The Thailand Special Thread - New Developments/News

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by whynot

Body on frame
Leaf springs at rear
17" steel rims out of the box on base models, with 18" on the rest (no need to swap/sell the useless 21")
Tyres are not the crappy Goodyear Wrangler Territory with soft sidewalls (Kumo AT51???)
Engine seems typical for the lower end of the 4WD market.
Payload seems typical
Towing load seems typical
Loss of sales to Kia might help Ford sharpen their pencil on Ranger pricing.

As much as I despise the Ranger, I don't think the Ranger customer is the kind of customer who will cross shop it against Kia Tasman, its the bougie private buyer queen and the Kia Tasman is going to be competing at the lower tier with shit like the Triton and fleet queens like the DMax.

What I love is this was the Tasman concept:



And this is what we ended up with:



The comments from the Kia General Manager are hilarious:

Roland Rivero, general manager of product planning for Kia Australia, said “the keyboard warriors have been busy since the reveal”.

“Arguably though they haven’t seen the car,” he said.

We've seen the car, its ****ing ugly, do you even have eyes or are they painted on?

“General feedback has been very positive.”

Dennis Piccoli, chief operating officer of Kia Australia said the reaction from previews offered to Kia dealers were positive, and that fleet managers who were “not as sensitive to exterior design” also responded well to the car.

There you go, fleet queen.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/m...aeb258ef9411d2

The only competition I see this thing presenting is on fleet specials, might get some buy in at the corporate level, but then its attempting to compete with Toyota, who has a hell of a lot better spares and aftersales coverage.

Isuzu DMax competitor at best I reckon.

[Charliewool]

Can’t compare to our original Tasman!
https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for...-ii/JCM3381524

[Dr Smith]

it's just a flesh wound...every other car maker must be laughing thinking we dodged a bullet while the local Kia staff have all booked counselling sessions to help deal with trauma.
Would potential buyers be considered fish-bums or blind?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Can’t compare to our original Tasman!
https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for...-ii/JCM3381524

Apt comparison - British cars are the red headed step children of the automotive industry, just like how the Kia Tasman is the red headed step child of the Thailand Specials

[Citroënbender]

I suppose they had to call it the Tasman; “Kia Kimberley” sounds like either a children’s cartoon character or a porn star.

A positive missed by whynot is the choice of a more local sounding name - none of the usual aspirations to Americana. Although the marketing imagery shown here is very pseudo-American down to the vest, Stetson type hat and oversized barn.