Picanto News: Kia Is Top Of The P.O.P.S

Press Release

Kia beat off the competition to pick up Gold at this year’s Point of Purchase (P.O.P) Awards for their lively and fun point of sale dealer merchandise - based on Kia’s animated cartoon family.

Kia and its partner Pro-Action worked closely together to develop the award winning material that now automatically qualifies them to enter the Point of Purchase Advertising International and European Awards in November.

This inventive point of sale merchandise is designed to give Kia dealers a uniform image whilst allowing potential customers full access to specifications, pricing, marketing offers and environmental information on the Kia range.

The panel of judges, made up of top industry professionals, highlighted the value of this Kia and Pro Action partnership: "Fitting in neatly with Kia’s above-the-line campaign, this P.O.P system reinforces the look and feel promoted by the Kia brand, along with its ‘value-led’ price propositions".

Kia’s ‘Think About It’ marketing strategy has become popular since the launch of the award winning Picanto TV advert and runs through all of Kia’s national and regional marketing activity.

Paul Williams, Managing Director of Kia Motors (UK) Limited said: "The family of characters, designed for Kia by cartoonist Pete Fowler, couldn’t have been brought to life in our showrooms without the help of Pro Action. With our bright and visible merchandise our customers are encouraged to take a fresh look at why they are buying a car."

Picanto News: Picanto Diesel In Turin

Still on the trail of the elusive Picanto Diesel we found an Italian automotive website that gives the car the "once over".

Although our Italian is not that good, loosely translated the reviewer seemed to be impressed by the fact that it is in Europe and not the US that Kia have taken the market by storm.

Italy being one of those European countries where the Picanto has seen record registrations since the car was launched there in 2004 and in the super-mini sector where the Fiat Panda is so dominant.

A remarkable feat when you consider in 1996 Kia sold less than 590 units in the Italian market or as our Italian friends say 'the equivalent to the number of Roman inhabitants with condominiums in Milan', or at least that's what we think he said.

The review goes on to say how he was suprised at how quiet the engine was, expecting to find a propeller under the bonnet. A reference to the variable-geometry turbocharger which produces 75 ps (55.0 kW) of power at 4,000 rpm and 153 Nm (15.6 kgm) of torque from 1,900 to 2,750 rpm, making the Picanto one of the most powerful cars in its class.

The article finishes off with a reference to the price of 11,720 Euro's which loosley coverts to £7,492 in pounds sterling, being of extremely good value for a car of this quality and performance. So it all sounds good news to us, now all we need to do is get the car over here in the UK so we can do our own tests.

Picanto News: Picanto Diesel Long Overdue

Ok Kia where's the diesel Picanto?

Its been two months since it made its debut at Frankfurt where Kia told the world about it, its dealers know all about it and in turn they have told all their customers about it. So where is it and what's the delay?

Your dealers are ready for it, your customers are ready for it and here in Picanto land, we are ready for it. So what are you waiting for Christmas??!!

Hmmmm...I may have just hit the nail on the head there as rumours are abound that the launch has been put back until December now. But nothing is coming from the Koreans about this so it may just be rumour. But what isn't rumour is that it's not here in the UK or even Europe for that matter.

What i will say though is that if the diesel engine is anything like the one that is in the new Kia Rio, then their onto a winner for sure. Although its only a 1.1 CRDi unit for the Picanto and 1.5 CRDi for its bigger brother, the power delivery is awesome. I have drove the new Kia Rio diesel and it's so quick and smooth that this car must have its rivals quaking in their boots. Honestly I am not biased when i say this, go and drive it for yourselves and for £7995 its a no brainer.

So come on Kia get your finger out and get this Picanto diesel out there amongst the masses where it belongs.

Picanto News: Kia Looking To Expand Its Network

Although not directly Picanto news, Kia are looking to expand its dealer network in 2006. Having added large dealer groups like Pendragon, Reg Vardy and Arnold Clark in 2005 to their growing portfolio of Kia car dealers. It is widely rumoured that Inchcape Retail may be in talks with Kia as well as the Lookers Group, although its still early days.

We find this interesting as the brand has always been of a high standard for sometime now and this interest from these large dealer groups just goes to show the gap in quality and reliability brands like Kia is closing rapidly on the so called prestige and volume manufacturers.

To further emphasis this point, in September alone, Kia took a 1.88% market share, led by sales of the Kia Picanto with 7,844 registrations (more than 16% up year-on-year). Total sales for the first nine months are 31,714 (nearly 25% higher than 2004).

Kia are confident of achieving 47,500 sales this year, up 7,500 on its original target for 2005. "With a target of 100,000 units in 2010 we can't afford to slow down," says Kia Motors (UK) managing director Paul Williams.

Picanto News: SE+ Replaces SE

Just as we mentioned back in October, the new Kia Picanto SE + has been launched and replaces the outgoing SE.

Full specification details have been released as well as price and colours. The SE + starts from £7,595 on-the-road and is available in Galaxy Black, Liquid Silver, Cobalt Blue, Scarlet Red and Diamond Blue.

The full specification is available at Kia UK and models have started arriving at dealerships at time of going to press. However Kia have not stated whether the new SE + will be available with 1 yrs insurance for £1.