A Minivan Full of Stigs Promotes the All-New 2015 Kia Sedona

The new promo campaign is called “It’s not a sports car. It’s a Sedona” and the first from a series of 30- and 15-second ads has hit the web today. Before we let Kia take over and tell us their version, we want to make one thing clear: all we see here is a minivan full of Top Gear Stig clones – white racing suits and Darth-Vader like helmets with blacked out sun visors.

There version tells a slightly different story, where the passengers are feeling calm and relaxed, even though they're on a race track. It's a good idea, but makes us wonder if Kia doesn't have a racing fetish. During 2013's Super Bowl, they shot a similar ad at the same banked oval circuit with an Optima sedan and VS lingerie supermodel Adriana Lima.

The Sedona's claim of being a racecar is actually better than that of the Optima because its power comes from a new 3.3-iter V6 engine that delivers more power than its predecessor, boasting 276 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, which is not bad. But you're not going to get anywhere in a hurry while lugging a kayak and a large family, so maybe the Koreans are barking up the wrong tree.

“The element of desire was a major theme in the design and engineering of the all-new Sedona, and our campaign was conceived to signal that something different is going on at Kia,” said Tim Chaney, vice president of marketing communications, KMA.  “Sedona brings new levels of style and sophistication to a bland and predictable segment for the growing number of people who do not want to be confined by the conventional design limitations of the category."