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Crappy Car of the Month: Kia Borrego

Posted October 1, 2008

SUVs have a special place in America's heart — at least they did until this year. That all vanished faster than a Hollywood marriage when gas prices got higher than Tommy Chong at Burning Man. Upstart Korean automaker Kia obviously thought it was better to be late to the party — which they arrived to just about the time the hosts were cleaning up the vomit from the Cadillac Escalade — than never.

But there's something I can't shake about this car that bothers me. Could it be its anonymous styling — landing on the sexy meter somewhere between the Ford Explorer and Bea Aurthur. Or is it the body-on-frame platform, something most SUV makers are running from in droves to salvage fuel economy and establish a more "car-like" ride? Maybe its the fuel economy in the teens that screams irrelevant.

Perhaps its the general concession to a segment of autodom that I've resented for years. It's something that even Porsche couldn't ignore, and Kia probably spent millions digging out their share. Sadly for them, it's probably a car that only sell with the help of massive incentives. Those left in the SUV market are there probably because they can't unload their mastodon fast enough to swallow high gas prices (or the dwindling few who can actually afford 10 mpg trucks).

The Borrego has generally had good reviews, and Kia is by no means the bottom-feeding penalty box it once was. In fact, their rise to prominence is nothing short of miraculous. But their continuing market share in the next few years will depend upon sharp, fuel-efficient vehicles rather than another Toyota Sequoia clone. I have a feeling that history will remember this vehicle as too big, too late.

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