Longest warranty in the UK bags Autocar award for Kia

The new Kia cee’d scooped a major honour at this year’s Autocar awards, three months before it hits UK showrooms. The new car will launch in 2007 with an industry-leading seven year 100,000-mile manufacturer warranty which grabbed the attention of the Autocar judges. The ‘Idea of the Year’ award was presented to Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President at Kia Motors Europe at an award ceremony in Weybridge, Surrey.

Autocar editor, Chas Hallett, said: “You’ve got a marque whose cars are near class best for quality, you’re about to launch your most important car in years, so how do you get the customers’ attention?

“One way is to underline your faith in the product by giving it a seven year manufacturer’s warranty – two years more than the best warranty ever, four years more than your toughest opponent.”

Jean-Charles Lievens commented: “This is the best possible start for the new cee’d. It has been designed and manufactured in Europe with the aim of attracting new European customers. We wanted to underline the faith we have in our quality and reliability and offering the longest warranty in the UK and Europe is a strong statement to the customer.”

Editor Hallet added: “Kia is so confident. Its new cee’d has been conceived by an experienced team set on matching or beating Astra, Golf and Focus in every aspect that matters to customers. None of the others offers even five years of warranty, let alone seven. This is an extraordinary offer and worthy of Autocar’s Idea of the Year award.”

The groundbreaking five-door cee’d goes on sale in the UK in February 2007 with the award winning seven year 100,000-mile warranty as standard. This is followed by the cee’d estate in autumn and a three-door hatch at the end of the year. The complete cee’d family will be built in the one-billion Euro Zilina plant in Slovakia – which aims to be the most efficient plant of its kind in the world, producing 100 cars per employee per year.