Posted by Matt Posky
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/kia-s-sales-success-should-be-a-lesson-for-other-brands-45133117?utm_medium=auto&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=all_full
Kia America is rightfully bragging about having broken its own personal record with 852,155 sales under its belt for the whole of 2025. That’s a seven percent increase over 2024 and helps support claims that pricing remains an essential component for plenty of car buyers.
While fleet sales have always been important to Kia, the company specifically noted that its retail volumes had risen by 5 percent over the last 12 months. That’s indicative of the product resonating with individual buyers, not just rental fleet managers. Sibling Hyundai likewise saw an 8-percent improvement in U.S. volume over the same timeframe.
No matter how you slice it, the Korean automakers clearly outpaced last year’s industry average. Were it not for the weaker brands offering incentives later in the year, 2025 would have probably represented a marked decline in overall auto sales. Instead, U.S. automotive volumes improved ever so slightly.
“Our third consecutive all-time annual sales record, coupled with our highest-ever U.S. market share, are clear indicators of the strength of the Kia brand and the competitiveness of our models,” stated Sean Yoon, president and CEO, Kia North America and Kia America. “And with the second-generation Telluride and the highly anticipated K4 hatchback arriving in showrooms in the first quarter, and more new products on the way, we expect this positive momentum to continue into the New Year and beyond.”
Kia has earned quite a bit of praise in recent years for having polished its offerings. This has been helped by targeted marketing efforts. Seeing Kia ads appearing in everything from video games to NBA playoff games has helped make it a more mainstream automaker. But the company is still known primarily as a bargain brand. And this comes at a time when plenty of its rivals have opted to cull affordable options to focus on higher-margin vehicles with loftier MSRPs, right when American households are encountering new financial constraints.
Granted, Kia was actually aiming for more sales than it garnered last year. However, this disparity could be attributed to the generalized cooling of auto sales that has only seemed to worsen over as 2025 progressed.
It’s also worth noting that Kia’s continues to serve portions of the market that some of its rivals have been ignoring. Sedan sales were way up for the brand with annual volumes of the K5 jumping from 46,311 to 72,751 between 2024 and 2025. While the smaller Kia K4 sedan saw a much more modest increase in volume, the model still managed about 140,000 deliveries — which Kia assumes will only increase as it offers more body styles.
This comes after countless brands spent the last decade trying to convince us that nobody wanted to buy sedans anymore.
The compact Sportage crossover and Carnival minivan also enjoyed sizable upticks in volume this year. There were 71,917 deliveries last year, representing a 31-percent increase over 2024, whereas the Sportage saw 182,823 deliveries, resulting in an 11-percent improvement over the same period.
However, none of the models in Kia’s lineup really struggled. Just about everything saw stable, if not improved, sales over the last 12 months. Even the Soul, which was discontinued in October, came pretty close to breaking even against last year’s sales.
Only the brand’s all-electric models saw a decline in interest and even those cars are basically matching the 41-percent decline in EVs we’ve witnessed across the entire industry for 2025.
Based upon the other brands that saw improved volumes, it seems plausible that value was an extra-relevant factor for 2025. General Motors did well with its mainstays, which are often priced competitively. But the subcompact Trax, which is easily the most affordable vehicle in its entire segment, really did solid numbers for Chevrolet.
As mentioned, Hyundai (which owns Kia) did similarly good business. This is despite a significant amount of product overlap with each other in terms of platforms, with Hyundai often being marketed as the “more mature” nameplate. Based upon how they’re organized, one would think the duo would only conflict with each other. However, this has not been the case.
Even brands that were taking heat for lackluster product offerings this year managed to experience steady growth through the last two quarters by offering sizable discounts. Meanwhile, Toyota continued to convince shoppers that its products are sufficiently reliable to be worth the prices dealerships are asking for. It also boasts a diverse vehicle lineup that includes several very affordable models.
Conversely, many of the brands that saw a decrease in sales seemed to be those attempting to move upmarket or had developed a reputation for lackluster dependability — either in general or relative to their past performance — among the general public. As luck would have it, “expensive and unreliable” doesn’t make for an ideal marketing slogan for mainstream automakers.
However, some of those concerns can be tied directly to contemporary tariff pressures and brands launching a gaggle of new models simultaneously. This is arguably what hurt Mazda in 2025, after the company enjoyed an absolutely monumental sales boom in both 2023 and 2024. Still, Mazda’s products tend to be rather well reviewed and U.S. volume only declined by about 3 percent this year.
With all of the above in mind, we can suggest the somewhat nebulous concept of value was probably even more relevant for car buyers last year than usual.
Your author has spent years asking people about their choice of automobile and Kia owners often summarize everything into “because it seemed like a good deal.”
Further helping the brand is the growing perception among shoppers that automakers are building less-repairable cars in general. Kia models are frequently less expensive than alternatives and typically come with much longer warranty periods. This makes them appealing to individuals who are cash conscious when it comes to what vehicle they purchase and don’t want to obsess over trying to calculate the cost over ownership for individual models from various brands.
While the validity of theory can be argued indefinitely by car fans, the thought process among regular folks is that the prolonged warranty will more than make up for any issues the vehicle might suffer from.
Like many brands, Kia has pivoted away from buttons in recent years. However, it has managed to ride the line between the modern kind of tech that’s immediately appealing to average people browsing new vehicle inventories and retaining enough traditional controls not to turn away some traditionalists.
Kia also boasts rather good initial quality scores from J.D. Power and was even in the company’s top ten for 2025. While we’d argue the metrics used don’t necessarily overlap with long-term dependability, they may help indicate why the company is seeing steady sales. However, J.D. Power also placed Kia as above average in its 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study.
Other outlets (e.g. Consumer Reports) often place Kia a little lower down the list. But it’s rare to see the automaker anywhere near the bottom of those indexes anymore. It’s often mid-pack or better in terms of anticipated dependability.
Still, we’d argue that it’s often wiser to pursue individual models and do your research if long-term reliability is of critical importance. Even brands that are known for building excellent cars often have trouble whenever new platforms and powertrains are introduced. We saw this when Mazda launched the CX-90 and when Toyota released the updated Tacoma. Even though the teething issues on those products seem to have been addressed since their debut, the stigma may linger for another year or two.
But the average, cash-strapped car shopper likely isn’t even taking those things into account. They’re prone to asking automotive experts “which car brands are good” instead of “which models are best.”
Kia’s notoriety for being affordable is likely sufficient to get many shoppers into the dealership. Combine that with a genuinely diverse array of products that tend to garner good-enough (albeit not always magnificent) product reviews, and plenty of drivers will opt to buy the Kia that retails for a couple thousand less than what’s available elsewhere.
Regardless of how you personally feel about the Kia brand, it’s offering up a lesson to the rest of the industry that they’d better heed. The value proposition of automobiles is becoming increasingly relevant with shoppers. Every company cannot simultaneously go upmarket forever. And, if you’re a brand that is not offering unparalleled manufacturing quality, you had better be offering lower MSRPs, a solid warranty, and maybe a couple sedans for good measure.
[Images: Kia]
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