Car performance

The new advertising campaign for the 2010 Kia Soul will be top-heavy with hamsters. The South Korean carmaker is even rolling out a line of "Hamstar" clothing for followers of the cuddly creatures.


Kia said the clothing, which is featured in the advertising, will "soon be available for purchase by fans at http://www.hamstarclothing.com/."

"Given the success and popularity of the hamsters in the initial Soul launch with a spot that won Nielsen's Automotive Ad of the Year, it made sense to bring them back for a new campaign," said Michael Sprague, Kia Motors America vice president of marketing. "The newest experience is rich with details in the hamster world."

The full commercial can be seen here.

Press Release:

Kia Motors America (KMA) officially released a new advertising campaign, titled “This or That,” for the 2010 Kia Soul. “This or That” is the rebirth of the initial Kia Soul award winning advertising campaign created by David & Goliath, KMA’s advertising agency of record, and brings back the loveable Hamsters due to popular demand. Soul is a unique and highly personalizable urban passenger vehicle and the new spot builds on its creative theme in the style of a music video set to the classic hip hop track “The Choice is Yours” by notable 90’s hip hop group Black Sheep. The new campaign launches today on cable TV networks Comedy Central, Fuse, MTV, MTV2 and Spike and runs through July. Beginning 28th May it will appear in movie theaters across the country as well as have a presence online at Pandora, Facebook, Social Vibe’s PetVille, KMA’s Kia.com. and a YouTube contest.

“Given the success and popularity of the hamsters in the initial Soul launch with a spot that won Nielsen’s Automotive Ad of the Year, it made sense to bring them back for a new campaign,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing of KMA. “We know the Soul target audience is digitally savvy and that they viewed the first commercial multiple times online, so the newest experience is rich with details in the hamster world and integrated Soul content for them to discover during repeat viewings.”

“Hamstar™” logoed clothing, as seen in the spot, will soon be available for purchase by fans at www.hamstarclothing.com (check soon for details).

Cruising through an urban landscape behind the wheel of an Alien Green Kia Soul, the hamsters in “This or That” cleverly compare Soul’s unique styling and plethora of personalizable creature comforts to other boxy rides – represented by toasters, washing machines and cardboard boxes – while rapping the title song’s lyrics, “You can get with this, or you can get with that.”

A recipient of “Best Family Cars for 2010” by Edmunds.com and Parents Magazine, “Best Hatchback of 2010” by Cars.com, “2010 Top Cars for Families” by Motherproof.com, and 2010 “Top 10 Coolest New Cars Under $18,000” from Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com, Soul is available in four trims, Soul, Soul+, Soul! (exclaim) and Soul sport, as well as four special editions, including the recently unveiled special-edition Ghost Soul. Other special-edition Soul vehicles include Ignition Soul, Denim Soul and Shadow Dragon Soul. Pricing for the versatile five-door begins under $14,000.

Soul stands out from the crowd with modern, unique styling aimed toward the young and young-at-heart and offers a unique combination of style, value and personalization options. An available Audio Upgrade Package includes speaker lights that can pulse to the beat of the music or add mood lighting to the interior cabin, enhancing the overall personal lounge feeling. The Soul+ offers funky black cloth seats with “glowing” Soul logo inserts while the Soul! trim comes with a distinctive sand-black interior with houndstooth-patterned inserts, and the Soul sport presents a bold red-black interior trim with red-trimmed cloth seats and metal-finish interior accents.

Ever since Vauxhall/Opel pulled the covers off the sleek GTC Concept back in 2007, there have been rumours circulating on the Internet and the media about a production version of the study that would essentially replace the Calibra of the 1990s.


A report claims that the four seater coupe is still under consideration but if it gets the go-ahead, it could go on sale as early as 2013, which sounds believable given that the car would be a coupe version of the Vauxhall/Opel Insignia/Buick Regal.


It is said that in order for GM to start making a profit off the Calibra's descendant, Vauxhall/Opel will need to build a minimum of 30,000 units a year, and that's where Buick comes in...

