November 9: Never enough

Kia and Hyundai recently announced that they had made a mistake and that their product lines were too car-centric. Imagine a car manufacturer making that announcement, after all aren't they actually car manufacturers. Well folks, you know the answer to that one and it is "No!".

This sad state of affairs has been brought on by our love of the goddess SUV, a fact that has been well documented here and elsewhere. So back to those two South Korean sisters (brothers?), Kia and Hyundai. What now?

Well, on the top end Kia will soon bring out the BIG Telluride........

This will be Kia's take on the luxury suv market and will no doubt rack up a few sales from those customers who want a big suv with tons of features at a not-quite-high-end price. Good for Kia, but they want volume, which means something in the lower price ranges. By the way, I pride myself on knowing what cars are on the market, but with Kia, and sometimes Hyundai, even I get confused with their proliferation of models.

Following suite, Hyundai will also bring out a big gun, the Palisade, soon to be unveiled at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show.......

What's next? Any hints? Well, just maybe this concept (shown in China) will help to pack the Kia line with those products which will actually sell........

Snappy name? Well, give them time. If Telluride works for the top end, maybe this one can be called something a little more down market, like the Whistler, or if it has to stay stateside, maybe the Stowe? Whatever. If the real suv looks like the concept, which it no doubt will, expect it to fit below the Sorento and be either slightly below or above the Sportage. Too close in size? Give your head a shake, like that would make any difference. Case in point, the lower priced Chevy Traverse is actually half a centimetre longer than the more upmarket Tahoe. Go figure.

What about Hyundai? Would this work.........

Typical of this brand, the Creta (check out the front plate) is one great looking suv. It is not a concept, as the Creta has been sold the past couple of years in other parts of the world, so it would be an easy suv to slot into Hyundai's North American line up below the Tucson. Something to compete with those alphabet challenged suv's from Toyota and Honda, the C-HR and HR-V.

Now about that name. What exactly is a Creta? In European countries like Italy or Romania, it means chalk. Great. Translated to our side of the Atlantic it means crayon. Even better. Since Hyundai likes southwestern US names for their sport utes, it could be the Taos or Reno or even better, the Mesquite. Hope they call me for ideas.

Hints of the future, or just time wasted guessing about something that might never happen? Definitely the former, as these two brands will be adding at least one and probably more, suv, crossover or whatever you'd like to call them in the next couple of years. Better be sooner than later, since time is a wasting and both Kia's and Hyundai's North American sales took a hit in the buoyant 2017 auto market. And these two models look like they'd be excellent choices.

So will your blogger be right? Bets taken at the next window.

Until next time.......