2023 KIA Sportage Grille - What were they thinking?
I really like the KIA Sportage, specifically the SX Prestige Hybrid, and am considering it over the Hyundai Tucson and the new gen Honda CRV. What has me a bit upended is the design of the grille, with that silly silver bar across the front just below the front of the hood line. Just for giggles, I took a pic of the '23 Sportage and used some amateur cut and paste to erase the silver bar across the front. Here's the before-after:
So much cleaner, and not so 'alien.' It also returns more of the KIA trademark 'tiger grille' design. It seems all too often, car manufacturers are wayyyy overdoing exterior design to substitute 'farkle' for functionality. I do see an aftermarket mod that replaces the silver bar with a black one, but that just replaces the silver 'object' with something else. It just needs to be a clean grille! With that, they could even move the KIA badge to the center of the grille which would be truly sharp. Wish there was some way to get this idea back to KIA for '24.
So much cleaner, and not so 'alien.' It also returns more of the KIA trademark 'tiger grille' design. It seems all too often, car manufacturers are wayyyy overdoing exterior design to substitute 'farkle' for functionality. I do see an aftermarket mod that replaces the silver bar with a black one, but that just replaces the silver 'object' with something else. It just needs to be a clean grille! With that, they could even move the KIA badge to the center of the grille which would be truly sharp. Wish there was some way to get this idea back to KIA for '24.
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