William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

August 22, 2012

Kia is considering a new four-door coupe to compete with the Mercedes-Benz CLS.

According to Auto Express, the new vehicle will likely be a more conservative version of the GT Concept that was shown at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. The vehicle is expected to keep the GT Concept's silhouette, but the sucide doors and fins next to the headlights are gone.

Power will likely come from a range of gasoline, diesel and hybrid engines that will send power to the rear wheels. At the moment, the only rear-wheel-drive platform Kia has access to is the one used on the Hyundai Genesis. Unless Kia is developing their own RWD platform, expect the Genesis platform to be used.

“We’ll have to wait until at least 2016 before the four-door coupé arrives, but when it does it will mark Kia out as a genuine cut-price rival to the German premium brands, and be the crowning glory of Schreyer’s revamped line-up,” a source told the magazine.

Source: Auto Express

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

View full article

Or more likely, Kia is planning a rear drive competitor to the Volkswagen CC, but that could be a very good thing. A Kia 4-door coupe would probably have to be priced around $35k, they obviously can't price this at $80k like a CLS550, no one would buy it. But priced against Buick, Acura, the Maxima, CC, and other front drivers, a rear drive swoopy 4 door could be a hit.

It seems like Kia and Hyundai know how to make their two lineups different.