"We would feel a lot more confident about some of these projects if Buick, Chevrolet in North and South America and Saab were sharing volumes and risk," an unnamed GM Europe source said. Since Saab is no longer a part of GM, it’s easy to presume that this statement has been made either in the beginning of 2010 or last year...

If GM does give the go ahead for the Insignia coupe project, chances are that it will be sold Stateside.

• The SEAT Ibiza IBZ concept was unveiled today ahead of its Frankfurt Motor Show debut previewing the future SEAT Ibiza wagon. This is the Sear Ibz concept car, which the company says previews "a new, family-sized version of the Ibiza that will make its debut in showrooms across Europe towards the middle of next year".
• The SEAT Ibiza IBZ has the same height and width as a standard Ibiza, but it has 4.22 meters in length. One of the main distinctive features of the SEAT Ibiza IBZ is the large boot which has a capacity of 410 liters. This can be increased even further as the rear seats of the SEAT Ibiza IBZ can be folded.
• Some of the features of the SEAT Ibiza IBZ include LED headlights, 19-inch alloy wheels, Leon-inspired rear passenger door handles and a number of new design features.

• Kia Kee features a broad stance and a low profile, with three unique exterior elements – the strong and powerful frontal design with its distinctive headlamps and eye-catching LED cluster, a dynamic profile with striking greenhouse treatment and 20-inch diameter alloy wheels. Measuring 4,324 mm long, the Kia Kee is powered by a ‘next generation’ 2-litre, V-6 gasoline engine producing 200 ps, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
• “The new Kia Kee is a clear and emphatic statement that the future of the Kia brand is set to be one that will excite and surprise an entirely new audience of consumers,” commented Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer Kia Motors. “In making this design departure for Kia it was essential to my thinking that we did not lose sight of the fact that the Kia brand must continue to appeal to customers in the mainstream. It would have been easy to present an extreme
• supercar at Frankfurt that would attract plenty of attention, but could have no place in Kia’s future. Our sports coupe concept is not simply a flight of fancy but represents an affordable dream for sports car lovers

Volkswagen has replaced its Golf SE with a better-equipped Match model. Although it's £300 more than the SE, with prices starting at £17,730, it comes with £1,600 worth of added equipment, including 16" alloy wheels, leather multi-function steering wheel, DAB digital radio, Bluetooth mobile phone connectivity, front and rear parking sensors and a touchscreen stereo system with 6-CD changer, air conditioning, alarm, cruise control, seven airbags and stability control.


The Match is available as an efficient 103bhp BlueMotion  model, which returns 68.9mpg on the combined cycle while emitting 107g/km. The other engines which the SE was previously available with are also on offer; 1.4 litre petrol with 121bhp or 138bhp 2.0 TDi BlueMotion Technology. The 138bhp 2.0 TDi emits 114g/km and returns 65.7mpg. The 1.4 petrol and 1.6 TDi are available with a 7 speed DSG gearbox.

The Volkswagen Golf Match is available to order now for first deliveries in June for the 2011 MY.

• These are some of the fantastic luxurious models that are designed for 2010 and that are delivering not only ultimate speed and power but also high class comfort and styling.

• This is a very fantastic hybrid luxurious model that is a four door rear-wheel drive sedan that is built in Finland and style features and capabilities are just providing an ultimate luxury which everyone would just love to have and the dazzling blue color is itself more than enough to capture anyone’s attraction. Fisker has designed this model to be such a strong one that can be used as the luxury model as well as the sports car that can give the ultimate speed and luxury which you might not have experienced before.

The football World Cup starts next month – and along with the globe's top teams battling it out on the pitch, it also brings the chance of winning a car from Kia or Toyota.

World Cup sponsor Kia has a free prize daw for a Soul 2 running between 17th May and 11th July. Simply pop in to one of the UK's 150+ Kia dealers and you could win one of the £11,500 cars.


Four Toyota and Lexus dealers in Yorkshire are each stumping up an iQ city-car in another giveaway that's open to the first 1,000 people who take a test drive.

It's a bit more complicated than the Kia competition, however, because the dealers are also asking entrants to guess the scores in each of the group matches England is playing against the USA, Algeria and Slovenia.

