Kia cee'd is the most decorated Korean-brand car in Europe

• Kia cee’d wins eight national ’Car of the Year’ –style awards in 2007
• Media ranks Kia cee’d No1 in more than 30 comparison tests

By winning eight national ‘Car of the Year’-style awards and claiming the No1 place in more than 30 comparison road tests to date, the Kia cee’d model range is the ‘most decorated’ Korean-brand car in European automotive history, according to the Kia Motors Corporation.

Despite facing tough competition in Europe’s most closely-fought market sector (C-segment), the Kia cee’d has won thousands of new customers to the Kia brand for the first time. Designed specifically for European consumers and manufactured in Europe, Kia cee’d was voted ‘Family Car of the Year’ in Sweden, ‘Car of the Year’ in Greece, ‘Fleet Car of the Year’ (Compact Class) in Poland and ‘ING Business Class, Lease Car of the Year’ in Belgium. Additional COTY-type awards were won in Romania, the Canary Islands and Lithuania.

The five-door cee’d won ‘Best Hatchback’ awards in the UK and Denmark, while Danish motoring media also rated the cee’d sporty wagon so highly that it took the ‘Best Wagon’ crown for 2007, from the leading journal Autobild. In the Netherlands, cee’d was presented with a ‘2007 Innovation Award’ by the prestigious Autoweek magazine.

“We are delighted that the Kia cee’d has been so widely acknowledged around Europe as a genuine contender for C-segment ‘best-in-class’ honours,” commented Mr Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe. “Everyone at Kia, in Korea and in Europe, made a huge effort to ensure that the Kia cee’d family is exceptionally well styled, well built, keenly priced and has immense appeal for many different groups of European consumers. With its 5-Star EuroNCAP safety rating, cee’d has played a key role in raising Kia brand awareness. Positive media reports, a stream of ‘best car’ awards and a growing number of delighted Kia owners are accelerating demand for cee’d as we enter 2008.”

Kia cee’d ranked ‘best-in-class’ by many media
As well as winning awards, the Kia cee’d five-door hatchback and sporty wagon have also performed exceptionally well in real-world test drives against other C-segment cars.

During 2007, the cee’d was ranked No1 by independent motoring journalists in nine European countries, in 32 comparison tests conducted against the leading contenders in its class. The Kia was consistently placed above such well established cars as the Auris, Astra, Golf, Bravo, Megane, C4 and Civic.

Three body styles – one high-quality standard
The Kia cee’d family of cars – five-door hatchback, five-door wagon and the recently introduced three-door pro_cee’d – are built at Kia Motors’ first-ever vehicle manufacturing facility in Europe – the €1 billion operation at Zilina in Slovakia. Thanks to the high-quality and durability of cars manufactured in Slovakia, all Kia cee’d models sold in Europe now come with the unique Kia 7-Year/150,000km Warranty.

Editors´ Notes

Kia Motors Europe
Kia Motors Europe is the European sales, marketing, and service arm of Kia Motors Corporation. With its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, it covers 29 markets in Europe.

About Kia Motors Corporation
Kia Motors Corporation (www.kiamotors.com) was founded in 1944 and is Korea´s oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. As part of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia aims to become one of the world´s premier automotive brands. Kia´s 13 manufacturing and assembly operations in nine countries produce more than 1.3 million vehicles a year that are sold and serviced through a network of distributors and dealers covering 165 countries. Kia today has 33,000 employees and annual revenues of US$19 billion. Kia is the major sponsor of the Australian Tennis Open and an official worldwide sponsor of the Davis Cup. From 2007 to 2014, Kia will be an official automotive partner of FIFA - governing body of soccer´s FIFA World Cup. Kia boosted its football links this year with three new sponsorships of major teams that will see the Kia logo appearing in the UEFA Champions League - FC Girondins de Bordeaux, FC Brussels and Atletico de Madrid. Kia Motors Corporation´s brand slogan - ´The Power to Surprise´ - represents the company´s global commitment to surpassing customer expectations through continuous automotive innovation.

Press Contact
Mr Panu Vainamo
Tel 0049 69 850 928 352 Email pvainamo@kia-europe.com

Kia Motors Europe GmbH
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 11, 60486 Frankfurt, Germany.
Tel 0049 69 850 928 352 Fax 0049 69 850 928 399