Kia Keeps Telling Us That Their New GT Coupe Will Topple The Germans - Are You Starting To Believe There Is Something There?

No. The overall fit and finish will not be there. Like most competitors nowadays, they are good from far, far from good.

if by Germans they mean vw, then there's no doubt. but there's no way they can compete against the upscale brands. atleast not for a long time

Perception is reality. They are perceived as a lower brand. Look at a Kia Soul. A fully loaded 2013 model now worth just $8,000.00. There is no way that competes with the Germans.

It must be hard doing that much kneeling in front of BMW.

German car bigots will sneer that the build quality will not match the Germans and they are right. Why would anyone consciously aim for making unreliable cars?

I think the Germans put finer materials into their interiors so that when they stand you by the side of the road, you have a nice place to sit while waiting for the tow truck.

Anyone who has seen the Genesis knows that H/K is in the game with both feet.

H/K is slotting Hyundai as the entry brand, moving Kia to near-premium and Genesis to premium.

Seeing will be believing. To Myeong Darringer's point, the K900 is actually a really nice car, but should never have been positioned/marketed as a lower-cost S-Class. It should have marketed and priced as a more luxurious and roomier 5 Series and maybe it would have sold.

To Der Fuhrer Cidflekken's point: I agree.

The reality is - while a number of manufacturers have tried to establish sort of new premium brands in the USA - the last one to really successfully do it was LEXUS - and they did it largely by producing two cars THE ES and the LS - and a CUV - the RX - two of which were largely fancied Toyota cars at the beginning - and the LS was nothing more than a Buick Competitor at the right time for the market _ just as GM was stuttering. Lexus never really countered the Germans though - they actually stuck with their formula of producing LUXURIOUS cars for older Americans (The ones with the money to buy them) Audi tried something similar with their lineup - which also largely only sells small cars too. But their insistence on small nimble sports vehicles has failed to sell larger more premium cars in their lineup for LOTS of reasons.

THe companies that have openly targeted the Germans - have failed - including Cadillac. THe reason why Cadillac and Infiniti failed was DeNysschen - whose insistence on Smaller - more nimble vehicles is not what the market wants in the USA - THe idea that they should produce the cars DeNysschen wants and eventually the market will move to buying them - flies in the wisom of selling what the customers actually do want.

I believe that there is a limited market for sports sedans - and that is why Mercedes - after market research - moved to the Luxury side - and let AMG take the sports cars. Makes that attempt to break into the "german" sports sedan market are finding it to be a hard sell at best. In my area - Hyundai and Kia are still low priced highly discounted cars - selling for way below their sticker prices to move inventory - and they still need the 10/100,000 warranty to do it. Regardless of "good" these cars are - they are still perceived as low level. And that does not bode well for Genesis. THe market for more "german" cars is not there. WHat they need to do is go after the old Oldsmobile/Buick/Mercury market with larger luxurious offerings that are priced to an advantage - American senior still can afford to buy new cars but most are looking for a replacement for their Electra and 98 and Grand Marquis. I would buy a Grand Marquis today if they still made them

They make good starter cars for high school to college age kids, but beyond that, no.