Ceed Diesel Success Spurs On The Kia Dream
Winning the 'Best Hatchback" in the Whatcar? Diesel Awards was just the tonic Kia needed to kick start sales of their rather good Kia Ceed hatchback
Even Kia themselves would admit that it's taken a little longer than expected to convince the brand conscious UK car buyer into parting with their hard earned cash. And despite Europe's best ever car warranty spanning 7 years, the offer of a 3 day test drive and an awful lot of heavy weight PR exposure, the Kia Ceed didn't exactly have the 'pied piper effect' with customers cueing up to buy.
So what happened and is it going to change?
Kia didn't exactly get off to a good start when they launched that confusing and rather annoying Ceed TV ad, although the replacement isn't exactly inspiring, it's a step in the right direction.
And borrowing customers a car for three days may be a good idea in theory, but in practice people just take advantage. It also frustrates the dealer network and cost's a fortune. Money that could be better spent on reducing the price point of their cars.
No what really gets the ball rolling is word of mouth. It's ok saying our car has this and does that over the competiton, but Kia are perhaps getting a little ahead of themselves and need to take a step back. For a company that has admitted from the outset that it wants to emulate Toyota in its drive to be the one of the worlds biggest car makers, it perhaps needs to understand that you need to walk before you can run.
Toyota don't exactly make the most inspiring looking cars, but they do have something most manufacturers can only dream of…loyalty from its customers. Toyota drivers just love their cars period! And they keep coming back for more and bring their friends along for the ride.
Nobody doubts that Kia have come a long way, aided by the bucks of Hyundai, they started making cars that appeal to the European and UK buyer by simply bringing in Europe's finest designers and building them in…Europe. The downside of this of course is the massive investment needed to get the wheels in motion and this understandably comes at a price.
And this has been part of the problem. Prices of the Kia range have simply got out of line with their brand positioning, at least this is the case in the UK.
Kia got off to a good start in 2005 when they replaced the Kia Rio. The first effort was just so bad you couldn't give them away. However the second generation looked more appealing, was good quality, received good reviews and was launched at a realistic £7995 for either the petrol or diesel variants, a first for a car maker.
Then it all went pear shaped. Just as dealers started seeing metal shift, the manufacturer, for one reason or another, suddenly changed the goalposts. Literally overnight the Korean giant announced shortages of Rio stock and stuck an additional £1000 on the price of its diesel. One by one the prices across the range started going up and everything went flat. Sales were being artificially boosted by pressure from the dealer network to pre-register stock which in itself, causes its own headaches. Not surprisingly things went a little flat.
The latest figures in May must have set the alarm bells ringing with Hyundai & Kia sales taking a year-on-year pounding.
Moving swifty on to today. Pre registering has been outlawed from the dealer network. Dealer margins have been reset. Prices of the Kia Ceed have been reduced and the price of diesel for petrol campaign has returned. Limited editions are springing up all over the place and things appear to have started moving forward again, albeit slowly.
Add to this the Kia Ceed's recent car awards from both Whatcar and Autocar and things might slowly start falling back into place. And with a few more "bums on seats" who knows, word just might get out that Kia make really good motor cars. Are you watching Toyota!!
4 comments July 6th, 2007