Our Verdict
Kia has a winner on its hands, with plenty of useful technology and amenities matched with good road feel, steering response, suspension tuning and sharp looks.For
- Excellent infotainment system with Android Auto
- Useful driver assist technologies
- Driving dynamics
- Harman Kardon sound system
Against
- Apple CarPlay support not ready
- Cheap plastics used in the lower center console
- Excessive chrome use
Mid-size sedans are the bread and butter of the American automotive industry, falling just behind pickup trucks in terms of overall sales. This highly competitive segment is where every manufacturer brings its A-game to grab a chunk of the combined yearly sales that reach nearly 2.4 million vehicles.
If you asked what I thought about Kia vehicles a decade ago, the answer would have included not-so-kind remarks and plenty of sarcasm. That was always the case when it came to Korean vehicles, which earned a reputation for terrible quality vehicles in the '80s and '90s.
Five years later, and my opinion stays the same: the 2010-2015 Optima is one of the best looking midsize sedans available, and Peter Schreyer's styling has aged gracefully. Regardless, it's time for a change, and the new 2016 Kia Optima debuted at the New York Auto Show earlier this year with subtle visual updates while presenting a completely different car.
I like the new design, especially from behind. But unfortunately, as with other cars in the mid-size segment, there's excessive use of chrome details.
Interior
Inside is where you spend most of your time in a car, and Kia crafted an attractive, driver-focused cabin. Step into the Optima SX – Kia loaned techradar for review – and you're treated with leather heated seats that get very toasty. (Ventilated seats are optional on the SX and standard on the SX Limited.)Grab the steering wheel, and you're treated to a leather-wrapped, flat-bottom wheel with thumb grips that give the car a performance-oriented look and feel. The wheel is heated and gets very warm for those cold morning drives to work in the winter.
The
seats are very comfortable for long drives without any shoulder or neck
pain. Lumbar adjustments eliminate lower back pain by providing support
that suits the curvature of your back. There's the right amount of
width and side bolster to support my 5-foot, 7-inch and 195-pound frame
too. The Optima SX and SX Limited feature 12-way adjustable power seats
for the driver with 4-way lumbar adjustments – a 10-way power passenger
seat with 2-way lumbar is optional on the SX and standard on the SX
Limited. 
I'm
a fan of the new headrest design, a soft plush cushion with a
pillow-like feel. Opt for the SX Limited trim, and the seats are wrapped
in fine Nappa leather with a diamond quilt pattern – for that extra
touch of class.Look forward, and you're treated to a pair of analog gauges for the speedometer and tachometer with an LCD display sandwiched in between. The gauge cluster LCD display provides access to vehicle settings, such as light-off delay time, automatic door locks, driver assists and more.
This way, you can make quick changes to match your personal preferences without having to bring the car into the dealership. The display also ties into the navigation software to show turn-by-turn directions and basic vehicle information including fuel economy, tire pressure and trip meters.
The door panels are wrapped generously in vinyl, with plenty of soft touch materials, too. Overall, the interior layout, materials and level of comfort in the new Optima are good and it's a great place to be for your daily commute and roadtrips. The driver-focused interior puts you in control of the car with easy to reach buttons and knobs and the most frequently touched surfaces, such as the armrest and steering wheel is wrapped in leather.
There is one annoyance I have with the interior, one that affects most of the Optima vehicles, and that's the foot-operated parking brake. While vehicles with adaptive cruise control get an electronic parking brake, most of the Optima models will ship with the foot-operated brake that looks more like it belongs in an '80s pickup truck than a modern car. It's a small nitpick that still bugs me since manufacturers began moving away from the hand-brake.
Infotainment system
Kia employs its AVN 4.0 infotainment platform in the 2016 Optima, powered by a Freescale i.MX53 System on a Chip (SoC) and a Linux-based operating system. The single-core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC is ancient by modern smartphone standards but perfectly adequate for in-car navigation.
Mounted
high and center on the Optima dashboard is an 8-inch touch screen with a
resolution of 800 x 480. The display isn't as crisp as the latest Apple
Retina displays or WQHD displays on Android flagships, but you're not
looking at fine details from your driving position, so I have no
problems with it.The Visuals used for the interface are easy on the eyes and easily legible from the driver's seat. Touch response is excellent without lag, despite employing a resistive (plastic, no multi-touch) touch display rather than capacitive (glass, supports multi-touch), which dominates the mobile tech world.
Kia opts for physical buttons and knobs placed lower on the center stack that are easy to reach. The physical buttons complement the touch screen interface for direct access to music sources, maps, UVO (Kia's own phone-connected information services), volume, seek functions and folder navigation.
