All new Kia Picanto named as the ‘Bargain of the Year’
December 2011
Kia Motors is pleased to announce that the all new Kia Picanto and its Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, have received honours in the BBC Top Gear Magazine annual awards. The Kia Picanto has been named ‘Bargain of the Year’ and Schreyer was selected as one of the ‘Men of the Year’ in the special awards issue, published on 30 November 2011.
The Kia Picanto has been showered with awards since its debut in Europe in June this year and BBC Top Gear Magazine wrote of the car, “Finally, here’s a Korean supermini that you might choose over, say, a Fiat 500. You want a bargain? The car we have here is a touch over 10 grand (£10,000 GBP), but you can have one for under eight. That’s two grand less than the cheapest Cinquecento, and – for our money – it’s the better car.
“This is the Picanto, our ‘Bargain Car of the Year’, a fluorescent metaphor for South Korea’s journey from the havoc of wartime to economic enormity. A prime example of how this place is spooking big businesses, not just with cheap substitutes, but with properly desirable stuff, from smartphones to tellies to cars,” the magazine added.
Selected as one of the 'Men of the Year', Peter Schreyer is the man behind the team that created the Kia Picanto’s strong identity. Schreyer has since been heralded for his strong leadership skills.
The commendation said, “Good design is basically about creating products people want to buy. Peter Schreyer has presided over that process at Kia with impressive fortitude and skill.”
Schreyer commented, “I am hugely honoured by BBC Top Gear’s generosity both to me and, more importantly, to our Picanto. I have said before that it is incredibly rare for a designer to be given a clean sheet of paper when joining a company – but I think with this award, the bravery of that decision has clearly paid off!
“Top Gear is famous around the world as probably the most independently minded magazine, staffed with car enthusiasts who are not afraid to say what they think – so this award truly excites every one of us within Kia,” he concluded.
Global sales of the new Kia Picanto, which is manufactured exclusively in Korea, have totalled 158,427 from January to October of this year.
The Kia Picanto has been designed to replace the Kia Rio, as the most affordable car within the Kia range.