Illinois passenger plate scored a perfect 255/255.
FF
And a very slow seller in the US, because it’s a luxury car, and people in the market for a luxury car don’t typically shop at Kia dealerships. From your Wikipedia link in it’s best sales year in the US they only sold 2,524 cars, and most years they sold fewer than 1000.
And on that note, this morning I saw a Saab 9-7X, which was basically a badge engineered Chevy Trailblazer. The Saab badged version seems to be pretty uncommon as well, selling only a few thousand per year over 5 model years.
When I was at the Kia dealership getting my Niro, at some point I griped about the price. I still remember the sales person, unironically, saying ‘it’s a luxury car, of course it’s more expensive’ or something to that extent. I was already in a shitty mood and almost walked out after that comment. All these years later and I still remember him saying it. I almost laughed before I realized he wasn’t joking. It’s a fucking Kia, it’s not a luxury anything. In my opinion, it’s not even as luxurious as a Honda.
Therein lies the rub. The K900 is Kia’s attempt at a luxury vehicle but the luxury brand is Genesis – also owned by Hyundai.
Hyundai has Genesis, Kia doesn’t have a luxury sub-brand. Not sure how they are positioning Kia vs Hyundai.
For some reason, I was under the impression that Hyundai had a larger stake in Kia. Really just over one-third according to Wikipedia.
BMW EV roadster:
I don’t know that I can say. Took a road trip out to Classic Auto Mall with a group. Didn’t realize there was a car show going on in the parking lot. A couple hundred cars in the parking lot in addition to the 900+ inside on consignment.
For outside I’m going to go with the '57 Pontiac convertible. Red like this random web photo except the top was up.
For inside I’m going to go with the total ridiculousness of Air Mail
Not exactly a car, and from several years ago
somewhat painful, but not unheard of in LatAm:
Saw this Mini today:
I think this must be a custom job - I’ve never seen one with a roll bar.
They also had a VW Beetle Pickup
I just saw a Vinfast VF8.
A what, you say? Exactly my thought when seeing it.
It’s a Vietnamese electric car, with very limited imports to date. The reviews cited in the Wikipedia article think it’s junk.
Porsche 911 (996) that, I think, is stock. Google is showing me a lot of identical ones, so I’m assuming it rolled out of the factory with the giant autozone spoiler.
Actually, looking at all the pictures I’m seeing online, I think they may all be this exact car, I’m guessing the owner shows it a lot. The pictures I’m seeing online all seem to be tagged with the same name I see in the rear driver side window.
70(?) Nova
I wouldn’t have given this jeep a second though but it looked odd and was really loud. It’s not often I see a jeep with modded exhaust or whatever was making it that loud.
Not sure what year it is, but it has collector plates, which I think require the car to be at least 20 years old. It’s also not a stock paint job, at least based on the jeep emblem being the same color.
Thunderbirds, old and newer
Yesterday while driving home from Santa Barbara CA we passed this beautiful T-bird
On Friday at a coffee shop in Santa Ynez CA I spotted this new Thunderbird. My ivory 356 cabriolet is near it, with my wife napping inside it.
That pink one looks like it has some suspension or spring problems.
I saw this one the other day (and didn’t post it because I was annoyed that he was parked across multiple spots, right by the door)
Hmmm, I hadn’t noticed that. Maybe that’s why he was driving so slow on the freeway, about 50 MPH.
It must have been an old T-Bird weekend. I spotted this one while volunteering at running race Saturday morning.
There were over 200 Porsche 356s down in Santa Barbara and it was great to see them all. It was a fun time there.