There are radio controls on the left-side of the steering wheel for similar functions, too. I appreciate the physical controls, as they provide quicker and direct feedback when turning up the volume or changing the music source while focusing on the road. Placing the steering wheel controls on the left-hand side is perfect for those that drive primarily with their left hand on the wheel.
The user interface is very intuitive, with quick access to your audio sources, UVO apps, navigation and settings – the functions aren't buried beneath layers of sub-menus. Pairing your phone is an easy process that's triggered when you press the phone button without a device paired to the car.
Navigating SiriusXM, HD radio or USB storage devices bring no surprises with a straightforward user interface. The SiriusXM 2.0 tuner features time-shifting capabilities for the first six presets.
When a SiriusXM station is set to one of the first six presets, music is constantly recorded, so you can channel surf and restart a song that's already playing. Navigation maps are plain and flat but do the job. Kia's maps aren't as detailed as the 3D maps used by Ford and luxury car makers but adequate for getting you around town.
SiriusXM NavTraffic support is integrated in the infotainment system, but I find the feature quite useless. Unless you're entering an address into the navigation everywhere you go, SiriusXM NavTraffic does not know where you're going and will not recommend alternative routes if there's a jam or congestion.
There's also the problem in which I can see a jam in front of me, but NavTraffic doesn't show any congested traffic. A subscription costs $3.99 a month after the initial three-month trial period expires, but you're better off saving the money and using Google Maps or Waze for commuting.
I played with Android Auto in the car and found no performance issues with my Motorola Nexus 6.
There is one downside, though, and it's the power output from the USB port: I measured power output at 0.8-amps using a Drok USB Volt Amp Meter. This is plenty to charge the phone while using navigation, but it doesn't charge very fast.
Audio quality from Android Auto is disappointing, but that's Google's fault and not Kia's. Android Auto sends music via Bluetooth instead of the USB connection already in use, unfortunately.
Newfangled iPhone 6S users are left out at launch with the new Optima. Kia promises Apple CarPlay support with the Optima and other vehicles next year via a software update. I've played with development units (a box with the infotainment system, not in a car) and haven't encountered any issues. The feature mirrors iOS functions to the vehicle display so you have the standard home button that's now on-screen and the iOS grid layout for CarPlay compatible apps.
The infotainment system does feature apps, such as Pandora, Yelp and the UVO features. Pandora integration uses Bluetooth for Android and a wired connection for iOS. Sound quality is obviously better through iOS, thanks to the wired connection. I didn't get a chance to test out the other UVO features, as the user logins were not provided with Kia's sample car for review, unfortunately.
Kia's phone system does not support text messages. However, you're better off using Android Auto or the upcoming CarPlay functions, as Apple and Google will let you dictate messages using cloud-based services.
The range-topping Optima SX Limited trim offers an integrated Qi wireless charger for phones. The charger is available in the lower cubby, where the USB and 12-volt power plugs are located.
While standard models have two 12-volt power plugs up front, the Qi wireless charger replaces one of the plugs with a light that shows the charging status. I was able to briefly test the integrated charger with my Motorola Nexus 6 and a Samsung Galaxy S6 with success – it works as you'd expect it. The compartment is a little tight with the Nexus 6, so I wouldn't try larger phones.
Premium sound
Standard on the SX Limited and optional on the SX is a Harman Kardon-branded premium sound system. The system features 10 total speakers with a 630-watt, 11-channel digital amplifier. For those that are confused by the greater amount of channels to the amount of speakers, the subwoofer in the rear deck is a dual voice coil design and takes two channels to power.Harman's Clari-Fi and QuantumLogic Surround technologies headline the premium sound system. Clari-Fi claims to rebuild musical details lost in the digital conversion process using a proprietary algorithm developed by Harman.
The sound restoring technology works on all audio sources from USB, Bluetooth to SiriusXM. I spent most of the time listening to SiriusXM in the Optima and the feature does work as advertised.
SiriusXM typically produces low bit-rates, which result in terrible sound quality that sounds very dull. In the Optima, Clari-Fi brings back a bit of warmth to the sound. It's still not as good as a CD or high bitrate MP3, but it makes SiriusXM that much more tolerable in terms of sound quality.
Harman's processing keeps the music sounding natural so it's not a major change from the original sound source. The feature raises the sound stage to ear level, so the music is livelier with better staging.
I personally like the Harman Kardon premium sound system. There's a good balance of clarity and mid-bass from the system that lets you hear clear vocals with punchy bass notes. The subwoofer is a little weak, as with most factory systems, but adding bass is a lot easier than replacing all the speakers in the car. It's a good factory system with sound quality that I could live with and not have an itch to upgrade with aftermarket gear.
