Kia KND-4 Diesel Concept Live from the 2007 L.A. Auto Show

LOS ANGELES — Kia knows that great design is the key to getting buyers into its cars, and that distinctive style has the power to move the budget brand up-market. With the pint-sized Kue concept being brought to production over the next year, Kia’s larger KND-4 concept made its North American debut here today.

Sculpted with large, flat surfaces of sheetmetal, the KND-4 explores style and technology directions that might find their way into a Kia crossover SUV. A flat, tallish roofline extends to the rear of the car where it ends in a nearly vertical line, and squat greenhouse glass tapers into sharply pointed tips at the A and C-pillars. A 2.2-liter diesel with a variable geometry turbocharger delivers power to Kia’s Active Torque Transfer system, and the concept’s interior experiments with everything from an active-matrix organic light displays to Blu-ray technologies.

Nobody knows if this forward thinking concept will evolve into a production model, but like many sky’s-the-limit show cars (especially diesels), we certainly hope it does. —Basem Wasef

© Source: popularmechanics
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