How does a hamster sell a car? The answer can be found in Kia’s ‘Power to Surprise’ ad.

Kia’s humble history dates back to 1944. Founder Kim Chul Ho was born in Korea in 1905. As a teenager, he moved to Japan and worked in a steel mill. Later, he set up a business making nuts and bolts for bicycles in Osaka. Kim returned to Korea in 1944 and founded Kyungsung Precision Industry to manufacture bicycle parts and steel tubing. One year later, the company set up a factory outside of Seoul and became Kia.

[Read more…]

No matter how much human intelligence has uncovered, there are some things in this world that cannot be fully understood. For instance, there’s dark matter. This is a collection of unknown and unobservable subatomic particles that make up about 25% of our universe and can bend light with its gravitational force. There’s the question of monarch butterfly migration, the Great Pyramids, and the fate of the solar system.

[Read more…]

FIAT was founded in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli, an Italian businessman who was part of a group of investors looking to begin an automotive company. After quitting the army in 1892, Agnelli entered the automotive manufacturing business and has been part of a historical icon ever since. Though his name is not featured anywhere in FIAT’s moniker, he was critically integral to the marque’s success. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, FIAT now employs over 50,000 people among 7 different factories.

[Read more…]

The Toyo Cork Kogyo company, later to be named the Mazda North American Operations (MNAO), was founded in 1920 by Shinpachi Kaizuka. One year later, Jujiro Matsudo became president of the company.

[Read more…]

The Volkswagen brand has gone through a number of iconic iterations since its launch in the late 1930s. There was the original Type 1 Beetle that became symbolic of West German restoration in the wake of World War II. There was the hippy Volkswagen van and flower power Beetle that was emblematic of the American 1960s counter-culture era.

[Read more…]