New Kia is a Soul Sensation - 1,000 Sold in 100 Days

WEYBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM – June 15, 2009: The Kia Soul has reached a major milestone in the UK as the 1,000th car was delivered to a customer on 8 June 2009, just 100 days after the unique Kia went on sale across the UK.

The car plays an important part in the development of Kia as a design led brand. The unique looks of Soul have found fans across all corners of the globe. In the US it leads its ‘cool-and-boxy’ car segment, selling almost 4,000 cars in three months.

Soul was created by the Kia design team in California and, under the guidance of Peter Schreyer, was fine tuned by the design teams in Seoul and Frankfurt to create a truly global car.

The 1,000th car, a Soul Shaker 1.6-litre CRDi, was delivered to its new owner at Wessex Kia in the West Country. The Vanilla Shake painted car runs on 18-inch alloy wheels and comes with a unique houndstooth interior trim and reversing camera with a small LCD screen hidden in the rear view mirror.

Most popular model in the Soul range is the Soul 2 making up almost 50 per cent of the sales mix split almost evenly between petrol and diesel – diesel is slightly favoured.

The favourite Soul Original from the range is the Vanilla wrapped Shaker CRDi, taking just over 16 per cent of Soul sales.

Kia Motors (UK) Ltd. Managing Director, Paul Philpott, said: “Soul has been the success we hoped it would be and to hit 1,000 sales so soon in these difficult times is a credit to the quality and value of the car. The design is fresh and exciting and it is bringing new customers to our brand for the first time – it really is a Kia that turns heads.’