The Poor Kia K900

[Mark_888]

Interesting take on their marketing strategy.

I would be very interested to see sales rate growth rather than absolute volume. That might provide some insight into how this vehicle is being received.

Keep in mind that Kia and Hyundai together have a huge share of the Korean car market. They can sell the K900 and Equus in Korea, so it doesn't hurt to import them into the US even though they don't sell very many. The idea is that even if they don't sell many in the US, those high end cars improve their brand image in the US.

 

[YEH]

Are you seriously talking about a car 6 years out!?! Lol. Wow. That's patience brother. Haha.

Well, that's if I were looking to buy a sedan that size (the floaty, old school ride of the current K900 is a deal-breaker), nut am much more interested in Kia's upcoming midsize/sportier RWD.

People don't buy 30k Kia's. The ones over 30k have thousands in rebates and discounts. The Cadenza has unfortunately been a disaster in regards to sales. The Equus as well. No getting around it.

Amazingly to their credit Lincoln nor Acura offer a car of this magnitude. Really odd when you think about it. A V-8 RWD Kia!

Actually, people do buy $30k+ Kias - but it's mostly the SX/SX-L trim of the Optima, as well as for the Sorento and now the Sedona (which is why the Optima has a higher ATP than the Camry, Altima or Sonata).

In the UK, sales of the Sorento within 3 months have already exceeded Kia's sales goal for the year, and the top KX-4 trim has accounted for 40% of sales.

The KX-4 starts at L41.5k which converts to about $65k.

Kia can't keep up with demand for the top spec model so there is a waiting list months long.

The Cadenza is priced closer to the ES than the Avalon - which was a mistake (not going with a lower priced base model, but Kia, not having a Genesis equivalent was trying to use the Cadenza as a substitute) and Kia also didn't bring over the current hybrid model.

As for sales of the Equus and now Equus/K900 - it's actually not too bad for RWD models w/o available AWD.

Sales of the 2 are on par w/ the Jaguar XJ which has AWD and a much longer history.

Nonetheless, it would have been better for Kia to have 1st entered the luxury market with a mid-size RWD sedan instead of the K900.

Such a model is undergoing testing and the production version of the GT concept should sell about as well as the Genesis sedan.

 

[YEH]

The poor K900 sold 386 units for Aug. - handily outselling the Equus at 185.

The K900 sold 480 in July.

This fairly drastic increase in K900 sales is a bit surprising since don't think the V6 model is out yet in the US (is available in Canada) - whereas Equus sales have also been hurt by the 2G Genesis.

Still, the 2 combined for 571 sales in the flagship segment for Aug. which is better than the LS460 (532), the A8 (441) and the XJ (336) with these having available AWD.

Expect the next gen models for both the Equus and K900 to sell better as they get AWD and likely the TTV6.

Still won't be big sellers but don't think the 2 doing over 1k a month is out of the question (depending more on how much the movement of full-size sedan buyers to large crossovers and SUVs progresses) - which is why it's important for H/K to both come out with a Genesis based crossover.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Good news, YEH. I think at least SOME Equus sales are not happening because people are waiting for the second generation...