Kia cee'd: Strange Name, Great Style

Motoring Channel Staff - 29/Sep/2006

Paris, France — Kia has released pictures of its next all-new C-segment model, the cee'd, in hatch and estate-bodied cee’d sport wagon variants, which made their public debuts for the first time at the Mondial de L’Automobile in Paris. 

The introduction of the cee’d family – which includes a 5-door hatch, an estate wagon and a 3-door sports hatch – marks a major turning point in Kia's history and will introduce a qualitative revolution for the brand.

The all new Kia cee’d made its world wide debut at this year's Paris Motor Show and will go on sale across Europe this December. Designed specifically to suit European tastes, the cee’d is a significant step towards achieving Kia's giant aim of 100,000 sales by the end of the decade.

This latest small car (C-segment in Europe) offering from Kia is to be the first model produced at Kia's new state of the art factory in Slovakia. In response to market trends and buyers' needs, the new cee'd is designed and built in Europe for the most European of tastes. Kia began reinventing themselves with the introduction of the Picanto less than two and a half years ago and this was the first in a new generation of Kia products that have changed the way people think about the brand, and the whole range has been updated since that time.

The cee’d marks another step forward in Kia design and with the recent appointment of Peter Schreyer, the man behind the Audi TT, Kia has set the bar high for its next phase of growth in Europe.

As well as the hatch models, Kia also unveiled the wagon version of the cee'd at the Paris Motor Show, which is due to go into full production in the middle of 2007 and on sale throughout Europe from September 2007. The vehicle is the next in Kia’s European-designed, European-engineered cee’d line-up to be built at the Zilina factory in Slovakia.

The 4470 mm long, 1490 mm high wagon-bodied version features a tailgate shaped like an inverted ‘L’ with its hinges set back over the load area so the tailgate rises almost vertically, giving enhanced access to the large-capacity cargo area that has additional storage below the floor.

The new wagon bodystyle has the same 2650mm wheelbase as the 5-door hatchback cee’d, and when the new wagon model cee'd from Kia goes on sale in Europe in September 2007, customers will be offered an extensive choice of five engines, three trim/equipment levels and 12 exterior colours.