Last month, I drove to the Geneva motor show. The focus of the journey was on the quirky Morgan 3 Wheeler – a deliciously impractical vehicle in which to drive from the United Kingdom to Switzerland, but that's what made it an appealing exercise.
But never mind that now. With minimal storage in the 3 Wheeler, we needed a practical load-lugger as the support car – something that would carry clothes, camera equipment and the like, and be frugal on fuel.
We ended up with a Kia – a C’eed Sportswagon, which in Europe competes against the likes of the Ford Focus estate. It had been some time since I’d been in a European-model Kia, as in the Middle East most of the models are geared more towards the American market.
Kias are unlikely to blip large on the average petrolhead’s automotive radar. The Korean manufacturer has its roots in cars that serve a purpose, but do nothing to raise the pulse. In the past, to be fair, the company hasn’t tried to inject any adrenaline anywhere, but in recent years it has been working hard on its image.
The turning point came in 2006, when Kia appointed the former Audi design chief Peter Schreyer to the team. The man who penned the Audi TT set to work improving the look of the Kia range, starting with facelifts and then working on all-new models from the start of development. The Kia portfolio went from a nondescript bunch of white-goods transport solutions to some genuinely interesting machines.
Well, visually anyway. To drive, they were still a bit… meh. The engines were gutless, the transmissions sluggish, the ride soggy and the steering almost completely devoid of feel. But with each new vehicle, the interior quality got better, the options list was impressive and the price was attractive. For the everyday motorist, a good-looking car for good money was a decent choice.
I hadn’t driven a C’eed since it first launched in 2006, but in those nine years it has improved considerably. The looks follow the Kia family face – that is, sleek and handsome – but to drive, it’s much sharper and tighter. It had comfortable ride and road holding, and much better steering feel than any of the Kias I’d driven in the UAE.
Speaking with people from Kia at the Geneva show – right next to the fine-looking Sportspace Concept, its latest eye-catching concept car – revealed that the company is now starting to ramp up its quality. It knows its cars now look good, and the focus going forward is to drag up the technical quality in areas such as handling and power train. New appointments have been made to turn that vision into a reality.
Within the next year, Kia is set to unveil a new type of car for the brand. The details haven’t been released, but look at some of the recent concept vehicles to get the gist – it’ll be rear-wheel drive, with a new, potent engine and a focus on driving pleasure.
It might be too much to expect Kia to produce a superb driver’s car at the first attempt, but it’s reassuring to know what its aims are. Look at the output from its sister company Hyundai to see how progress can be made. The Hyundai Coupe? Pretty darn fun.
Kia’s key issue in the longer term won’t be just improving the quality of its machinery, but in balancing its appeal. Even if it starts to produce cars of the quality of Ford, Nissan and so on, will the public pay Ford money for a Kia?
It takes a long time for a company’s image to change in the eyes of the wider public – just ask Skoda. But if Kia can nail down handling like it has tackled design and keeps the results at a price we like, then we could be getting a whole lot of value-for-money fun heading our way.
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
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Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
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The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
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L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
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Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Saeed Ahmed, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Muhammed Jumah, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
AUSTRALIA SQUADS
ODI squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Twenty20 squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
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Engine: 3.8-litre V6
Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
Price: Dh179,999-plus
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GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE CARD
The line-up as it stands for the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia on April 27
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Haltia.ai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Arto%20Bendiken%20and%20Talal%20Thabet%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AI%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2041%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20About%20%241.7%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self%2C%20family%20and%20friends%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Specs
Engine: 2-litre
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 255hp
Torque: 273Nm
Price: Dh240,000
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
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