Review: Kia Optima / K5 — Sweet dreams are made of this

Travel the world and the seven seas to discover: a few versions of the Kia Optima with significantly higher fuel effiiency. The stuff really sweet dreams are made of!

The most sighed-over car commercial shown at the 2012 Superbowl must have been the Kia Optima ad, ninety seconds of pure male fantasy featuring the very lovely Adriana Lima. In case you haven't tired of it, here it is again:

"A dream car. For real life."

Now here's the thing: Kia has made the exterior of this car the same in their markets all over the world, but what's under the hood is a different story. In the US, the 2012 Kia Optima comes with either a 2.4L gasoline injection engine, or a 2.0L gasoline turbo putting out 274 HP, as over the top as the new ad. Fuel economy: 22 / 34 mpg (cty/hwy).

In the UK, you can't get anything that gas-guzzly: there, they have phased out the 2.0L engine for what used to be called the Magentis, and now your only option for the Optima is a 1.7L diesel injection engine. This still puts out a respectable 134 HP and gets an advertised 48 mpg, so in the real world I estimate you can do around 44 mpg (this car is too recent an introduction for much real-life data to be available).

The marketing is equally understated. Check out this commercial made for the UK, what the Brits would call a "TV advert": it is truly a study in understatement, hilarious (in a quiet kind of way) - and a tad different from the US TV ad.

"Park the clichés: drive the new Kia Optima"

In Asia, Kia calls this car the K5. In the South Korean home market, it is available with a 2.0L CVVL engine (35mpg) and a 2.0L LPI engine (26mpg) which I take to run on LPG (but I couldn't work myself through the Korean enough to be sure about that). There is also, since 2011, a hybrid version that sports an official 49 mpg (should be close to 45 mpg in real life).

Now that's something I call worth dreaming about. How much longer before that dream comes true in the US?

Here is the Asian commercial, reflecting the global aspirations of this Korean car manufacturer (despite the wonky English), and dreamy in a different way:

"To the world best: K5"

Actually, this car is not CelloMom's cup of tea. It's too large for me; besides, I just don't get the aesthetic that would marry the words "attractive" and "aggressive" into an oxymoronic "attractively aggressive".

But at a time when many cars are downgraded to a 3-year limited warranty, the Kia Optima is one of those cars that still comes with an old-fashioned 10-year, 100,000 mile warranty in the US, and (bafflingly) a 7-year, 100,000 mile warranty for the UK. You wonder if that means that they use better parts for Optimas sold in the US, where the highly variable climate is much harsher on cars and all their parts.

 

UPDATE 11DEC2012: The dream has come true! For 2013 Kia is offering the Optima Hybrid in the US, with EPA fuel efficiency 34 / 39 mpg (cty/hwy), lower than my estimate, above. Reviewed by Nicole at MamaNYC.

 

Kia Optima / K5 Hybrid

 

	Optima (US)	Optima (UK)	K5 (S. Korea)
Type	EX Turbo	1-Luxe	Hybrid
Year	2012	2012	2012
Emissions rating		EURO 5
MSRP	$ 25,100	£ 19.595 ($ 31,150)	₩ 31,080,000 ($ 27,800)
CelloMom Rating
Fuel Economy:
City/Hwy quoted	22 / 34 mpg	41 / 53 mpg
Avg. quoted		48 mpg	21km/L (49mpg)
Avg. actual	27 mpg	44 mpg est.	45 mpg est.
Engine	2.0L GDI Turbo	1.7L CRDi	2.0L HEV
Power	274 hp @ 6000rpm	134 hp @ 4000rpm	149 hp & 30 kW
Gears	6-spd Auto	6-spd manual	Auto
Fuel	Regular unleaded	Diesel	Gasoline
Length, mm(in)	190.7in	4845 mm
Width, mm(in)	72.05in	1830 mm
Height, mm(in)	57.28in	1455 mm
Weight, kg(lbs)	3385 lbs	1559 kg
Trunk volume, liters(cuft)	15.42 cuft	505 L
Turning radius, m(ft)	35.76 ft c-c	10.9m c-c
Top speed, kph(mph)

 

 

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