Palm Kia

Kia Motors is going to try selling new cars on eBay Motors. eBay says South Korea's Kia is "the major automaker to create a nationwide selling place in eBay." Other car companies experimented with selling cars on eBay, but it was a regional test only - this would go nationwide.

Kia will get its own online "storefront" and will market new Kia vehicles through 345 dealers, about half of all Kia dealers in the US?

Kia is most recent entry onto the US automotive market, having only arrived in 1994, and it's growth shows how a company can win buyer's approval in only a shot time, by presenting better quality cars over the years.

Kia had no competitive advantage or reputation to base its entry on. For many years, it survived by selling the least expensive cars on the market. But that was then.

Kia acquired critical mass?

The 2011 Optima Hybrid reportedly receives an estimated 40 MPG highway, and will be capable of driving up to 62 miles per hour when in electric mode only.

Kia said the 2011 Optima Hybrid "uses a full parallel hybrid system that marries a 30 kilowatt battery pack; a permanent magnet synchronous electric traction motor that produces 40.2 horsepower (30 kilowatt) and 151.2 pound-feet of torque when electric only." The gas engine produces...

"Minivans are hardly a hot segment these days, but you wouldn't know it from the slew of introductions in the past year," says USA Today on the abundance of new minivans coming from every major auto maker. Kia's new addition, the updated Sedona, receives a powerful upgrade to its V6 engine.

Under the hood, Sedona receives a new engine - a 3.5-liter V6 engine capable of producing up to 271 horsepower, 27 more horses than the previous version.