Kia cee'd Continues Its Winning Ways in Europe

cee'd selected as Romania's Car of the Year in latest accolade

SEOUL - December 4, 2007: The Kia cee’d continues to add to its growing list of accolades in Europe with the Romanian Union of Auto Journalists and Publishers (UZEAR – Romanian) awarding the cee’d with its most prestigious trophy, “2008 Car of the Year.” This was UZEAR – Romanian’s eighth award ceremony since 1999.

This award comes on the heels of a recent “Family Car of the Year” award for the cee’d SW from Sweden’s Motorföraren Magazine. In Poland, the cee’d also won the “2007 Compact-Class Fleet Car of the Year” by Fleet Awards Polska organized by The Fleet Magazine along with Playboy’s “Car of the Year” award. During the Autoweek competition in the Netherlands, it won the “2007 Innovation Award.” In addition, the cee’d was short-listed for the “2008 European Car of the Year” (COTY) award, coming in fourth place and beating out some European favourites in the final vote.

For this latest award, the 18-member jury of Romanian auto journalists allotted points to 31 eligible cars. Points were based on design, comfort, safety, cost of buying and driving, joy of riding, environmental friendliness and overall value. Only eight models were nominated for the final phase of the contest. Among them included the Fiat Bravo, Fiat 500, Ford Mondeo, Hyundai i30, Mazda 2, Nissan Qashqai and Peugeot 308 along with the cee’d. The Kia cee’d ranked first, followed by the Ford Mondeo and Mazda 2.

Sales and Marketing Director for Kia Motors Romania, George Damian said, “This collective recognition from Romanian top auto journalists and editors makes us determined in giving more than our best in the future. More than simply fulfilling the jury’s criteria, we feel the amazing 7-year warranty and 5-star EuroNCAP rating played a major role in the jury’s decision.”

Kia Motors holds more than 3% of the C1-segment in Romania with the cee’d family selling 1,682 units so far this year. According to Global Insight, the Romanian new passenger car market is expected to reach 335,115 units in 2007, with the C1-segment estimated at 52,777 units.