Kia Hosts the Northern Group for Drive Day and 2022 AGM

Kia has once again hosted the Northern Group of Motoring Writers for a driving day, ahead of our 2022 Annual General Meeting.

While recent AGMs have been all over in the west and centre of our patch, in Cheshire and Skipton, for this year Kia invited us to the east side and Crathorne Hall near Yarm, North Yorkshire.

Sitting on the edge of the North York Moors, Crathorne Hall makes for an excellent base for some of the best driving roads in the county — and indeed country — so perfect for testing out the range of cars Kia brought along.

As usual that included the full fleet, with the highly regarded all-electric EV6, new and facelifted versions of the Sportage and Sorento SUVs, Ceed hatchback, SW and ProCeed models, and the dinky Soul and Picanto. Of course Kia also brought along a Stinger, the NGMW 2018 Car of the Year, in a remarkable dark green colour. Hats off to whoever ordered that for the press fleet!

With all of the driving done for the day — you can see a gallery of our drives here — and Group general secretary Alan Domville topping the charts with eight trips out, it was time for the business of the meeting itself — with new members Annabelle and Ben Quirk and Andrew Clews attending their first AGMs as full members.

The AGM would include important issues like who would be the chair for our upcoming 50th anniversary year, as well as events like our annual pre-SMMT Test Day North barbecue and the return of the Car of the Year driving day.

In addition there was a special final bit of business ahead of the evening meal, with it also being Alan’s 80th Birthday:

Happy birthday Alan!