Why not more on the road ?

A mixture of badge snobbery, and the fact that it takes a long time to build brand awareness and reputation - and it also takes a long time to destroy such a reputation.

You only have to look at the sheer number of people who post about problems with Golfs and Passats, who say (the equivalent of) "I bought it because they're reliable".

We've got a Kia Rio as a works 'pool car'. Done 20k in the first year, and it's very nice and comfortable. It replaced a 2008 Rio, which did 110,000 miles with no problems at all.

Although I have had different makes of cars and have tended never to get the same make, if I had to replace my current KIA, I would definitely choose another KIA.

In fact, I was on holiday in the US recently, and at the car rental place, you could choose from a whole row of cars of different makes in the appropriate class, and I specifically chose a KIA; it was not a model I was familiar with or available in the UK - Forte - but it was a great car. I'll have the say that the trip computer's reported fuel economy figure wasn't great, <40mpg even on a drives that were almost all freeway, though as this was the US in cost it was still super cheap to run.

Wonder why not more.

With a 7-year warranty and many satisfied customers, repeat sales are lower than conventional brands

I've done 7,000 miles now in a Kia Sorento that I bought at the end of June. Some of that towing 1500kg.

The car is comfortable, and very stable when towing. The headlights (HID) are great, and make my morning commutes easier. They've put a lot of attention into the little things too - Autohold [keeping the footbrake on when the car is stationary] is wonderful, and when I turn off the engine, the parking brake applies automatically. No rattles. No faults.

The only negative about the car is that the satnav maps are too old, and the routing not sufficiently good. But I'm used to using google maps to navigate - which is a high bar. Kia are apparently aiming to move to android auto (and the apple equivalent), so I'll be able to have the best of both worlds. The update is still a while away though - expected sometime in 2017.

Some of the dealers are below par, especially in the service departments. I can understand Kia UK having to compromise in the early days, but they need to sort this if they are serious about entering the big league.

We've only bought Japanese cars [mainly Honda and Toyota] for the last 15 years, but not regretting the choice.

Had one of the early Kia cee'ds and it provided a good value-for-money package - main problem ride quality - tended to be very firm.

Currently looking at the Kia Niro - once again, a good value-for-money hybrid compared to the Toyota Auris/Prius. Bit worried that Kia have launched it in Spain with an advertised 22% discount