SEOUL, April 26 — It's hard to say if it's a case of optimism, confidence or stubbornness, but Kia has finally unveiled the all-new second-generation of its full-size luxury saloon, the K900.
Despite extremely modest sales of the first-generation in the US, where the car was co-designed at Kia's design studio in Irvine, California, the South Korean manufacturer has gone ahead with a complete redesign of its flagship saloon.
The K900 was first introduced in Korea back in 2012, where it was the first Kia saloon to adopt a rear-wheel drivetrain that was developed in-house by its own engineers. In some respects the luxury saloon has helped to elevate Kia's brand value in a number of key markets around the world, particularly Korea and North America.
But the new version has a long, long way to go before it starts to worry the models it was designed to rival, such as the BMW 7 Series, Lexus LS and the Audi A8. This is considerably more than a generational redesign or a major refresh though, and that's because the only thing this new model carries over from the first-generation of the K900 is its name.
