Kia Ray

2012 Kia Ray

2012 Kia Ray interior

Nope, that's not a Daihatsu Tanto and that isn't the Suzuki Palette either. It's not the upcoming Honda NBOX as you see it. What you see is not a kei car but this is a Korean compact car that draws inspiration from kei cars from Japan. This here is called the Kia Ray.

The "RAY" name from Kia was derived from the Kia Ray concept car as seen at Chicago last year but unlike the Ray Concept, which is a plug-in hybrid sedan, this new model has no relation to the concept car as seen in Chicago. This is just a box car that draws inspiration from the Daihatsu Tanto. Think of it as a Daihatsu Tanto with the Tiger Nose on it. Get it? Because the Kia Ray steals the ideas from the Daihatsu Tanto, expect seeing a sliding door on the passenger side but it's pillar-less. There's no need to explain what's what with the pillar-less part of this Kia Ray because this was familiar from the Tanto and the Toyota Isis. What's that thing they called? Oh yeah! It's called PANORAMA OPEN DOOR! Why the Kia Ray featured the PANORAMA OPEN DOOR?!

On the interior, this is somewhat intriguing but a little bit rubbish in design terms. The instrumental panel looks similar to the Citroen DS4 and hey, there's the steering wheel as seen on the Kia Pride/Rio UB or the new Kia Morning/Picanto! Well, don't get a little bit excited about the Ray's interior but for a Ray with full options, you'll get climate control, heated seats, navigation system, and USB connectivity. The Ray can accommodate up to five passengers and the seats can be folded for luggage capacity.

The Kia Ray is powered by the 1.0L gasoline engine that produces 78ps of power, 9.6kg-m of torque, and it has 17km/L of fuel economy while on the Kia Ray Bifuel, which comes with the 1.0L LPG engine that has the same power and torque, can go up to 16.6km/L in Gasoline mode and 13.2km/L in LPG mode. It is mated with a rubbish 4-speed automatic transmission, which sounds lousy but it feels like it's shooting an episode of Bonanza while driving.

The Kia Ray comes in 10 exterior colors; White, Milky Beige, Silver, Titanium Silver, Aqua Mint, Celestial Blue, Aries Blue, Signal Red, Coffee Mocha, and Black.

My comment:
Sold exclusively to the Korean market, the new Kia Ray is the Korean's take on Japanese kei cars, but because this has a body of a kei car with a 1000cc engine on it, it's not classified as a kei car but this is somewhat a big rival to the Suzuki Solio. Still, it's too rubbish to bring it on us, even some direct importers from the Philippines such as Pitstop Motors or HANCARS can't consider bringing the Kia Ray directly to the Philippines. Watch out though, this car may end up handled and looked like a pig. In fact, this new Kia Ray compact van is rubbish, and I do mean rubbish.

Photo: Kia Motors