Korean endorsement as Kia Rio names car of the year

WE’VE been telling all those willing to listen for many months now that the Korean car industry — represented by Hyundai and Kia, which are part of the same conglomerate — is the coming thing in the worldwide car business.

The strides they have made in terms of design, build quality, engineering and value for money has a lot of the more established players out there taking a new found interest in what is coming out of the giant plants at Ulsan and elsewhere on the Korean peninsula.

And, while it might be a relatively small achievement in the greater scheme of all things automotive, the awarding last week of the Continental Irish Car of the Year 2012 by the Irish Motoring Writers’ Association to the Kia Rio, is a further endorsement of what the Koreans are doing.