And then there were two, er, one (part 1 of 2); Korea, Kia and its new little big car, the Amanti.(News)

Kia celebrates a decade in the States this year, and to help usher in the occasion, the little Korean automaker has rolled out its most ambitious product to date. The full-size Kia Amanti not only comes in at a dramatically higher price than the average Kia, it brings with it a level of luxury foreign to a dealership base accustomed to servicing the entry-level and sub-prime markets.

Kia hopes to appeal to the likes of Mercury Marquis and Toyota Avalon drivers, but anyone looking for a lot of car at a low price might find the stylish Amanti attractive. Thing is, Kia needs people to find it attractive, and buy it.

It comes down to a matter of survival, and Korean car companies don't exactly have a good track record in that regard. Kia (and parent company Hyundai) still has an enormous amount of debt that must be paid down, and it has lofty ideas on how to go about doing so. But if it isn't careful, its fate will follow the course of its rivals.

Would we care if it did? Perhaps not. Many believe companies that don't fare well should be left to wither away-after all, that is the cut-throat reality of a market-based economy. Others recognize that economies around the world are tied to each other, and the ramifications Stateside of an industrial vacuum opening up in Asia are unknown. Then there's the fate of thousands of workers and their families hanging in the balance, and that it is them that pay the ultimate price for a company's mismanagement.

The Backstory

The world has witnessed an explosion in South Korea over the last 50 years, its economy experiencing a rate of growth surpassed by few others in that time. Considering that in 1953 Korea literally had to rebuild with the splinters left behind after a generation of Japanese occupation and war stripped its mountains, fouled its rice paddies and brought this ancient and proud civilization to its knees, the sea of headlights clogging the streets of Seoul shines all the brighter.

The Korean people helped propel such prosperity through the blood, sweat and tears they shed in fields and factories alike, but they got plenty of help along the way. Korea's historically protectionist, often corrupt government in large part orchestrated the country's growth by not only going to bed with Big Business, but by reading it bedtime stories and bringing it coffee in the morning.