Kia Plans To Topple BMW As Benchmark Of Ride And Handling

Kia wants to become as respected for the ride and handling of its cars as it is for its design and quality.

So says the firm’s European chief operating officer, Michael Cole, who highlighted the appointment of the former BMW M development chief Albert Biermann to the role of its performance vehicles boss as evidence.

“Dynamics is a key focus for us, with teams working on it across the business,” Cole told Autocar. “We have built a reputation on design, quality and reliability, but now there is a lot of focus on ride and handling. We also want to be a benchmark on ride and handling.

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countguy - 9/14/2016 1:47:08 PM

+8 Boost

LMAO!

Car4life1 - 9/14/2016 5:23:01 PM

-3 Boost

Careful, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Ford, and GM all laughed when Kia said they wanted to be taken seriously in the North American market...and 10 years later guess who is a thorn in all of their sides...Kia

And with the appointment of the former BMW M development chief Albert Biermann to the role of its performance vehicles boss, I'd say they are pretty serious about this goal.

And lets be honest, as amazing as the driving dynamics were on cars BMW offered in the past, today the lines get blurred and the brand has not been on its A game delivering less "ultimate" driving experiences then some competitors especially when the BMW does not have an M badge on it.

So I say more power to Kia, go for it, may the best team win and get BMW back on their A game.

TheSteve - 9/14/2016 3:02:25 PM

+2 Boost

Best wishes, Kia. LOTS of people have had this objective, made this claim, etc.

Dexter1 - 9/14/2016 4:49:33 PM

+2 Boost

Lofty aspirations indeed. Especially for a cheap, Korean wannabe.

w222 - 9/14/2016 5:09:22 PM

+9 Boost

good one!

HughJass - 9/14/2016 5:56:42 PM

+10 Boost

Didn't realize they were respected for design and quality. The Koreans did hire BMW engineers so not difficult to just rebuild at KIA what they built BMW. Still no brand value.

TomM - 9/14/2016 7:58:50 PM

0 Boost

Sorry - but the problem is that BMW WAS the benchmark ten years ago - but today - they are not clearly the leader anymore.

And I give KIA no chance - even if they actually produce a better car for one or two magazine tests - because they are basically a wanna be second tier entry level (Slightly above Hyundai - only because they look better) - and this is not their place - nor do they have the prestige to do that - something that would take decades to build

MDarringer - 9/14/2016 9:32:50 PM

-8 Boost

Given how BMW has lost its way both dynamically and stylistically, they can be toppled rather easily.

malba2367 - 9/15/2016 12:11:36 PM

+5 Boost

The BMW ride and handling comes from perfect 50-50 weight distribution as a core design philosophy and a huge amount of time and resources spent on engineering, testing and tuning the chassis. Yes you can hire a couple BMW engineers but you also have to spend the money to get it right. Kia would have to move to RWD or AWD chassis across the board and charge a lot more for their cars to succeed. It will take them 15-20 years to position their brand to be able to charge the prices they would need to do the profitably, and they would have to eat huge losses while they are doing that.

If attaining the ride/handling of BMW were as easy as hiring some BMW engineers then everybody would do it.

Also, don't mistake the "softening" of the current BMWs as them losing their way...this was a deliberate move to appeal to a broader base who thought BMWs ride too harsh etc. The base BMW models ride softer than previously but the M sport models ride and handle more like the previous generations did. The styling is another matter...I do agree that they have gotten very lazy with their styling recently (as has Audi).