Want to Learn Something Fun About the Kia Borrego?

"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind) 09/27/2017 at 00:39 • Filed to: Kia

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I thought I’d reach into my vast vault of Kia-specific knowledge and hit you with this gem involving the Kia Borrego nameplate. Kia roughly translates to, “To come out of East Asia.” That is to say, in a romanticized way, “Rising out of Asia.”

Borrego means “lamb.” So the Kia Borrego is the Lamb Rising out of Asia . Mmph, symbolism! Now add in that the lamb was Killed in Action .

The lamb’s death (well in North America anyways) marked the genesis of the cultural shift in perception towards Kia. To put it another way...

The Kia Borrego’s name pretty much means Korean Jesus.

Now you have a great conversation piece when you happen to spot one of these in the wild.

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On the subject of Kia’s name, if you de-romanticize the translation then you will realize it means “Made in Korea.” Knowing that bit of information let me say that no matter how often people say badge snobbing is wrong (it’s not), when it comes to Kia specifically it is 100% understandable for people NOT to want a Kia product purely because of the badge. It’s all perception and perception is everything in the world of branding.

It is also completely understandable why Kia cannot change their name or badge since it is a case of branding in nationalism which is made even more complex due to how the branding is set up to be the self-asserted flagship for presenting South Korea as an equal to other countries (think of how the Olympics function in terms of nationalism). But this is getting into the huge and fantastic subject of branding and nationalism so I’m going to cut it now.

Borrego be with you.

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > Wobbles the Mind 09/27/2017 at 00:44

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This is the exact kind of information I come to Oppo to get!

Tapas > Wobbles the Mind 09/27/2017 at 00:47

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Telluride is the new Borrego!

Amoore100 > Wobbles the Mind 09/27/2017 at 00:58

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Two things:

I thought it was named after this when it first came out

And if what you said is true, then South Korea’s obsession with Christianity is deeper than I thought. First Genesis, then Aslan...

Textured Soy Protein > Amoore100 09/27/2017 at 01:05

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All I know about Aslan is that’s the lion in Narnia.

I’m Jewish, and maybe I read those books when I was a kid, but I sure as hell didn’t see the movies.

and 100 more > Wobbles the Mind 09/27/2017 at 01:06

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I love the Borrego, and i kinda want one.

Amoore100 > Textured Soy Protein 09/27/2017 at 01:06

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As an atheist I was very annoyed as a child when I Googled it and found it was a fictional fantasy representation of Christ or some shit like that.

Textured Soy Protein > Amoore100 09/27/2017 at 01:10

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When I was a child Google didn’t exist, and I didn’t realize the Christian allegory, because I had no familiarity with any of their mythology.

I don’t like fantasy as a genre anyway. Give me some space ships and lasers and shit all day long. But wizards and magic and talking lions? Fuck that noise.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Amoore100 09/27/2017 at 01:11

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I have met quite a few rabid Christians from South Korea... I’m not sure why there are so many, either.

Amoore100 > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 09/27/2017 at 02:22

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Western missionaries—nearly every Korean I’ve met in the Silicon Valley is a Christian and, ironically, they’re now missionaries to Mexico and South America. What goes around comes around in religion.

Vítor > Wobbles the Mind 09/27/2017 at 15:25

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Why it didn’t keep the Mohave name it got elsewhere is a mystery to me. Sounds quite better than “Borrego”, and is similar to their other crossovers names (Sorento, Tucson, Santa Fe)