Well doen to Kia on the win...even 10 years aao I don't think anyone would have thought they would have come so far.

Dunno about that Alan, by 2012 the results of Kia poaching Audi designer Peter Schreyer was very much turning Kia's image round. We had the third gen Rio, arguably the best looking supermini of its time and very much the equal of the competition save the Fiesta (dynamics) and Polo (interior quality). Second gen Ceed kicked off in 2012 and the same comments apply to it re the competition. We were two years into the lifespan of the third gen Sportage which was massively popular, to the extent that the fourth gen (in 2016) didn't change its looks very much at all.

Wouldn't really put too much stock in the results though. Going by what I read, the competition is very much like the automotive version of the Eurovision Song Contest!.

Parent company Hyundai also poached (presumably another German) the head of the BMW M division, et voila the i30N was born.

Now all they need is to poach a few of Mazda's stylists before Toyota get their mitts on them due to the hybrid/EV tie-up and they're sorted.

The Euro makes, Americans and Japanese should now be very worried at how the likes of KIA and Hyundai are improving their cars whilst offering better warranty terms. All they need is that last bump in performance/handling and styling and they'll be at the top of the tree.

Well one thing to know is Australia no longer has any home grown auto manufacturing. Kia / Hyundai market share looked to be enormous. Is that our future here?

Don't see why it would - the market and manufactuing are very different in Australia. In the UK cars made here have a large population and then can easily and cheapy be exported into Europe.

Austtalia has a much smaller local market and more costly to export.