car auto blaas

The 2011 Kia Sportage beat out both the Nissan Juke and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport in a recent CUV shootout conducted by Consumer Reports. According to CR, Kia has managed to more effectively straddle the line between a full-on SUV and a more civil hatchback with its offering. That’s thanks largely to the fact that the Sportage serves up plenty of interior room without falling on its face in the fun-to-drive department. While the Juke delivers unique styling and plenty of performance, buyers are forced to make major sacrifices in the cargo room department.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports found the Outlander Sport to share too much DNA with the standard Outlander to take the title.

Everything wasn’t all roses and sunshine with the Sportage, however. CR noted that the vehicle has a planted highway ride, but that acceleration was “leisurely.” Additionally, the Korean CUV has a stiff ride and plenty of road noise at speed. The tester for this particular competition carried a $23,790 MSRP and the company’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with 176 horsepower. CR says that the vehicle managed 22 combined miles per gallon in its testing. Hit the jump for the press release.

Kia had a strong 2010 and the Korean automaker hopes that momentum is continued right through 2011. No doubt, the all-new 2011 Kia Optima is one vehicle that will be a cornerstone for the brand if it is to keep up its recent success. No rusprise, then, that Kia is unveiling a new 60-second ad spot highlighting its midsize sedan during the first quarter of the Super Bowl.

Entitled “One Epic Ride,” the commercial features the 2011 Optima as it “travels through time and space.” The car becomes an object of desire for cops, aliens, an international villain and even the Greek god Poseidon.

Further pushing the Optima messaging to the masses is the One Epic Contest. In the days preceding the Super Bowl, Kia will reveal a series of clues by way of TV spots, print ads and social media posts. The clues will then be used to answer questions at the OneEpicContest.com website, and five lucky winners will walk away with a brand new 2011 Kia Optima of their very own. Check out the complete press release after the break.

The 2011 International Truck of the Year has an all new available engine under the hood. Canadian Kia fans can soon head over to dealers and pick up the 2011 Kia Sportage SX, which features a directly-injected 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. We’d expect the U.S. to follow suit in very short order.

Paired with a six-speed automatic transmission, the turbo mill has a relatively flat torque curve with peak power occurring between 1,800 and 3,000 rpm. When bolted into the 2011 Sonata, the 2.0T is rated at 274 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. We expect the Sportage SX to produce similar numbers, including the 30+ miles per gallon highway fuel economy figures.

The car will show up in Canadian dealer showrooms by the end of winter. Priced at $36,995, it comes loaded with standard features including the new UVO entertainment system, which is similar to Ford’s Sync. Check out the full press release after the break.

Let the Geneva Motor Show previews begin. A handful of images of the facelifted Kia Pro_Cee’d have managed to find their way to the internet via Kia World. Fans of the company’s corporate nose will be happy to see the communal H-shaped grille make an appearance on the model for the first time, and new, aggressive fog-light insets help give the vehicle a little more personality, too. We can’t tell from the leaked photos, but we’d guess that the rear has received a similar, if not slight, update as well.

But the aesthetics aren’t the only thing on that’s changed on the punctuation-laden Pro_Cee’d. Kia World also suggests that the Kia will now come with a slightly warmed-over diesel engine under its hood. The new lump is expected to churn out 128 horsepower and 188 pound-feet of torque from 1.6-liters of displacement. Look for the revised Pro_Cee’d to show up at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show in March.