Driver assists
Kia offers a suite of driver assist technologies that are optional on the SX and standard on the SX Limited to help make your commute or late night driving easier or more annoying, depending on how open you are to the technology. The available features include rear parking sensors, blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert, emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, adaptive headlights, 360-degree camera and – most importantly – adaptive cruise control.The rear parking sensors, blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert, forward collision warning and lane departure warning features are all passive functions. These features do not stand to interfere with your driving at all.
The rear parking sensors cause the car to make loud beeps when the rear bumper is getting too close to an object when you're trying to park. Blind spot detection simply sounds off an alert when you put on the turn signal and there's a vehicle in the blind spot – or if another vehicle is accelerating at a higher rate of speed in the lane you're trying to get into.
Rear cross traffic alert is one of those features that's nice to have if you spend a lot of time in busy parking lots. Say you're backing out of a parking spot at the mall, you perform your head checks and don't see any car coming but while backing up, the system detects a child, shopping cart or another vehicle trying to get by you. The system then alerts you, so you can immediately stop and avoid hitting something (or someone) that is now in your path.
Forward collision and lane departure warning are also passive systems. The forward collision warning simply makes loud beeps when it senses the car or object in front of you may cause a collision to encourage braking. Kia does not offer bright flashing red lights that projects onto the windshield like General Motors, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and others. Instead, there's an alert graphic that shows up in the gauge cluster display.
Kia's Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) technology takes the forward collision warning system one step further to make it an active safety system. AEB can automatically apply the brakes to stop the car if it detects an imminent collision to lessen the impact if not completely avoid the collision completely.
Adaptive headlights are standard on the SX and SX Limited trim levels, which Kia dubs Dynamic Bending Light (DBL). This is a feature that is very useful if you live in rural environments and drive on windy roads. The feature works by turning the headlamps with your steering wheel so the headlights follow the road.
DBL has its uses, but if your drive consists mostly of well-lit roads and freeways, you most likely won't notice it in action. Nevertheless, it works well with the HID headlights in the Optima.
Instead of turning off below a certain speed, the Optima's adaptive cruise is a full-speed system that can stop the car completely and hold it without any driver intervention. The beauty of this is that you can completely drive the car in bumper-to-bumper traffic without ever setting your foot on the brake or gas pedal. Simply set a cruise speed, a following distance and let the system speed up or slow down and even stop the car for you.
On other vehicles without the electronic parking brake, adaptive cruise will ask you to step on the brake pedal when it's at a near-stop. The electric parking brake enables the car to automatically apply the brakes at a stop, so you can simply tap the resume toggle or quickly tap of the gas pedal to get going again.
The feature automatically triggers when the car is put in reverse, but switches to the front camera briefly if you put it in drive and move at a slow rate of speed. You can manually turn on the bird's-eye view of the car, plus the front camera via a button below the shifter at slower speeds to aid parking.
Kia's Optima SX and SX Limited trims come standard with the 2.0-liter turbo, 4-cylinder motor, rack-mounted, power steering motor and sport-tuned suspension. The 2.0t is rated at 245 horsepower (hp) with 260 pound-per-foot of torque, which is down from the previous generation's 274 hp and 269 pound-per-foot.
However, numbers aren't everything, as the new Optima makes peak torque at 1,350 rotations per minute (RPM) instead of 1,650 RPM. The new Optima employs a smaller, twin-scroll turbo to achieve these power ratings. The 2.0t is mated to the same 6-speed automatic as the previous generation.
While power is down on the new Optima, Kia engineers tuned the engine for a smoother power curve that improves drivability. There's no high-RPM power surge, as with the previous generation, only linear smoothness. Despite being down on power, you can spin the tires a little when flooring it from a stop and it never felt slow. I wouldn't call it fast but there's plenty of passing power at high altitudes (I drove up to 12,000 feet above sea level) thanks to the turbo.
The power curve is very linear without random power surges, and backs up Kia's claim of tuning the engine for smoothness. The later runs generated less power due to heat soak, which happens when a car is on a dyno with a large fan blowing air at it – this isn't something that typically happens in regular driving, unless it's extremely hot outside.
The US Environmental Protection Agency rates the Optima with the 2.0-liter turbo at 22 in the city, 32 on the highway and 25 combined miles-per-gallon. My lead-footed driving saw fuel economy around 20 MPG in primarily city driving. I'm sure your average driver should see the rated numbers, but it's hard not to mash the gas pedal and listen to the tires squeal.
