Kia Optima?

Has anyone driven or own one of the newer models? I really like the way these cars look and I think would be a good DD for the wife.

I drove one of the baser models. Very nice car, well laid out, comfortable. The 200hp GDI is perfectly capable in a car that size. Quiet. I have not driven the Turbo car yet, but a friend of ours bought one. He loves it.

I drove the turbo car it was nice, but I think to expensive for what they are asking. A base model Optima has more then enough options.

^ I agree. I'd get one used over new so you can pay what (IMO) it's worth.

Just drove one away from the Hertz an hour ago. Albeit in rental trim, it's nice....for a KIA. I think that is the stigma that will follow the car.

There's nothing spectacular about it, but it doesn't do anything better than a Honda or Toyota, except carry less of a premium for the brand image.

There are few things that annoy me right off. The radio has bluetooth...always a plus for a rental. After fiddling with the controls to pair my phone, I can't get Pandora to work....oh that's because it only supports bluetooth for phone and not multimedia. Whut? Auto down window, but not up. Rear seat fold down (had to pick up a bike,) but the passthru from the trunk is only about half as big as it could be (about 22"x14".) Really cheap beige fabric..the interior is pretty beat/dirty with only 19k on it. Controls are bland. The steering is weighted, but not linear. If this engine has 200hp, that's news to me. Might be the throttle mapping. Brakes are pretty good, with a heavier than normal pedal and much more linear than Japanese rental car brakes...which tend to be very bitey at the top of the pedal. Wheel tilts and telescopes, which is good.

I'll give them good marks for the paint. It is much nicer than the paint on our new Mazda.

I spend a lot of time in the rental fleet and the Camry, Altima, and previous generation Mazda 6 are nicer cars in rental trim.

Honestly, my favorite car in the rental fleet is the 12-13 Impala, which has the old bland government-special wrapper around the new direct-inject 304hp V6 and gets 28-30mpg on the highway even when it isn't my car or gas money. The interior and styling are totally generic, yet durable. Practically invisible.

Here we go, loaded SX with ventilated seats and turbo with loads of warranty left:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kia-Optima-VENT-SEATS-2011-kia-optima-sx-t-gdi-turbocharged-pano-sunroof-24-k-texas-direct-auto-/191002086847?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2c789c8dbf&item=191002086847&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

I saw a car on my trip home yesterday that I didn't recognize. It looked generally like an Optima, definitely had a Kia grill, but had a strange badge with three vertical slashes. The only model identification on the car said "K 5". I think it was just a customized Optima, but it sure did look impressive; very classy. Sorry I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

k5 is the ricer version of the Optima. It's the Korean version of red type-R badges on your civic.

Thanks for the input. I would be looking at something higher than rental grade. This would be something used for sure and I would hope I could find a smoking deal. The Durango is just getting too horrible of mileage to keep letting her drive it as a DD.

I've sat in one before. Be aware that these cars come OE with Nexen tires which are Chinese E36 M3. Better tires go a long way in the driving department.

Obviously you should move to canada so you can get a 2014 Kia Rondo.

(sorry, just doing it before pinchvalve does)

The Optima almost killed me twice today. Pulling across two lanes of traffic, the traction control kicked in and the car returned to idle with the pedal on the mat. Had to abort halfway across the road and coast into the turn lane against oncoming traffic with the pedal on the flood the whole time, Did it on two occasions, from a stop, trying to shoot across traffic. This afternoon, I couldn't reproduce it. Can't wait to turn this one back in to Hertz tomorrow.

Great looking car, but ~500 miles in it and I'm done.

