The Kia Credos was

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

's first self developed

mid-size Mid-size—also known as intermediate—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than compact cars and smaller than full-size cars. "Large family car" is a UK term and a part of the D-segment in t ...

family sedan, which went on sale in South Korea in 1995, and in Australia in 1998. The Credos is based on the fifth generation Mazda Capella/Cronos, which was sold stateside as the Mazda 626. It was powered by one of four gasoline engines. Initially, three engines are offered, depending on the trim: 1.8-litre Kia T8D engine; 2.0-litre Mazda FE SOHC engine; and 2.0-litre

Mazda FE-DOHC engine The F engine family from Mazda is a mid-sized inline-four piston engine with iron block, alloy head and belt-driven SOHC and DOHC configurations. Introduced in 1983 as the 1.6-litre F6, this engine was found in the Mazda B-Series truck and Mazda ...

. A fourth engine, a licensed version of 2.0-litre V6 DOHC

Rover KV6 engine The KV6 automotive petrol engine has a 24-valve quad-cam V6 configuration, and a pressurising variable-length intake manifold to add hot spots throughout the rev range. Variants exist in capacities. These were built initially by Rover Group, ...

, was available with the facelifted version from 1998 and on, which also added a station wagon variation, called the Parktown in its native Korea, where it was a commercial flop. The car's interior was described as dull, but spacious and comfortable, as well as the boot being massive. The asking price for the basic 1.8 SX was £11,000, around £4,000 less than the equivalent

Ford Mondeo The Ford Mondeo is a large family car manufactured by Ford since 1993. The first Ford model declared as a "world car", the Mondeo was intended to consolidate several Ford model lines worldwide (the European Sierra, the Telstar in Asia and Austra ...

and

Vauxhall Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate body styles, the Vectra was also sold by the Vauxhall marque i ...

. In Australia, the Credos was introduced in May 1998, and was available only with the 2.0L engine. Sales totaled 839 units during the model's three-year run.VFACTS Australia The Kia Credos was replaced by the

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

sourced

Optima Optima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany in 1958. Though classified as a sans-serif, Optima has a subtle swelling at the terminals suggesting a glyphic s ...

in September 2000, ending the

badge engineered In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a manu ...

relationship with

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

. File:20111112 kia credos 02.jpg, Kia Credos rear (pre-facelift) File:1999 Kia Credos 2.0 Automatic Saloon (20061885838).jpg, 1999 Kia Credos (facelift, New Zealand) File:1998-2000 Kia Credos GLX sedan 01.jpg, Kia Credos rear (facelift) File:Kia Clarus SW.jpg, Kia Clarus Station Wagon rear (facelift)

References

{{Modern-auto-stub Credos