Kia

Kia are south Koreas second largest car manufacturer, after Hyundai who own a large stake in Kia.

Many earlier cars have significant links to Mazda, often using platforms and engines from Mazdas previous generation cars under licence. Through the 1980s and 1990s this partnership transitioned to Ford.

In the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, Kia began to struggle before Hyundai acquired a controlling stake in 1998 forming the Hyudai-Kia Automotive group. This investment delivered significant restructuring and modernisation of Kias operations, turning it into a global player that no longer needed to trade solely on value for money.