Unofficial UK Picanto Site

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Picanto News: Picanto Drives New Kia Sales Records

Its nice to see Kia cars selling well and equally as nice to see the Picanto topping the sales charts yet again.

Despite reports that sales of new cars are down overall, Kia bucked the trend with an increase in sales of 4.5 percent for the same period 2005. Of the 18,552 vehicles sold in February, the Picanto took the lions share with 5,428 (46 per cent) units.

Aided by the diesel version of the Picanto in Europe, the range was boosted also by the arrival of new products like the B-segment Rio, which peformed strongly despite worldwide shortages of it's diesel derivative.

Back in the UK, dealers are still left without the prospect of seeing the new Turbo diesel Picanto anytime soon. But despite this, still reported strong Kia sales overall. In the meantime Kia are rather 'bizzarely' pushing the new Ltd edition Picanto Zapp with an aggressive marketing campaign. Available from 1 March, the exclusive Picanto Zapp! comes in at only £300 above the entry level S model but with a specification based on the higher priced GS model.

The downside to this is that when Kia said it's a limited edition, they really mean't it, with some dealers reporting that they will only be receiving one...period! Seems a pointless waste of corporate money promoting something you can't actually get your hands on. You'd think they'd realise by now that it just winds potential customers and its dealerships up.

Sigh...will they never learn!