Winners will be selected at random in the event of more than four of the test-driving football pundits coming up with the correct scores. Click here or here for more information.

The makeover is available from dealers now and costs £149 including VAT and fitment.

Lexus has given the hybrid GS 450h model a minor refresh for 2010 including added safety systems, equipment and minor styling changes.

The biggest change is the addition of new safety systems. Both front seats now get inflator-operated active headrests. These push the headrest forwards and upwards to reduce the chance of whiplash in the event of a rear-end crash. It also gets pre-crash brake technology that flashes a warning to the driver and makes the brakes more sensitive and reacts quicker to foot pressure when a crash is detected.


These additions include a new 40GB hard disc drive (HDD) sat-nav system that gives coverage for across Europe and is available on both SE and SE-L trims. This system also comes with 10GB of storage space for music for up to 2,000 songs - only available on SE-L models. Also as an option buyers can specify DAB digital radio.

On the styling front the small changes include a new front grille design while the rear light clusters have also been altered. A new 18” alloy wheel design is now available on the SE-L trim.

Inside there are few changes apart from the hybrid-blue backlit stop/start button and the option of grey leather trim with contrasting black stitching and maple wood trim.

Entry-level SE models start from £43,035, rising to £50,185 for the range-topping SE-L with ACC/PCS and sunroof. Without the sunroof and adaptive cruise control, SE-L prices start at £47,280.

The hybrid GS model will continue to use the same 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine along with the 650V electric motor. This gives the GS 450h SE CO2 emissions of 179g/km (SE-L 180g/km) and a combined fuel economy figure of 37.2mpg (7.6l/100km).

The 2012 Clio will bring exciting, daring design back Renault’s model ranks.

That's the view of Steve Norman, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Renault, who gave inside information on the forthcoming supermini recently, describing it as “a car with the makings of an icon”.


"Clio IV has the potential to do two things for us: to make us the leading player in Europe’s biggest market sector, and to show a new generation of buyers how fantastic our cars can look," said Norman.

“I can’t describe just how amazing it looks. It’s a real masterstroke of design. You have to see it for yourself to believe it.”

Company insiders suggest that the new Clio takes several cues from the Zoe concept – a similarly-sized, all-electric hatchback headed for production as one of La Regie’s ‘Z.E.’ electric vehicles.

It’s also rumoured that, while design work on the Clio IV was already underway in early 2009, new Renault design boss Laurens van den Acker ordered several changes to the car when he arrived in May of last year.

Van den Acker recently said the new Clio “has the McDonald’s ‘Big Mac’ factor: it’s a very pretty car - good enough to eat!”

• Still in the event the Geneva Motor Show, this time one of menus with interesting coming from a car manufacturer Koenigsegg is headquartered in Sweden. Car manufacturers this fee that is still young present in Geneva to fill space by bringing the latest creations from Koenigsegg Agera. As the latest supercar presence in the automotive world want to show the experience to the next level whether it is now on the road or at a race track. Aroma sporty this car is not only felt on looks alone but also on the performance of a very powerful vehicle speed.

• Maserati turn to show off at the Geneva Motor Show 2010 event. Origin of a luxury car manufacturer Bologna, Italy officially announced their plans to introduce edition Quattroporte awards at the prestigious event. Actually the car is a special version of the Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S. Basicnya who was so sporty and luxury cars makes this a feasible target. No exaggeration indeed considering this special model is there are some changes to the exterior, the cabin, the kitchen also pacunya

• The Audi R8 Spyder has been officially unveiled Frankfurt. The Audi R8 Spyder is powered by the 5.2 liter FSI V10 engine developing 386 kW (525 hp) and 530 Nm (390.91 lb-ft) at 6,500 rpm. with this powerplant under its hood, the Audi R8 Spyder is able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds and to 200 km/h in 12.7 seconds. The top speed of the Audi R8 Spyder is 313 km/h (194.49 mph). The engine of the Audi R8 Spyder is coupled with a six-speed manual transmission and the company's quattro all-wheel-drive system.