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Before I discuss the importance of driving dynamics and the utter lack thereof in the Kia Rondo, I must share a discovery. I realized on one of my links that this car is being marketed to my gay brethren. The advertising is about as subtle as Harvey Firestein. 

As if niche marketing can overcome the utter lack of driving dynamics that plauge this ride.  

Such dynamics are the reason that German cars always have a certain "feel" for the road. It is also the kind of feeling that Asian manufacturers have been trying to engineer into their rides ever since. American car companies remain Cowboy-like in their approach to things and tend to keep the driving dynamics of their rides loose. (Muscle over precision).

While you can quibble over the differences in foreign and domestic makes it is hard to argue that smallish German cars in particular, like Volkswagens, offer superior driving dynamics at the cost of reliability and ownership headaches. Mini Coopers are the most fun to drive of all smallish cars on the market (and they are German, not British, duh). The Saturn Astra (a Geman Opel) is also a fantastic handler for a smallish car.

Given that the technology exists to make any smaller drive with some dynamism there really is no excuse for the kind of Korean suasage I have been driving this week while my American ride (the Aviator, greatest SUV of all time, ever, and for always) is getting some body work done. This hideous little ride is called the Rondo.

And I have nothing mondo to say about it.

It looks like a bloated sausage and drives like cold butter.

Now I know why Kia is offering to buy back their cars if you lose your job.

You'll have no appetite for their rides.

P.S. Read more about local sausages here.

p.p.s Brian, tell Kia that your 330 is worth twenty of these because it is.