Just over a week after it was announced that the Hyundai Genesis sedan scored a perfect 5-star rating in crash tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), another product of the Hyundai-Kia group, the Kia Borrego, managed to do the same. The seven-passenger midsize SUV achieved the highest rating possible, for all seating positions in both frontal and side impact crash tests.

Even the new Kia Borrego SUV will make its way to next week’s 2008 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The Korean firm’s body-on-frame SUV has been taken into the loving care of Turbonetics which has prepared a variety of mechanical and styling modifications. The customized Borrego will feature among other things, a Gibson cat-back exhaust and K&N filter, a subtle bodykit complemented by 22-inch alloy wheels in Pirelli Scorpion Zero 265/40R22 tires and a Katzkin Leather interior with suede headliner and pillar wraps.

For this year’s SEMA Show KIA has readied a subtly customized version of its new Borrego midsize SUV. The concept combines a black exterior paintjob with limo-style tint windows and enough chrome detailing to make a ‘57 Chevy look underrated. The SUV has also been lowered for a sleeker profile and outfitted with gaudy 22-inch Avarus Chrome Wheels and Spec-X 285/45R22 tires. Open up the doors and you’re confronted with a custom-made leather interior boasting what appears to be alligator-skin (hopefully faux…) inserts on the seats. We’ll probably forget this concept in less time than it takes an F1 car to go from naught to 60.