We've sampled a few: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/new-cars/by-make/Kia/

Despite Tyler H posting all his rental car woes, this car is definitely getting put on the list of possibilities.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

I DD a 2012 Hyundai Sonata 85 miles round trip, mix of highway and some windy roads, depending on the way i go. I wanted leather and had to get the Limited to do so - I'm not sure how the Kia line up works for those options. I wanted leather for kid clean up purposes. But I also didn't like the look of the Sonata cloth/interior at all, and the Limited looked much better. It has the 2.4. Plenty of power for DD purposes. I test drove the 2.0 Turbo. It was fun, but not necessary, too pricey, and involved additional service that I didn't want to have to deal with. The sales guy also told me he wouldn't drive the 2.0 in the winter without snow tires given his experience in moving them around the lot, so I should budget those in. Overall my car does the DD drop 2 kids off, trek to work, and have a decent car to take to a business meeting or lunch very well. I didn't have a good opportunity to check out the Optima when I was shopping and needed to buy - I like the looks of the front end better on the Optima than the Sonata. I don't like the C pillar treatment on the Optima.

Guy at work has the turbo. It's OK. Power wise, it won't set you back in the seat like a Lexus V8, but it will move the car out of its own way. Interior was acceptable. Outside styling is very nice. Looks "BMW-ish" to me. Would I buy one? It doesn't say "Toyota" on it, so I don't think so, but I would probably take one over a GM product, if that was my choice.

Drove an Optima as a rental for a weekend. Nice car and the Wife and I were looking for one when our Maxima was replaced. Never found quite the deal we were looking for and bought an Accord instead.

Drove an Optima as a rental for a weekend. Nice car and the Wife and I were looking for one when our Maxima was replaced. Never found quite the deal we were looking for and bought an Accord instead.

I dont know what year Accord you ended up with as the current Optima has been out for a while now, but i think the new Accord is a couple of notches above the Optima. I still think the Optima is a good car.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Despite Tyler H posting all his rental car woes, this car is definitely getting put on the list of possibilities.

It's a fine car. There really are no "bad" cars anymore. It's in a hypercompetitive market segment and has a few flaws at the MSRP, which is ~25K for a middle of the road trim. The traction control is bordering on dangerous, and my biggest gripe after putting about 600 miles on. After googling around, it's a common issue, with some people apparently getting used to turning off traction control if they have to dart across traffic.

Once you know it's a problem and change your driving style to compensate, its probably not a problem.

I liked the styling and exterior fit and finish. The interior was generally good, other than the seating surfaces showing dirt and stains very easily. The dash layout is nice.

New for new, an extra $1500 for a similarly-equipped Mazda 6 looks like a deal to me. ($1000 less for the Mazda if you want it equipped with a manual transmission, which isn't available on the Optima.)

That said, a gently used Optima at say ~$15k with some warranty left would be a fine car.

Not trying to air out my 'woes,' but rather post my experience, which may or may not be more objective than someone who already owns one and needs to feel good about their purchase. Take that with a huge grain of salt, but the tip on the traction control might at least keep you safer on the test drive.

From the first Google hit I got @ http://performancedrive.com.au/2013-kia-optima-platinum-review/

"One thing that needs to be pointed out is the oversensitive stability and traction control. If you happen to pull out of a street and drop one of the front wheels into a pot hole, hit a little bump, or slightly spin the inside wheel, the system seems to go into panic mode and kills power for one to two seconds.

In our case, this happened to us and we had a truck facing the side of our test car as we tried to pull out of a side street. Luckily it swerved around us. A slight spin of the wheel in wet conditions also seems to kill power unwillingly. Being without any acceleration, and with traffic coming your way (fast), isn’t a nice situation to be in. The system is too overcautious in our opinion."

In reply to Tyler H:

Well that's just fine for the wife.

TCS is easily defeatable. Push the button on the dash.

I recently rented one just after the PRI show in Indianapolis. It had the GDI engine, and was nicely equipped for a rental.

I drove from Indy-- to downtown Chicago- to Rockford-- back to Chicago-- to Grayslake IL, -- back to Chicago-- and onto O'Hare--------all on one tank of gas!

Yes, it has a pretty big gas tank ( 16 gal IIRC), but you have to love a car with a 500+ mile range.

I like them. They look good, are spacious, have nice interiors, and are comfortable. Sure the steering / brake feel isn't as good as an Accord, but the styling IMHO is way more attractive. I haven't priced them, but if they undercut the Honda / Toyota / Nissan offerings, I'd go for it.