Kia Motors Corp.’s sedans proved once again to be the most popular among Samsung Group’s executives this year.

Among the 318 newly appointed executives, 78.6 percent picked Kia’s K7 and Opirus as their company cars. They joined the executive ranks for the first time in the latest reshuffle on Dec. 8.

The Opirus held sway with nearly half, with 155 choosing the model. It maintained its status as the most popular model with Samsung executives for the second consecutive year.

Last year, Kia sedans were chosen by 220 of the 260, or 85 percent, of Samsung Group employees newly raised to executive posts in that year. Of last year’s 220, Opirus was chosen by 124, while the K7 was picked by 96 executives.

This year, those newly promoted to the executive ranks were given a choice among six domestic upper-midsized models ― Hyundai Motor Co.’s Grandeur, Ssangyong Motor Co.’s Chairman H, Renault Samsung Motors Co.’s SM7 and the Alpheon from GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co., in addition to the two Kia models ― with smaller than 3-liter engines.

The Grandeur, which has been one of Korea’s most popular large sedans for quite some time, was chosen by only 13 new Samsung executives.

“With the HG (the new Grandeur’s project name), the relatively long waiting period for the vehicle would have contributed to the low number of selections,” a Hyundai Motor Group official said. She added that with the vehicle yet to be launched, buyers will have to wait for more than a month for the vehicle to be delivered. The fifth generation Grandeur will be launched on the local market on Thursday.

However, more than a third of those promoted to executive posts in 2010 chose the K7 despite a similar waiting period.

Having been launched late 2009 there was a waiting period of about a month at the beginning of last year.

With eight executives choosing the Alpheon, GM Daewoo’s upper-midsized car was the least popular with new Samsung executives, while 27 picked the Chairman H and 20 selected the SM7.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)