Amid the rise of large SUVs in the U.S. in recent years, minivan sales began their free fall in 2008, resulting in a dramatic drop in sales volume by 53 percent. But officials at Kia Motors are confident that the car company’s all-new 2015 Sedona MPV, and its capability as a multi-purpose vehicle, will help drive up the minivan demand once again, while forcing its direct competitors like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Chrysler Town & Country “out of the market,” according to Howard Lim, the South Korean automaker’s public relations manager.
“The new Sedona offers a sophisticated design, durability and practicality,” Lim told reporters in Korean, at Kia’s media event on Thursday in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. “It is a different kind of a minivan from the ones in the past.”
The 2015 Sedona remains a vehicle that stays true to the traditional purpose of a minivan, which Steve Kosowski, the company’s national manager for long-range planning, said is to let the drivers “carry a lot of people and stuff.” But it’s trying to fill that need while also giving the van an eye-catching design, innovative seating and outstanding safety. It boasts a top five-star overall safety rating.
An eight-passenger minivan, the Sedona provides seven trim levels. Its value model, the basic Sedona L, starts at $27,495, while trip levels in this group also include the L, LX and LX+. The top-of-the-line model is the SXL+ which is priced at $45,995.
Just as it did with its hip, hamster-powered Soul, Kia stresses that its minivan, unlike its predecessors that were known for their rigid design, offers a “cool factor” of its own. Designed by former Audi lead designer Peter Schreyer, the Sedona sports Kia’s trademark “tiger nose” grille. The rear also has large taillights with a full-height liftgate.
Inside, Kia officials noted that the Sedona is the only minivan on the market that provides heated second-row seats.
“The aim for the Sedona is to create a new sweet spot for the driver and the passengers,” Kosowski said. “The public perception of minivans has been that it’s just for mothers with children. Perception is not always the reality because 45 percent of minivan drivers across the country don’t have kids, and they drive it because of its practicality. The Sedona’s goal is to change that perception.”
Image courtesy of Kia
