (along with weigh savings) to make a true competitor.

As for styling, it may just be a chop but that render looks pretty classy and aggressive. If they manage to fix the transmission feel and make a truly light competitor then I look forward to seeing what they produce... I also look forward to seeing what the other makers (Honda, Nissan, etc) have to bring to the table. I'll then continue to drive my BRZ/86 around smiling knowing that it started the revolution. :)

Same. At the time I was shopping for the Gen coupe it had been out for a couple years and the turbo model still had like no tuning support or aftermarket suppliers. Said fuck it and followed the GT86 til release. Such Win.

If anyone builds a car to compete head to head with the 86/FR-S/BRZ I expect it will be the Koreans. They are like the Japanese were in the 70s-80s, innovative and aggressive. They have made huge strides in a short time span and are constantly out-Japaneseing the Japanese. Kia has developed a racing heritage in the small bore Street Tuner class and the GTS class with their Forte and turbo Optima. They expect to garner showroom success from those victories over Honda, BMW, Mazda, VW, Chevy, Lotus, Scion and Ford and they will. There is good aftermarket support for the Forte and to a lesser extent the Optima.

Remember Honda came to the US in the 60s with the Honda 600 and 20-30 years later owned the import tuning segment. The Koreans can follow that pattern and improve upon it.

That car burns as quick as any Ferrari produced in the year when their production race car looses the Gran Prix.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog....karma-port.jpg

Oh, you'd be surprised... You may not see it where you live. But in L.A. all WHITE people are the minority.

:lol: I can believe it.

You and I are on the same page. See my post #12 above. :)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9AH12820131118

Interesting article on how korean designers are influencing a lot of automotive design