Report: Kia Won't Make GT Until 2017

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole
report kia won t make gt until 2017

Fresh after news Thursday that Hyundai wouldn’t be making a new sportscar and Kia would be, the latter Korean automaker said it has put on hold its plans to make a four-door coupe until 2017, AutoExpress is reporting.

The first sportscar from the Kia brand would likely be on the Genesis platform and could offer a range of engines all the way up to a V-8.

The GT4 is still a half-decade away, apparently.

The Kia GT, dubbed “baby Panamera” by some, was slated to arrive next year, but plans for that have been scrapped, AutoExpress reported.

“We have very high intentions to put these models into production — we’re working on it,” Spencer Cho, Kia’s general manager of overseas marketing, told the publication.

Any reports of the GT4 should met with healthy skepticism, the B&B pointed out yesterday. Engineering for that car may not have started — that only takes 3 to 4 years — and the business case sounds shaky.

Nonetheless, it looks like the GT may actually see the light of day, albeit a year later than we thought.

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  • RHD RHD on Aug 07, 2015

    Hopefully the car will not be as apparently ill equipped and outdated as the model - he forgot his belt, hasn't shaved or gotten a haircut for quite a while, and thinks it's 1977 with the unbuttoned shirt. Or maybe it's just a cultural misunderstanding - like the Daewoo Lanos, that's what passes for handsome in Korea?

    • See 4 previous
    • Dolorean Dolorean on Aug 10, 2015

      @RideHeight Yeah nah m8, he'll claim the tail gate as a "door".

  • Dolorean Dolorean on Aug 09, 2015

    I dig the looks and the apparent functionality, but for the love of all that's holy, ditch those mutha-fugly wheels. They're almost as bad as that hideous dress the girl is wearing.

    • See 2 previous
    • RideHeight RideHeight on Aug 10, 2015

      @dolorean Now you're spookin' me... That is EXACTLY what I'm seeing in her every detail... that washed-out, willowy immediate post-flower child look that hit the fashion and commercial mainstream of that era. All the psychedelic fonts and paisley overlays were still warm on the ad agencies' mainframes.

  • Bob65688581 Small by American standards, this car is just right for Europe, and probably China, although I don't really know, there. Upscale small cars don't exist in the US because Americans associate size and luxury, so it will have a tough time in the States... but again Europe is used to such cars. Audi has been making "small, upscale" since forever. As usual, Americans will miss an opportunity. I'll buy one, though!Contrary to your text, the EX30 has nothing whatsoever to do with the XC40 or C40, being built on a dedicated chassis.
  • Tassos Chinese owned Vollvo-Geely must have the best PR department of all automakers. A TINY maker with only 0.5-0.8% market share in the US, it is in the news every day.I have lost count how many different models Volvo has, and it is shocking how FEW of each miserable one it sells in the US market.Approximately, it sells as many units (TOTAL) as is the total number of loser models it offers.
  • ToolGuy Seems pretty reasonable to me. (Sorry)
  • Luke42 When I moved from Virginia to Illinois, the lack of vehicle safety inspections was a big deal to me. I thought it would be a big change.However, nobody drives around in an unsafe car when they have the money to get their car fixed and driving safely.Also, Virginia's inspection regimine only meant that a car was safe to drive one day a year.Having lived with and without automotive safety inspections, my confusion is that they don't really matter that much.What does matter is preventing poverty in your state, and Illinois' generally pro-union political climate does more for automotive safety (by ensuring fair wages for tradespeople) than ticketing poor people for not having enough money to maintain their cars.
  • ToolGuy When you are pulled over for speeding, whether you are given a ticket or not should depend on how attractive you are.Source: My sister 😉
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