Back outside

And to wrap up this set, here's a rather oddly-cropped/angled view of the right side of the store, including the original 90s-style road sign. I highly doubt I noticed it at the time, but is that a Lexus badge on the back of that Kia Soul? 😃


Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow and Tuesday with a couple special blog posts -- one about a store that I'm planning to feature extensively next year, and one with a brief selection of Seattle-area retail christmas stuff, before going on my winter break!

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  1. AnonymousDecember 18, 2022 at 9:35 PM

    Ha, that is actually a Kia logo! Before Kia recently changed their logo, Kia had different logos for the global market and for their home South Korean market. Some Kia enthusiasts here in the US (apparently such a group exists, I've never actually met someone who admitted to being a Kia fan) change their Kia's logos to the Korean Kia one. I mostly see this on Kia Optimas though and I suspect the people who do this are probably Korean culture fans in general...they may even be Korean. Link: https://thenewswheel.com/behind-badge-kias-korean-logo-so-much-cooler/

    I've heard, but I'm not sure if it is true, that Kia's original global logo, which has only recently been replaced, was designed to be an oval like the Ford logo because Kia used to build cars for Ford to sell in the US (the 1990s Ford Festiva and Ford Aspires, both are fairly rare cars but I wouldn't be surprised if some are motoring around in Washington and especially Oregon) and so using the same shape oval made it easier for Kia to convert their cars into Fords. I'm not sure if that is true though.

    Anyway, I suppose the people changing their Kia logos isn't much different than Acura Integra owners replacing the Acura logos with Honda ones since Honda used to sell those cars as Hondas in Japan. It seems a bit strange to take a luxury badge off a car and replace it with a more common brand, but that's what people used to do.

    I see a lot of different cars in this photo, but no Subarus! Perhaps Vancouver, WA is an odd Subaru-free buffer zone between Portland and Seattle, lol.

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    1. Northwest RetailDecember 18, 2022 at 9:51 PM

      Wow, I never knew Kia had a logo other than their bland oval one before the new "KN" logo! I suppose it makes sense that a Kia fan would be driving a Kia Soul, which has to be their most interesting/distinctive car (particularly in 2019, before the EV6 came out). And I have wondered about the similarity between the Kia and Ford logos -- who knows if that's true, but it does make sense at least!

      There may be a lack of Subarus in this picture, but there was one front and center in the first one in this set, at least! It's pretty surprising for any place in western Washington to lack Subarus -- they're quite popular even in rural areas.

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