It is funny how things pop up when you least expect it: I was just passing by the area yet again just to see what was up, when I saw this rather unusual-looking car. At first, I was actually unable to figure out what this was, and did a double take when I realised that it was a rare 2000 Kia Mentor!
The genesis of Kia Motors began in 1944, when Kim Cheol-ho founded Kyunsung Precision Industry, which eventually produced South Korea's first bicycle in 1951. Its name was changed to Kia Industries in 1952; 'Kia' roughly translates to 'Rising from (East) Asia'. It produced small passenger cars up to 1981, where it was forced to manufacture light trucks completely under the dictator Chun Doo-hwan. Kia rejoined the automobile industry in 1986, in partnership with Ford, where it produced Mazda-derived vehicles for both domestic and export usage. Kia declared bankruptcy in 1997 during the Asian Financial Crisis, and was acquired by Hyundai 1 year later. Currently, Kia has drawn much admiration for its latest offerings and is fast shedding the unreliable image of Korean cars.
The Kia Sephia was introduced in 1992 as a means for Kia to regain its competitiveness in the mid-size saloon market. It took inspiration from the Mazda Familia (which Kia had reservations on) and the cooperation with Ford to produce a unique model, which incidentally became quite popular among the public. On top of the sedan, Kia also rolled out the Sephia Leo, a 5-door hatchback model: this subsequently led to the genesis of the Mentor (known in Korea as the Shuma) in 1997.
Shuma means 'the best/strongest' in Latin, and the car was intended to compete with the Hyundai Tiburon. Its 4-headlight configuration drew much suspicion of plagiarism from the Toyota Celica ST185 and Ford Taurus. Despite having a poor interior design, the Shuma won the French Design Award for Excellence in 1999. Curiously, a non-operational red stop lamp was installed on the car boot; many owners subsequently remodeled the wiring to make it light up. It was also the first compact hatchback imported into North America under the Kia brand, and was also the personal vehicle of former Kia chairman Kim Seon-hong.
However, it failed to differentiate itself from the Sephia II, resulting in low sales. On top of that, Kia ran into financial difficulties, leading to cuts in resources and salaries; this had a knock-on effect on the morale of the design and engineering teams. Few people also remember this car and it is considered one of Kia's representative failure models.
The Mentor was powered by a 1498 cc Kia B5 inline-4 engine, allowing it to reach a top speed of 180 km/h, with an acceleration of 13.8 seconds [0-100 km/h]. Its dimensions of 4475 x 1711 x 1413 mm put it in the mid-size category. Interestingly, it had a relatively poor fuel consumption of 7.9 litres / 100 km, and this was compounded by its weight of 1100 kg.
Production of the Mentor/Shuma ended in November 2000, where it was replaced by the Spectra Wing hatchback. The Mentor was sold in Singapore in 1998 by Auto Asia (S) Pte Ltd, where it retailed at S$77,900. However, some time later it launched a promotion and advertised the car at $59,900: despite undercutting the competition, it was not a wise move as Auto Asia ran into financial troubles and eventually went into receivership just 1 year later. Many potential customers banded together to take legal action against Auto Asia to recover their deposits, and it was forced to sell the cars below cost. Cycle and Carriage then took over Kia operations, and this unit, registered in 2001, was sold by C&C.
Many of them were exported/scrapped even before the 10-year COE cycle was up. This lone survivor must have been reliable enough to serve the owner, to the point of extending its COE lifespan 3 times. Old Korean cars were not desirable enough for people to keep it for long, but this unicorn still looks to be well-cared for: it was in the workshop for aircon problems. Admittedly it look really generic and lacks road presence, but here's to hoping that it will continue to be on the road in the years to come!
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