2009 Kia Borrego

2009 Kia Borrego

The 2009 Kia Borrego is Kia’s first V-8 model for North America, a body-on-frame, seven-passenger SUV with a six-speed automatic transmission and a V-6 option that comes with a standard 5-speed transmission. The Borrego will be smaller than the Toyota Sequoia and closer in actual size to Toyota’s V-6 Highlander, but the timing on the release of Kia’s first big SUV may be less than ideal. When Kia first began developing the Borrego four years ago, all the automakers were scrambling to offer bigger, fancier, more powerful SUVs as fast as they could. Gasoline was steady at right around $2 per gallon, and the American public felt confident it would stay there.

Then, last summer happened, with gasoline hitting $4.50 per gallon in some parts of the U.S. Even though oil has retreated to $35 a barrel and gas prices are down again, American confidence is shot. South Korean maker Kia has been a day late and a dollar short on the scene for years now, with periodic predictions of their impending demise being revised to accommodate survival of the flailing brand. Will the Borrego soar like an eagle on the American market, or will it turn out to be yet another Kia turkey? Only time—and American consumers—will tell.