Kia Motors' UK unit has launched two new models with emphasis on changing perceptions about the Korean manufacturer.

The updated Sorento SUV and Venga baby were launched to UK media in Barcelona this week, capping off a period of frenetic activity for Kia, building on its record scrappage incentive-boosted 50,000+ unit sales in the UK last year.

The Sorento now has monocoque construction in place of body on ladder frame and offers the option of five or seven seats.

The Venga - based on the new small car platform first used under the Soul and basis of a future Rio replacement - is 37mm shorter than the Soul but on a 65mm longer wheelbase.

For the Sorento, Kia has palpably changed its emphasis from raw performance, especially off road, to practicability more suited to today's environment aware, recession hit and cost conscious consumer.

"Changing the chassis from a ladder version is because people are looking for [reduced fuel consumption]," Kia Motors UK product planning chief Ian Mathews told just-auto.

"People have been living the dream and wanting extreme 4x4s for years, but it is more about practicality. It [Sorento] will have 90% of the capability of the previous model but is much more appropriate to today's market and is better for CO2 [emissions]."

Mathews highlighted the market trend to seven-seat capability that Kia is now offering and, although the automaker will predominantly remain a small car producer, it now has a breadth of models in its range.

And Kia's undoubted confidence in that range is underscored by Mathews' insistence that public perception is moving. "With each launch, awareness of our increasing quality away from the budget end is coming with every model," he said.

"The first Sorento was right for its time and now effectively, the market has moved on when to be a lot more fuel-efficient is important." Mathews emphasised the up to 42mpg economy of the diesel Sorento, whose CO2 rating of 170g drops it into a lower annual road tax rate band in the UK.

"Sorento buyers have been 40, 50, 60 [years old] and more than half of them put tow bars on," said Mathews.

"But this [model] will be slightly more family-oriented - it is perhaps middle-affluent to upper affluent."

And Mathews conceded the former anti-SUV lobby was perhaps less vociferous than it once was and highlighted the Sorento's change of personality. "Strictly speaking they are not 4x4s - they have 4x4 capability," he noted.

The new Venga range includes a model with company car driver benefit-in-kind tax of 13% and CO2 emissions low enough for GB35 road tax.

The EcoDynamics diesel versions gets up to 62.8mpg in 'official' EC testing and both that and the Sorento have Kia UK's seven year warranty recently extended to the full range.

The production Venga follows a 'concept' laucnhed at the Geneva show last year.

Seven Venga variants are available combining 1.4l petrol and diesel engines, a 1.6-litre petrol (with automatic option) and three trim levels. As with other Kia lines, and those of parent Hyundai Motors in the UK, the automatic comes with one take-it-or-leave-it 1.6l petrol engine and mid-level trim pack specification.

Eight Sorento versions are offered, mixing petrol or diesel engine, two or four wheel drive, manual or automatic, and five or seven seats.