Naza Kia Sdn Bhd (NKSB), the official franchise holder for the KIA marquee, today unveiled a face lifted model of the popular Picanto. As the best selling Kia model, with over 867,553 units sold worldwide, the restyled Picanto offers customers a more contemporary and stylish body kit. It is the CKD Picanto that was previously called the Naza Suria, but now The Suria name has been dropped and replaced by the Kia name, though the Naza badge remains. The Suria name was probably inspired by the Picanto’s Korean market name, which is the Kia Morning.
The New Picanto starts at RM44, 500 on-the-road for the LS - standard specification model or RM 46,800 on-the-road for higher specification EX. It features a new body kit, sporty new bumpers, fenders and front grille. With new head and tail lights and spoiler, the interior also receives an upgrade with a newly installed universal serial bus (USB) function.
The most obvious change is of course the aesthetic update to the latest look that has been available from Kia internationally. With the latest facelift in Korea, there were actually two different front ends available but Naza has picked the version with the rounded foglamps to sell here. There is another one with leaf-shaped look foglamps and funkier alloy wheels, probably some kind of special edition.
On the inside, the interior has been updated with orange backlighting for the controls and meter cluster. The meter cluster is complete with an RPM meter but there is no water temp meter. The head unit provided is a 1-DIN design with USB support so you can read your MP3 files off a USB thumbdrive and do away with carrying CDs in your Picanto. The 1.1 liter engine revs up to 6k RPM and puts out a peak of 64 PS at 5,500rpm and 96Nm of torque at 2,800rpm. I like the fact that peak torque is made under 3,000rpm, which is usually the point an automatic car would shift gears if driven gently. But in any case acceleration from 0 to 100km/h will take a long 15.1 seconds.
“The Picanto is an attractive alternative in the A-segment. We have identified the needs of households for a practical yet stylish vehicle, perfect for city use. The moderately priced Picanto is aimed at interested customers looking for a second car,” said Encik SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin, CEO of Naza Kia Sdn. Bhd.Targeting initial monthly sales of 500 units, the 1.1 litre, 4 cylinder engine Picanto is assembled at Naza Automotive Manufacturing’s factory in Gurun, Kedah. It is now available for sale at all authorized Naza Kia Showrooms nationwide.
Encik SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin also said, “NKSB aims to drive Kia’s presence in Malaysia and we are confident about our partnership and support given to us. We look forward to the launch of more models this year and next. 2010 will see a new emergence of Kia vehicles as we will be introducing a four by four model, a C-segment sports car and several other new models. We hope this will cater to a wide range of consumers.”
1 comments:
the old 1 is better design.ahaks
joint the new naza suria forum at http://suriaclub.net
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