Picture the scene, you want a new car and demand something luxurious and feature-packed. Despite this, you stroll past your nearest Mercedes, BMW or Lexus dealers and head into the local Kia store.
Once there, you part with your hard earned cash in exchange for a new, K900 sedan.
Seems like a strange choice to make to go into a dealer and ask to purchase something that was discontinued almost a year ago. However, according to Kia’s latest sales figures, October saw two people in America do just that, and purchase a new Kia K900.
It’s a strange thought process to follow, I know.
And I don’t mean that as a slight on the K900. It’s a nice sedan and was an ambitious move from Kia when it was released in 2012. Despite making a name for itself in the US with cheap family cars, the K900 was a $60,000 car with oodles of luxuries packed into a spacious cabin.
When it debuted in the US, the overall quality of the car was at a level not seen before with the Korean automaker. And, the K900 came packed with features that the competition from Lexus, Mercedes and BMW would charge hundreds of dollars extra for.
Despite this, the K900 struggled to rise above Kia’s reputation for budget runners. As a result, its sales numbers were low.
Its introductory model years were its best sellers, shifting 1,330 units in 2014 and 2,524 the following year. Sales soon dwindled though, and despite a facelift in 2018 the K900 never topped 1,000 units again. Last year, Kia sold just 305 K900s in its final year in the US.
So it didn’t really come as a surprise at the start of 2021 when it was announced Kia would be killing off the K900 in the US. This also came three years after the car was discontinued in Canada as well.
But that move hasn’t stopped people in America from buying the K900, oh no. In fact, the two buyers from October join 81 other people that have picked Kia as their luxury carmaker of choice so far this year.
What inspired these people to shell out for a 12-month old sedan?
It could be that the ongoing chip shortage has hit their dream buy and this was the second, or third, option. Or, it could be the case that they loved their old K900 so much that they wanted to replace it with a new one to keep their slice of Korean luxury alive.
We may never know.
But, the continued sale of a car that has basically ceased to exist has me thinking, how many K900s could there still be on lots across America? And, could there be a warehouse full of these opulent vehicles somewhere to keep dealers stocked up?
We reached out to Kia to find out, but haven’t yet had confirmation of a secret stash of sedans.