Kia Cadenza Will Get a Second Chance
The Kia Cadenza, a car I think is probably the best front-wheel drive Lincoln that Ford never built, will get redesigned for 2017. What surprises me more than the Cadenza’s ability to be an effortlessly comfortable full-size sedan is that it will get a second generation at all.
Kia revealed three teaser images for their Amanti successor on Thursday. From the looks of the drawings, it likely won’t change much. That’s not such a bad thing, is it?
Kia’s Big Comfy Car, which arrived in our market in 2013 but has been around in other markets since 2010, is powered by the same 293-horsepower 3.3-liter V-6 you’ll find in some of the automaker’s other offerings. And there’s nothing wrong with that if it doesn’t change. Nothing at all. Right?
Unfortunately, Kia hasn’t put much marketing weight behind the Cadenza, which sells about as well in a year as the soon-to-be-cancelled Ford Taurus does in a month in the United States. Kia’s large sedan only cracked 9,267 sales last year compared to the 62,629 sales Ford managed with the Dead Man Walking of the full-size sedan segment, according to Good Car Bad Car.
And because the Cadenza probably won’t change much, likely neither will its sales. Which is too bad. The Cadenza is a really good car. Seriously. It is.
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Just think about how well the K900 must be selling, as it's a price and size level ABOVE the no-sale Cadenza!
The current Cadenza is better than the its cousin, the Azera, and the new one should be even that much better. But doubt sales will increase much (in a declining segment), but Kia can help sales by doing a few things. 1. Offer a lower-priced base trim. 2. Bring over the hybrid for the new generation; hybrid versions do fairly well in this segment (also will help if the new Cadenza is lighter and has better fuel economy to begin with). 3. More advertising, but probably not really worth if for Kia to do much Cadenza-specific advertising for a relatively low volume model.