<p>That, at least, is the public line maintained by both companies, which insist that despite a common parent they are largely independent of each other.<br /><br />“Kia Motors America operates as a completely separate sales, marketing and distribution organisation in the US,” said Michael Sprague, the vice president for marketing and communications, who added that the companies shared some engineering efficiencies, “similar in many ways to other global automakers.”<br /><br />A spokesman for Hyundai Motor America, Jim Trainor, said his company treated Kia “just like any other competitor in the automotive space.”<br /><br />Cars to ships<br /><br />The mammoth Hyundai conglomerate, a group of South Korean companies that make everything from cars to steel to seafaring supertankers, bought bankrupt Kia Motors in 1998. The two automakers were combined in a new Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. <br /><br />Despite the companies’ insistence that they are independent, vehicles from Hyundai and Kia have much in common. For example, the Hyundai Santa Fe and the mechanically similar Kia Sorrento roll off a Kia assembly line in West Point, Ga., together. Their starting prices are just $650 apart.<br /><br />In the past, Kia has pitched itself as a more youthful and sporty counterpart of Hyundai, akin to Honda’s relative position with Toyota. <br /><br />But the effort has been haphazard and sometimes inconsistent, as when Kia brought out the Buicklike Amanti luxury sedan in 2004.<br /><br />And it has become even harder to define Kia’s identity lately, as Hyundai has instilled more flair in its styling and introduced several sporty models, including the Genesis Coupe and the new Veloster hatchback. <br /><br />The relationship between the automakers is complicated, says Jim Park, who worked as a Hyundai product planner for 10 years before starting a consulting company, Global Auto Systems of Irvine, Calif. The two brands have separate marketing, distribution and styling departments, but most of the engineering and testing of new vehicles is done under one roof at Hyundai’s 8,000-employee Namyang research and development center in Hwaseong, South Korea, where there’s no distinction between Hyundai and Kia workers.<br /><br />Battles of will between the Hyundai Group and the government, as well as labor problems in Korea, have at times hampered the product plans of Hyundai and Kia.</p>
<p>That, at least, is the public line maintained by both companies, which insist that despite a common parent they are largely independent of each other.<br /><br />“Kia Motors America operates as a completely separate sales, marketing and distribution organisation in the US,” said Michael Sprague, the vice president for marketing and communications, who added that the companies shared some engineering efficiencies, “similar in many ways to other global automakers.”<br /><br />A spokesman for Hyundai Motor America, Jim Trainor, said his company treated Kia “just like any other competitor in the automotive space.”<br /><br />Cars to ships<br /><br />The mammoth Hyundai conglomerate, a group of South Korean companies that make everything from cars to steel to seafaring supertankers, bought bankrupt Kia Motors in 1998. The two automakers were combined in a new Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. <br /><br />Despite the companies’ insistence that they are independent, vehicles from Hyundai and Kia have much in common. For example, the Hyundai Santa Fe and the mechanically similar Kia Sorrento roll off a Kia assembly line in West Point, Ga., together. Their starting prices are just $650 apart.<br /><br />In the past, Kia has pitched itself as a more youthful and sporty counterpart of Hyundai, akin to Honda’s relative position with Toyota. <br /><br />But the effort has been haphazard and sometimes inconsistent, as when Kia brought out the Buicklike Amanti luxury sedan in 2004.<br /><br />And it has become even harder to define Kia’s identity lately, as Hyundai has instilled more flair in its styling and introduced several sporty models, including the Genesis Coupe and the new Veloster hatchback. <br /><br />The relationship between the automakers is complicated, says Jim Park, who worked as a Hyundai product planner for 10 years before starting a consulting company, Global Auto Systems of Irvine, Calif. The two brands have separate marketing, distribution and styling departments, but most of the engineering and testing of new vehicles is done under one roof at Hyundai’s 8,000-employee Namyang research and development center in Hwaseong, South Korea, where there’s no distinction between Hyundai and Kia workers.<br /><br />Battles of will between the Hyundai Group and the government, as well as labor problems in Korea, have at times hampered the product plans of Hyundai and Kia.</p>