Roundel Rondo

This post may be a little confusing for those living in the US, where the Rondo was discontinued in 2010 after slumping sales and the debut of the redesigned 2011 Sportage, which they assumed would fill the void left by it's departure.

However, this wasn't the case in Canada, or most of the rest of the world where the model is known as the Carens. Sales were better in Canada and model carried on, albeit with a revised front end featuring the now standard punched grille.

But enough with the history lesson. What you see here is the next generation Rondo/Carens. It's much more attractive than its dowdy predecessor, and is still missing from the US lineup.

The newfound attractiveness comes at a price though, as it's very close to the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, which itself is based on the 2012 Concept Active Tourer show car. Yet another recent Kia design that seems to borrow heavily from the BMW school of design  Even the rims above are similar. Regardless, it's one of the better looking small people carriers. I even think I like it better than the BMW, which manages to look not a lot like a BMW with its Mini based-bones.