Everyone knows that sedans are dead in the U.S. , especially big sedans and luxury sedans and sedans from smaller brands .
South Korea still has an appetite for trunked cars of all types, whether that be an cheap small Hyundai or an expensive large Mercedes . The latest cool sedan to hit the Korean market is the facelifted Kia K8, what used to be known as the Cadenza , and it’s continuing Kia’s current streak of weird yet wonderful designs . This generation of K8 debuted in 2021, and the Kia brand has since seen a major shift in design language since then, mainly brought on electric vehicles like the EV3 and EV9 but also seen in combustion models like the Carnival and Sorento .
While the main body of the K8 is the same as before, everything ahead of the A-pillar is new. The updated K8 has an almost grille-less face, with tall LED headlights at the edges of the nose that flow into a lower intake using black trim that’s like running mascara. The hood is blockier, and there are horizontal elements across the front end that echo Kia’s “tiger nose” grille.
Kia’s been releasing some of the strangest wheel designs lately, from complex four-spoke designs to three-spokes that look like sci-fi throwing stars. In the main press shots the K8 has split four-spoke wheels with silver trim that makes them look hard to even describe in the context of wheel design, and other photos on Kia’s website show six-spoke wheels that look like a big Y with boat anchors around the rim. A.