TV Show Names Kia pro_cee'd As Car Of The Year 2008

WEYBRIDGE, United Kingdom – December 18, 2008: The Kia pro_cee’d has been named Car of the Year 2008 by TV programme Auto Mundial.

Shown in over 40 countries worldwide, Auto Mundial has spent the last year testing and reporting on a wide range of machinery from across the globe. Despite the gargantuan range of new cars on offer, from sports cars to 4x4s and city cars to people movers, the Auto Mundial team put the pro_cee’d up against the all but chose the Kia as their number one.

Auto Mundial producer, Guy Hicks, said; ‘Making our choice on that basis put it up against very stiff opposition because we haven't confined it to a small group of newcomers but made a choice based on anything that's crossed our path during the last 52 weeks.

‘That means the Kia, which stood out not just for its looks and driving entertainment but also for technical innovations, was matched against cars as diverse as the Porsche 911 and the BMW M3, beating all of them to the top of the podium on a range of criteria which had to include price and purpose.’

Hicks added, ‘It would have been easy to give the award to an expensive saloon or sports car, but we always felt we had to look deeper than power and performance."

Journalist on the Auto Mundial programme, Richard Nichols, said; ‘The fact that the Kia defeated the BMW M3 is a clear indication of its all-round excellence. We were all convinced the BMW would be hard to beat, if not impossible, but in the end the Kia pro_cee’d was clearly the winner.’

The three door Kia pro_cee’d, which comes with a choice of 1.6-litre petrol and diesel and a 2.0-litre diesel engines, only went on sale in early 2008 and has been a runaway success ever since. Designed, developed, engineered and built in Europe, the pro_cee’d is the only three door car on sale in Europe with a seven year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Paul Philpott, Managing Director, Kia Motors UK Ltd., said: ‘This global award is recognition for the hard work and dedication our design, development and manufacturing teams have put into creating this European product. We’ve been saying for some time that the pro_cee’d is very special – a Kia you can brag about to your mates in the pub. Now it’s beaten the likes of 911 and M3 to this award, it just goes to show that you need good value and excellent quality, not just horsepower, to create a winning performance.’