KIA is offering to cut benefit tax bills for business motorists when it launches new Magentis and Mentor models next month. Despite having worse emission figures than their competitors, Kia claims aggressive pricing will allow its latest cars to cost less to drive under new CO2-based taxation.

'We've negotiated such good price levels with the factory that we're able to offer significant tax advantages as well as really good sticker prices,' said Kia Cars UK product marketing manager Laura Nicholson. Nicholson said buyers of the new 1.6-litre Mentor would be liable to pay substantially less benefit tax than buyers of saloon rivals like the Rover 45 1.6 Classic and the VW Bora 1.6S.

'Even though our car's 190g/km figure puts it into the 20% band, the annual benefit charge will be £310 less and £287 less respectively because it costs only £8,995. The same situation arises with the Magentis V6. With a g/km figure of 237, the LX manual will carry a benefit charge that is £1,769 less than the Ford Mondeo V6 2.5 Zetec S and £1,535 less than the Vauxhall Vectra 2.6 V6 CDX,' Nicholson told Fleet NewsNet.

Kia field operations manager Mark Burrows said: 'Getting the price right in the first place with the factory makes a big impact on the total cost of ownership. Because buyers are paying less up front, predicted residual value of 41% after two years and 30,000 miles should make the Mentor very economical.

'We think the Magentis will be just as cost effective. It could be that competitor vehicles end up losing more than the full price of this car. I think our vehicles will arouse a lot of interest when people work out the economics and we're confident the Magentis in particular will appeal to people coming out of company cars and going into PCP schemes.'