Down Under Cee'd dormant for now

Kia will facelift, tweak, massage, augment and value add its existing Australian range in 2007, but the car the brand really wants and needs will not come Down Under until perhaps 2009. That's the key news from the media briefing the Korean brand held in Melbourne last week on the eve of the finals of the Australian Tennis Open -- a Kia-sponsored event.

The car we write of is the new Cee'd. Just debuted to conspicuously positive reviews across Europe, the car is the product of Kia's latest plant in Slovakia in Eastern Europe.

Designed and executed with Europe in mind by Kia's new Germany-based R&D team, the Cee'd hit key European left-hand drive markets in five-door hatch form late last year after a debut at the Paris Motor Show. Its first right-hand drive market, the United Kingdom, comes on stream today, Feb 1.

Two additional variants of the handsome, Golf-sized contender will come to market in Europe later in 2007 -- a wagon in September, and a stylish and sporty three-door hatch, tentatively dubbed the ProCee'd, in December.

But according to Kia Australia's Director of Sales and Marketing, Bill Gillespie the car may not arrive until 2009. Indeed, Gillespie described a potential on-sale date of 2008 as "a long stretch".

"We'd love to get the car here in 2008 but..." Gillespie said. "We've done some pricing modelling and we're obviously hugely keen to get the car in here but it will depend on how it goes in Europe. We're certainly asking the question."

The Slovakian plant where Cee'd is built has a theoretical capacity of 300,000 units per year but is currently still in start-up mode. It will also produce Kia Sportage compact SUV models for the European market. And therein lies the rub. Given the expected success of the car, markets like Australia will be hard-pressed to get stock of the Cee'd until production is at or near capacity and European demand is sated.

It has been suggested that Kia's opportunity to debut the new car here has also been hamstrung due to an alignment of local product with US market models. Gillespie says no, however.

"I don't believe that is the case. It [Cee'd's availability] will depend entirely on how the car goes in Europe -- there is only so much production capacity and we [Kia Australia] need to get [our requirements] into that production capacity."

In releasing details of the facelifted Cerato, Gillespie defended the sedan and hatch range's position in this interim, pre-Cee'd, period, saying it would be: "unfair to categorise the current version of the Cerato as light years away" from the new Euro Kia.

He said the latest Cerato was in line with other (like-priced) cars in the small car segment. Gillespie also stated that it was conceivable that a Cee'd and Cerato could end up being sold alongside each other in a manner similar to Holden's dual-pronged Astra approach of 2005-2006.

For the time being, the freshly facelifted Cerato EX model went on sale this week at $19,490. Kia is also offering the EX with ABS at $20,340 and a Safety Pack version of the Cerato EX complete with a full complement of airbags (six) and active headrests for $21,490.

Thus with both Holden's Viva and Nissan's Tiida effectively targeting Cerato with $17,990 pricetags (the latter with $1000 of fuel), Kia has a battle on its hands.

According to Gillespie the strength of the Korean currency has created pricing pressures that particularly impacted Cerato. He said Kia was still hopeful of being able to position Cerato (in both hatch and sedan versions) as a price-competitive product.

"We do have a pricing issue [on Cerato] out of Korea and we need to deal with that. It [the car] sits in the biggest segment in Australia and we need to compete more strongly."

Despite an overall medium SUV market drop of over 15 per cent, Gillespie contends Sorrento under-performed in 2006 due to its petrol V6-only model line-up.

"With the Sorrento we've only been competing with the V6 and in this market you just can't compete with V6 [petrol] only. We're about to bring the turbodiesel to market in late April or early May and the vehicle will be a very strong entry in the market -- extremely well priced and pound-for-pound, dollar-for-dollar will be a great contender for us."

Kia will also add to its Sportage line-up with a turbodiesel, petrol 2.0-litre four-cylinder 4WD model and Tucson City-style 2.0-litre 2WD offer, Gillespie revealed.

The Sportage turbodiesel will arrive in six-speed manual guise initial (automatic is still a maybe) and should go on sale before June. "Two or three" trim grades will be offered.

Said Gillespie: "We showed it [Sportage turbodiesel] at Sydney Motor Show and we're [now] a couple of months away from being able to bring it to market... It's a knockout to drive and we believe it will redefine the compact [SUV] segment -- particularly in rural and provincial areas."

Gillespie said 2WD petrol version of Sportage was due in July along with the 4WD 2.0-litre. He said the V6 Sportage would stay in the line-up but that it would be "repositioned" [upwards] with the addition of equipment including safety features (curtain airbags, etc).

Not an SUV, but a turbodiesel nonetheless, a compression ignition Magentis is still in the plans for 2007 too, said Gillespie.

MOVING THE CLAN
In terms of models new to Australia, Kia is looking at two additions to the range -- both at the smaller end of the size line-up.

Discussion continues with head office on the Picanto light/city car with which Kia would hope to target the sub-$12,000 marketplace. Again, the strong Won is not helping.

Look out for premium versions of the Grand Carnival with pricetags over $50K, but also keep your eyes peeled for an attractive and by all accounts effective compact new peoplemover from Kia -- the Rondo.

Expected to arrive in time for October's Sydney Motor Show and known as Carens in some markets, the new Rondo will deliver seven seats into a small-car-sized package.