Back in December 2011 when Naza launched the Kia K5, there were wow, nice, and cool everywhere. The Optima is Kia D-Segment flagship, and their previous generation just looked like it came out from the 70's. With Peter Schreyer on board with Kia, the ugly duckling took a 360 degrees turn, emerging with the signature tiger nose, and a total revamped of styling and features. The facelift was made available this mid-January, wearing the same 2.0-litre Nu engine with the Hyundai's 6-speed slush box, producing a healthy 163hp/196Nm of power. What stand out from this facelift is the ice cube layout of the LED fog light. Now, this make one wonders whether this could be a useful light if it were in white, which will create a very messed up back-reflection and most probably get absorbed into the real foggy environment, providing no benefit in enhance visibility, but providing only a fashionable light source. Everyone uses LED, I want it too! Remember during the 70's and 80's, fog light are in yellow colour because it could penetrate water mist!
Now back to the Optima, which looks very European, inheriting Schreyer's gene. For RM150k, you get a fully loaded machine, with 6-airbag, active headlight, panoramic sunroof, rear camera, Infinity cound system, dual-zone auto aircon with cluster ionizer, rain sensor, auto headlight, and all the safety stuffs such as ABS, EBD, BAS, TCS, ESP, and HAV. Wow, that's a lot of stuffs in there.
Interior of the Optima is almost perfect, if it were to be equipped with a huge touch screen instead of the 4.3" unit. A larger unit will add to luxury to the vehicle. A steering full of button could not be very welcome as it complicate the usage. Looking down to the gear shifter, two button that activate the front seat ventilation function is really cool in our hot weather. Start feeling mild aircon from the seats, it is really comfortable. Very thoughtful feature that is usually available only in high-end luxury vehicles. The floor mounted sporty gas pedal is a plus! No more cheap looking hanging pedal.
The car looks very "taiko", as it gives out the fierce feeling. But overall, it really looks good. It is huge, and in some way, it could look elegant. The design is timeless, unlike its sibling Sonata with the fluidic concept that went out of the wow factor after few years. The upcoming Sonata will realign back to the traditional conservative design, which shall be launched soon. Now, again, let's hope the used car value will not rock bottom, and Kia shall make a huge success. I still want to see the Kia Soul on our road. Naza, are you listening?
