For Kia, the sales graphs are soaring upwards in Europe and Ireland, says Andrew Hamilton
Big volume car manufacturers whinge that there's no growth in the overall European market but others are proving them wrong.
All the Korean marques, for instance, are on a sharp upward climb with sensible value-for-money products that may not have the everyday familiarity of a Ford or Opel but still present a profile of (mostly) modern metal that's (mostly) well-shaped.
One of the most successful of the Korean ilk has to be Kia, which only a handful of years ago was in bankruptcy. Now part of the Hyundai group, it's making waves with a 1.8 million vehicle production tally last year, a 32 per cent rise on the previous year.
The graphs are soaring upwards in Europe and Ireland and on the Irish scene January sales this year were 750 compared with 350 last year, a jump of 103 per cent.
Kia is now planning an assault on the family car D segment, populated by such well-established players as Ford with the Mondeo, Opel with the Vectra, VW with the Passat and Toyota with the Avensis, actually the segment's best-seller. The new Magentis takes over from a lacklustre model of the same name but there's a chalk-and-cheese aspect to the old and the new.
Aside from a thorough reworking from the ground up and a more dynamic visual impression, Magentis gets a diesel engine for the first time, the 2.0 litre 140bhp unit that is used in the Sportage.
The new diesel arrival will complement 2.7 six-cylinder and 2.0 litre four-cylinder petrol versions with 185 and 143bhp. We will see the new Magentis here in May or June and with much of the 2006 sales momentum gone by then, Louise Egan for Kia Ireland admitted that its bigger impact will come in 2007. "As with Kia in Europe, we will be seeking out fleet customers. We feel it will very much match their needs beating more familiar badges."
Kia presented Magentis for testing in southern Spain last week, calling it "elegantly understated." In our shorthand, that's smartly conventional: it won't turn heads but it's a far cry from the blandness that used to be the norm.
The proof of the pudding certainly comes in the interior which is bright and spacious, dispelling any notion of a Korean makeover. There is plenty of head and leg room, front and rear, while a driver of whatever build or size should find a compatible driving position.
What of the driving? Both 2.0-litre petrol and diesel models were lusty and vigorous on empty Spanish motorways and in some challenging mountain climbs. The diesel was a bigger favourite: with the six-speed gearbox there was the ubiquitous wider spread of torque or pulling power.
Mostly the diesel was muted: the Korean engineers apparently concentrated hugely on NVH reduction, NVH being the industry acronym for noise, vibration and harshness. "We know that Europe is a big diesel territory with very quiet diesels so in making Magentis European, we had to get it right," explained Mr Yong Hwan Kim, who is the chief executive of Kia Motors Corporation.
Mr Kim was keen to emphasise just how European Magentis is. The Achilles heel of past Korean models has been ride and at the press launch last week, some journalists were muttering that on Magentis, it needed improvement.
It didn't show up conspicuously on our test but even the mountain roads were carpeted with the smoothest of tarmacadam with not a pothole to be seen. We look forward to exercising Magentis in the Bog of Allen!
Magentis, for all its European credentials, is still Korean built. But soon Kia will have a European built car, a C-segment challenger for cars like the Ford Focus and VW Golf. Word is that the €1.1 billion plant in Slovakia is ahead of schedule and the first cars will run off the line later this year. The plant has a potential for 300,000 cars a year. Then there's the new European headquarters that will open in May 2007, a high-rise building incorporating a design centre and located in Frankfurt.
Five Kia launches are planned for this year, including Magentis. "We are running very fast these days," remarked Jean Charles Lievens, a Frenchman who is Kia's senior vice president in Europe citing six model launches this year. He used to work for Toyota in Europe where he said he was "merely running."