Kia GT at Frankfurt: It WILL go in to production

Kia GT at Frankfurt - will be going in to production

We’ve been hugely impressed with the way Kia – and sister company Hyundai - has transformed in to a serious player in the car market. And now, having matched the Japanese in the mainstream market Kia, in particular, is looking to take things up a rung or three with the Kia GT.

We praised the styling of the Kia GT when we saw the first photo, but we believed it was likely just a design exercise; a sort of ‘Look what we could do if there was a market for it’ kind of statement.

But it turns out that the Kia GT isn’t just a design exercise but is heading for production – probably in 2013. Which we are very much in favour of; Kia now has enough credibility to carry-off an upmarket, powerful swoopy coupe and be taken seriously.

The surprise with the Kia GT is that it comes with a 3.3 litre turbo V6 rather than the 425bhp V8 from the Hyundai Genesis R-Spec as we expected. But it still means there’ll be 390bhp on tap and 394lb/ft of torque fed to the rear wheels through an eight-speed auto ‘box.

The news that Kia are going ahead with production of the GT is a signal that they’re ready to move on to the next stage – performance halo models across the range; something we’ve said we hope Hyundai will do with the new i30.

That will mean we’ll be getting a Cee’d GTI before too long and probably performance versions across the rest of the Kia range too. Other plans for Kia include a convertible Soul and a new roadster based on cee’d underpinnings.

European car makers beware.

(23 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK