Asia was a Korean truck manufacturer, primarily of large commercial trucks (a lot of garbage trucks and busses still running around Korea are Asias) until about 1998, when they were purchased by Kia (who were subsequently purchased by Hyundai)

The Asia badge was still stuck onto the cars by some owners after Kia took over. This is especially common to see on the Retona/Rocksta.

In addition to large commercial-grade trucks, they also made very small trucks, which is how Kia entered that market.

 

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ASIA AMxxx

This is a garbage truck, taken near Namdaemun Shijang. I've also seen this truck in non-garbage-truck form.

Same chassis, on Osan AFB, in military colors.

And again as a fire truck.

Different engine, I presume.

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Asia Bus

Asia made a variety of small and full-sized busses. The ROK Air Force uses them to shuttle personnel between barracks and work.

Sorry about the quality. There was a lot of traffic, so I couldn't get a long exposure.

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Asia Towner

 

This is the most common Asia vehicle. The US Military uses a lot of them, but off-base, I see far more Daewoos than Kias or old Asias in this class.

It is another tiny mid-engine pickup as is so popular in Japan and Korea. Kia continues manufacturing the Towner.

US miitary members call it a "Bongo" after the Kia models. It isn't. But it has the same form factor, and these are the same people who can't get "ajeoshi" right. (It's not "AH DAH SHI," dammit, it's "AH JUH SHI.")

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Asia Rocksta

This is a fairly popular civilian 4WD vehicle. Obviously an evolution of US military Jeeps, which were manufactured by Asia at some point in decades past. (Many countries besides the US made Jeeps. Mitsubishi made them in Japan, in fact.)

Here's the military version. The basic body is the same, I think, but the roof, doors, bumper, and pretty much all exterior trim are different (more rugged.) The interior appears a bit more spartan, too.

The reason I blurred this picture, but none other on these pages is that I'm not sure about ROK military policy on use of vehicles, and I didn't want anyone getting in any trouble. (I'm not worried about the rest, because the only real reason to blur pictures is risk of someone being upset at what you say and suing for libel. I'm not passing any judgement on...most of the people who own these cars, so I'm not concerned.) Lets just say this was a happy day for someone.


Here's another civilian model. I believe this was outside the police station on base, thus the cop car next to it.

What's the fish on the back?



Oh.

What...the...hell...

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Asia Topic

I think this might be related to the Kia Besta.

 

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