And so they should. The new Kia Optima in particular is a great looking car. It was designed by Peter Schreyer – a former design chief from Volkswagen and Audi (the guy behind the first Audi TT concept) – and it looks as good and as modern as any other medium sedan out there.

The new Kia Sportage is also a sophisticated yet crisp design, featuring much of the same design language as the Optima. With its ‘drooped’ headlight and grille layout, low and wide spotlight-integrated mouth and the bulged, almost pumped guards with sheered-off edges, the Sportage was also given the ‘Transport Design’ award by the prestigious ceremony.

For those who haven’t heard of the iF Awards, they originated from a German product show or trade show in Hanover called the ‘Die gute Industrieform’, or ‘Good Industrial Design’. This show has since grown into one of the world’s largest design award competitions, for Kia to pick up the ‘Transportation Design’ award for both cars, it proves the company is well and truly up there with the biggest and best.

Judges had to select between 2756 different entries from 43 countries. These were all entered into 16 different categories – Transportation Design being one of them. Senior Vice President and COO of Kia Corporation, Tae-Hyun Oh, was happy about the award, saying in a recent report,

“These latest awards for the all-new Kia Sportage and Optima are proof positive of the tremendous strides Kia has made in revolutionising the styling of our product line-up.

“Our global management focus on design since the mid-2000s is now clearly paying dividends, and, in conjunction with the rapidly improving quality of our vehicles, Kia’s enhanced brand reputation is being driven by the stunning designs being created by our design teams around the world, led by Chief Design Officer Peter Schreyer.”

Congradulations Kia, we look forward to seeing more great designs from you in the future.