You are here: Forums Wagons Kia Rio Kia Rio

Kia Rio

605 messages,  Last post on Nov 02, 2009 at 5:30 AM

You are in the Kia Rio Forum. Your Host is kcram

What is this discussion about? Kia Rio, Sedan

Messages Page 16 of 62 1 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ... 62 Prev Next Last

Go To Msg # Search This Discussion

#144 of 605 Re: I don't know when the Rio5 is [iluvmysephia1] by chuck1959 Oct 06, 2005 (3:32 am)
Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Oct 05, 2005 3:36 pm) That's a big debate. Where is the Rio5?
#145 of 605 Earlier strike in Korea may have affected supply.... by spectraman Oct 07, 2005 (5:01 am)
I asked my sales guy at my KIA dealership last night if the Hyundai-KIA strike back in August may have impacted the availability of Rios. He said that he had heard that it had. The sales guy also said that the dealership's owner was just in Las Vegas at some kind of conference, and he reported back that Rios are flying off of other dealer's lots as fast as they trickle in. With the gas situation that's no surprise. Now if they could just get some inventory in!!!   The web says that KIA was planning on losing 10,569 units of production due to the strike. I couldn't find out if that number was ever confirmed or increased. I couldn't determine how that loss was spread across models either.   One interesting factoid I discovered while looking this up was that Hyundai only owns 38% of KIA. This means that KIA must still have some autonomous capabilities of its own. Interesting enough, that's about the same percentage of ownership as the Ford family has in voting shares (40%) in the Ford Motor Company.   -SM
#146 of 605 Timing of the new Rio is fortuitous! by spectraman Oct 07, 2005 (6:07 am)
Now... if only KIA can get them on the lots!!   http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2005/nf2005106_7775_db016.htm   Excerpt: "It has come to this: even Texans are having second thoughts about their big trucks. In Fort Worth, deep in the heart of truck country, the Mortiz Kia used-car lot is packed with big sport-utes and minivans that buyers have traded in for cars that look pint-size by comparison, including the Sportage small SUV and Spectra compact."
#147 of 605 Len Hunt in, Peter Butterfield out at Kia Motors America by spectraman Oct 07, 2005 (6:29 am)
Geez... I hope this is a good move for KIA. We all know how successful Volkswagen of America's been lately!!!   http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13504   Excerpt:   Automotive News / October 07, 2005   Peter Butterfield has left Kia Motors America, Inc. as president and CEO, the company said Friday. He has been replaced by J.H. Lee, who was senior executive vice president of Kia Motors Corp.   Volkswagen's former head of North America, Len Hunt, 50, will join Kia Motors America as its COO.   The details behind Butterfield's departure were not immediately available.   -SM
#148 of 605 Well, that is news... by iluvmysephia1 Oct 07, 2005 (8:38 am)
I wonder what Mr.Butterfield is gonna do. Stay in automotive management or venture into another area?   The '06 Kia Rio's are probably just on the verge of hitting Kia sales lots all over America. Give it a few more days or a week or two more before getting too nervous about it.   That is interesting about Hyundai only owning 38% of Kia. This is a subject that I'd love to get more information on. I'd love it if a Kia and/or Hyundai worker, or people that work at each company, would write a book about what goes on in their neck of HyunKia. Inside the factories. I'd buy it in a second.   I have always read that Hyundai owns 51% of Kia. Kia owns the remainder, but not all. South Korean banks own a percentage of non-Hyundai/Kia share as well, as a result of some serious financial difficulty Kia had right around 1998. I was just starting to follow South Korean cars then and it was not sure if Kia would pull out of that mess. The devaluation of the Korean Won didn't help matters and a very troubled Korean economy made things tense at Kia Motors. Hyundai swallowing up Kia has helped Kia financially, yet it is my humble opinion that Kia Motors would have always kept afloat by virtue of their lessons learned with Mazda and Ford Motor Company through the 80's and 90's. Kia is South Korea's oldest car maker. Kia's engineering department is vey capable, and in 1998 I was quite sure that another, large car maker would find their talents irresistable and buy them out. Look what GM decided to do regarding Daewoo. That's a horse of another flavor for another day, though, I realize.   spectraman, were you following the trouble Kia was having back in 1998? What are your thoughts on that debacle? They have certainly come around and are going very strong exporting all over and building all over the world now. I'd say their future is so bright they best be wearin' some solid Burton Cummings-Randy Bachman shades from here on out. Replies to this message: spectraman (Oct 07, 2005 10:31 am)
#149 of 605 Re: Well, that is news... [iluvmysephia1] by spectraman Oct 07, 2005 (10:31 am)
Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Oct 07, 2005 8:38 am) Iluv:   Here's one recent reference to the percentage of ownership I found:   http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:HMC&Feed=AP&Date=20050902&ID- - - =5068366   Hyundai, maker of the Sonata midsize sedan and the luxury Equus, has ambitions with Kia to become the world's sixth-largest carmaker by 2009. Hyundai owns 38.7 percent of Kia.   And here's an older reference I found from around 1998 which explains that 51% of KIA's stock had to be auctioned, and that Hyundai would also find some additional investors (to probably share some the stock with).   "The third largest producer, Kia Motors Corporation, was forced into bankruptcy and its creditors forced the sale of 51 percent of Kia‘s stock at auction. No companies submitted bids during the two previous auction attempts.   On the third attempt, bids were submitted by three Korean auto companies, Hyundai Motor Company, Samsung Motor Inc., and Daewoo Motor Company, and one foreign company, Ford Motor Company. (Ford owns 9.4 percent of Kia and Ford‘s 30 percent-owned Japanese affiliate, Mazda Motor Corporation, owns 7.5 percent of Kia.)   On October 19, 1998, Korea‘s largest auto company, Hyundai, was selected as the winning bidder by the panel overseeing the auction after they disqualified Ford's bid. Following the auction, a Ford Motor Company spokesman stated that the auction had been a fair one without prejudice against foreign participants.   Hyundai‘s chairman announced that the company would seek additional foreign investors, including Ford, in Kia. The acquisition of Kia would give Hyundai control of over 60 percent of Korea‘s automobile market."   And no... I was not a big follower of either Hyundai or KIA until I bought my Spectra a year ago. I *did* have a friend that swore by his '86 Hyundai Excel though. It looked like a piece-of-junk, but it always started and got him where he wanted to go. That was the limit of my experience until I purchased.   Until last year, I was a combination Plymouth/Ford/Chevrolet owner. I guess KIA can claim me as a "conquest" sale.   -SM
#150 of 605 Very well, spectraman... by iluvmysephia1 Oct 07, 2005 (1:41 pm)
except that the article still leaves question as to the current percentage amount of Kia that Hyundai owns. I'd believe 38%, though. It fluctuates behind the scenes, ya know, and we never hear about it over here. I would love to get my hands on a novel by a Kia hardcore worker of some kind and some generation, young man or woman or old. Love to buy one of those.   I do know that I sure liked the looks of the 2006 Kia Rio sedan I saw in eastern Idaho last week. Those stamp-mouldings looked great on a black Rio sedan, that they did. Can't wait to see the 2006 Kia Rio5.   You seem to really love your Spectra sedan, spectraman. Are you gonna hold or look for another car in the coming year? Replies to this message: spectraman (Oct 08, 2005 6:45 pm)

Messages Page 16 of 62 1 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ... 62 Prev Next Last

Go To Msg # Search This Discussion

You are here: Forums Wagons Kia Rio Kia Rio