2009 kia borrego

 We're getting small and green and moving away from big, body-on-frame V-8 sport/utilities to more compact crossovers. So it's with a good deal of trepidation that Kia enters the segment late this summer with its first V-8 model for North America, a body-on-frame, seven-passenger sport/utility called the Borrego.

It's the same V-8 lurking under the hood of Hyundai's new Genesis, a 4.6-liter engine expected to make about 375 horses. That's a healthy number for this brand. Kia says it'll bring the new Hyundai V-8 here first, though given what Hyundai says about the Genesis's on-sale date, it looks like a dead-heat. And therein lies the issue: timing. When Kia began developing the Borrego some four years ago, gas was under $2 per gallon and automakers were still touting the sustainability of the big truck boom. Kia was working on the Borrego about the same time that Toyota was developing its all-new, bigger-than-ever Sequoia.

 2009 kia borrego

 2009 kia borrego

2009 kia borrego