Kia cee'd is "Most Decorated" Korean-brand car in Europe

(SEOUL) January 15, 2008 – Winning eight national ‘Car of the Year’-style awards, receiving numerous other magazine awards and ranking first in more than 30 comparison road tests to date, the Kia cee’d model range is the ‘most decorated’ Korean-brand car ever in European automotive history, according to Kia Motors Corporation today.

Despite facing tough competition in Europe’s most closely-fought vehicle class (C-segment), the Kia cee’d has won thousands of new customers to the Kia brand for the first time. Designed specifically for European consumers and manufactured in Europe, it was voted ‘Family Car of the Year’ in Sweden, ‘Car of the Year’ in Greece, ‘Fleet Car of the Year’ (Compact Class) in Poland and ‘ING Business Class, Lease Car of the Year’ in Belgium. Additional COTY-type awards were won in Romania (2), the Canary Islands and Lithuania.

The five-door cee’d won ‘Best Hatchback’ awards in the UK and Denmark, while Danish motoring media also rated the cee’d sporty wagon so highly that it took the ‘Best Wagon’ crown for 2007 from the leading journal Autobild. In the Netherlands, the cee’d was presented with a ‘2007 Innovation Award’ by the prestigious Autoweek magazine.

“We are delighted that the Kia cee’d has been so widely acknowledged around Europe as a genuine contender for C-segment ‘best-in-class’ honours,” commented Mr. Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe. “Everyone at Kia, in Korea and in Europe, made a huge effort to ensure that the Kia cee’d family is exceptionally well styled, well built, keenly priced and has immense appeal for many different groups of European consumers. With its 5-Star EuroNCAP safety rating, cee’d has played a key role in raising Kia brand awareness. Positive media reports, a stream of ‘best car’ awards and a growing number of delighted Kia owners are accelerating demand for cee’d as we enter 2008.”

Kia cee’d ranked ‘best-in-class’ by many media

As well as winning awards, the Kia cee’d five-door hatchback and sporty wagon have also performed exceptionally well in real-world test drives against other C-segment cars.

During 2007, the cee’d was ranked number one by independent motoring journalists in nine European countries in 32 comparison tests conducted against the leading contenders in its class. The Kia was consistently placed above such well established cars as the Auris, Astra, Golf, Bravo, Megane, C4 and Civic.

Three body styles – one high-quality standard

The Kia cee’d family of cars – five-door hatchback, SW (five-door wagon) and the recently introduced three-door pro_cee’d – are built at Kia Motors’ first-ever vehicle manufacturing facility in Europe – the €1 billion operation at Zilina in Slovakia. Thanks to the high-quality and durability of cars manufactured in Slovakia, all Kia cee’d models sold in Europe now come with the unique Kia 7-Year/150,000km Warranty.