- Small on the outside, big on the
inside:Six seats in a compact MPV
- An MPV for the price of a small car
with prices
starting at $22,900
- Fully equipped with AirCon, driver’s
air bag,CD player and power windows, power locks, power mirrors and power steering
- A new bench mark for family car
motoring
The Kia Carens, a new type of family car that
offers six seats in a car that takes up little more road space than a compact
hatchback, goes on sale in Australia today (7 July 2000) fully equipped and
priced from $22,990.
“The Kia Carens is nothing short of
an entirely new type of family car,” says Ric Hull, Managing Director of
Kia Automotive Australia.
“It combines the people carrying
ability of a people mover – no other car at its price offers six seats
– with the ease of driving, thanks to its economical external dimensions,
of a compact hatchback. It also offers excellent access through its large, wide
opening doors and its height means it’s easy to get in and out of the
Carens. Add a superb equipment level and an excellent price and it is easy to
see why we believe the Kia Carens will be the start of a revolution in the
compact family car market.”
Although the Kia Carens sits on the platform of a
compact car, its height and intelligent internal design mean that it provides
six seats and a level of interior space only a car from one or two classes
larger could match.
The height,
allied to wide opening doors, makes it extremely easy to get in and out, as
well as making it quick and easy to put children into their safety seats,
virtually eliminating bending right over to buckle in children in the back
seat.
This combination of small on the outside/big on
the inside, matched to the ease of driving and running costs of a normal car is
what has made this class of car so attractive to car buyers. The Kia Carens
takes all these inherent advantages in this new class of car and adds the price
and high level of equipment that would be expected of a Korean car maker. In
addition to its six seats, the Carens includes in its standard equipment
everything from front and rear electric windows, central locking, a CD player,
driver’s side air bag and air conditioning to a power socket in the boot
for accessories and table tops on the back of the middle row of seats.
All this is available from
$22,900 for the manual and just $24,900 for the 4-speed automatic, placing the
spacious Carens in the middle of the small car sector and up to $12,000 less
than its 6-seat rivals when they follow the Carens into the Australian car
market during the next year.
“We believe that the Carens will
follow the route to success pioneered by the Kia Carnival, our full size people
mover that now accounts for almost a third of all people movers sold in
Australia,” says Mr Hull. “Like the Carnival, the Carens has all the
attributes that have made this class of car a success in other markets, yet at
the same time its price and equipment will provide it with a unique value for
money advantage over its competitors. This combination means that it cannot
help but be a success!”
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