Kia's next small car
Muddled marketing history to haunt new Spectra?Kia's first car sold in Australia was the Mentor, a car that has subsequently been through more name changes than John Mellencamp.
Over a few short years, the Mentor was renamed Mentor Shuma, then just Shuma and finally, Spectra. It was replaced by the current Kia Cerato, which continues to be marketed overseas as the Spectra.
The current Cerato is built on the Hyundai Elantra platform and was one of the first fruits of platform-sharing between the two companies after Hyundai acquired Kia. Kia has also chosen the Elantra/Cerato platform to underpin the Sportage compact SUV and the European-designed Cee'd.
The Cerato has been sold in Australia for three or four years now, so it's overdue for a new model -- or a change of name, at the very least.
Not deterred by the fact that the car seen here, near the Arctic Circle, was not only disguised, but operating under an assumed name, our intrepid taxonomists and spy photographers at Carparazzi have determined that the new car will be launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2009, as a 2010 model.
And for the Australian market it will be named Cerato...or Spectra...or Cougar?
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