Why Kia Doesn't Want You To Know About Its New Car

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November 27, 2006

By Steve Miller

DETROIT -- Psst, the 2007 Kia Rondo is available. Not that the Korean automaker wants you to know or anything.

In a move that one auto analyst dubbed "bizarre," Kia has released a small number—about 900—of the crossover vehicles in the U.S.

The new Rondos are being delivered to mostly Sunbelt dealerships amidst a veil of silence for the vehicle that won't be officially "out" until February.

Until then there will be no print ads or broadcast spots. An online search for the vehicle pulls up nothing official from the company, including no mention on the automaker's own Web site, www.kia.com. Instead, over the next 30 days, there will merely be some direct mail to targeted consumers, a presence on several search engines and, hopefully, some buzz.

(more at link) http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/rec..._id=1003438729

[Quickening]

I can see why they want to keep it hidden or low key.

[likearock00]

Originally Posted by Quickening

I can see why they want to keep it hidden or low key.

Other than the fact that its' butt ugly, why??

[FordFan]

It's an uglybutt.

[gotz_otto]

It looks like an uglybutt mini-van wannabe. It looks old and dated to me. I am just curious as to what the goal of this is.

[KIDDIESEL79]

yeah it is pretty ugly

[K-1]

Originally Posted by gotz_otto

It looks like an uglybutt mini-van wannabe. It looks old and dated to me. I am just curious as to what the goal of this is.

Searing your American eyes so anything else with a KIA badge looks acceptable in comparison. It's kind of like having beer goggles except instead of a getting to enjoy nice, tasty adult beverages you stick white-hot cattle prods in your eyes.

[Geotpf]

Looks like it's a Mazda 5ish microvan (although this does come with an optional third row of seating to seat 7). I think it will do better than everybody is thinking, especially since the Kia Sedona is already popular (IE, people will go to a Kia dealer to look at a Sedona and end up driving off in one of these).

[69Firebird400]

Certainly a very curious approach to launching a car. To paraphrase an old quote, "if a Kia is launched, and nobody buys it or has heard of it, was it really launched?"

There's a reason everyone knows what a Silverado is - GM spends a ton of money to market it. I will be interested to see how this one plays out for Kia.

[throwback]

Bizarre. I my guess is they released them early so they could call this a 2006 model for some reason. Otherwise you hold the vehicles until you have enough to distribute.

[GM-Joe]

I normally don't announce when I have to go to the bathroom, so why would Kia market there POS?

[genjy]

Eh, it's a good try, but the Rondo looks like crap inside and out. The only thing it has over the Mazda5 is the more powerful optional 2.7L v6 engine.

[01cavalier]

Obviously they don't care about how it looks, I know the price is good, it better have some other great redeeming qualities.

[CobaltSScrazy]

Originally Posted by 01cavalier

Obviously they don't care about how it looks, I know the price is good, it better have some other great redeeming qualities.

agreed, but if the price/feature ratio is top notch, I don't care if it looks like an Ohio State female, it'll sell like mad!!! Have other companies done this in the past???

CobaltSScrazy

[GM-Joe]

OK, I decided to take it seriously. To me it is not a crossover, it's a compact minivan, much like the early 90's civil based minvan, the predecessor to the first-gen Odysee. It is just godawful looking and may fit well into a 3rd world county such as Iraq, besides that it is as embarrassing as the Yugo used to be.