Kia offers a 1.6-liter turbo and 2.4-liter 4-cylinder motors that are more economical as well. The 1.6-liter turbo is an economical gem that's rated for 28 in the city, 39 on the highway and 32 combined MPG, while the base 2.4-liter only gains 2-3 MPG more across the board than the turbo 2.0-liter. However, the 1.6 turbo and 2.4-liter motors have column-mounted power steering motors and different suspension tuning, so the driving dynamics are completely different. My take on the Optima's driving performance strictly refers to the SX and SX Limited.
Steering feel on the Optima gives you a feel of the surface, tight response and the right amount of weight to inspire confidence. Kia has come a long way in terms of driving dynamics, and the Optima is a solid driving mid-size sedan. There's a driver mode select button that alters steering, throttle response and transmission shifting depending on which mode you select – normal, sport or eco. I left the car in sport mode most of the time as I prefer a heavier and tighter steering feel and quicker transmission shifts.
Paddle shifters are available behind the steering wheel and mounted to the wheel, which is what I prefer instead of column-mounted paddles. The downside is that there's a noticeable delay when pressing the paddles to when the transmission shifts.
The power steering applies the right amount of weight at the right speeds for a pleasant drive through winding roads. Suspension tuning strikes the balance of sporty handling and comfort without noticeable body roll while spiritedly driving through the mountain roads without breaking the law (too much). The 2016 Optima isn't on the same level as the Mazda 6 when it comes to driving dynamics, but it's very close and offers an excellent driving experience.
Living with it
Everything about the Kia Optima looks good, but what is it like to live with (you know, with kids)? We partnered up with Diono, a car seat manufacturer, to test fit three car seats in the back of the car. Diono's USA headquarters is in Puyallup, Wash., where I conduct vehicle testing and a convenient place to stop by and test-fit car seats. With the help of Diono, I installed three Radian RXT convertible car seats in the back of the Optima.The Optima has two pairs of lower LATCH anchors in the outboard seats, and the middle seat requires using the regular seat belt. Top LATCH anchors are present for all three seats. The seats were installed with the vehicle seat belts and not LATCH anchors.
When rear-facing, the Radian RXT can protrude into the front of the car due to how tall it is. This is easily resolved using Diono's angle-adjuster accessory, which I tested with it as well. Ultimately, the 2016 Optima can safely fit three Diono Radian RXT car seats in the back. I am not able to test other car seats and can't confirm if other brand models will fit in a three-across configuration.
Junk in the trunk
Walk up to the trunk of the Optima with the key fob in your pocket and the car automatically opens the trunk for you. Kia calls this feature "Smart Trunk," and it makes your life easier if your hands are full, theoretically.The Smart Trunk only activates if the car is locked and you walk behind the car. It sounds off a couple beeps as an audible warning before the trunk is opened. If it's beeping and you didn't want to open the trunk, simply walk away and it'll cancel.
In the perfect scenario, you'll have your hands full with the kids and groceries, walk up to the car and the trunk magically opens for you. In reality, Kia's Smart Trunk pops open the trunk but it doesn't have a powered trunk to automatically raise it for you, so you still have to open the trunk albeit with one less step.
I dragged the Sumo Omni outside to put in the trunk of the Optima without much luck – and odd stares from neighbors. The 60 x 60 x 38-inch bean bag didn't fit due to the small opening.
While your typical boxes and suitcases should fit in the Optima without issues, it's the odd-sized item that is a problem. If you need to haul large items a lot, a sedan isn't ideal and you're better off with a wagon (estate for our UK readers) minivan or crossover.
Overall, I really like the 2016 Kia Optima. If you asked me if I would ever consider a Kia 10 years ago, I'd just laugh with a quick "heck no." The company has come a long way, and the previous generation Optima was a major change for the company's brand perception. This follow-up takes the stunning looks and makes a car that's visually familiar but a completely different animal when it comes to refinement.
We liked
Said refinement includes well-devised feature implementations that aren't simply checking boxes. The infotainment system is easy to use on its own or you can add a smartphone to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay next year.There are two USB charging ports, so front- and rear-seat passengers can charge their devices. Plus, the 360-degree camera is well implemented with a birds-eye and directional view of the vehicle. And the adaptive cruise control can stop and hold the car for you.
Driving the Optima is a good experience – the sport suspension is stiff enough to have fun through windy roads but dampens well enough for a comfortable ride. The seats are comfortable, and I didn't develop any back pains during the hours of driving or riding as a passenger.
We disliked
There are some downsides with the Optima, though it's mostly me nitpicking. The overall interior materials consist of soft touch surfaces and ergonomic control placements.For starters, the two large chunks of black plastic on each side of the infotainment screen are confusing – the plastic feels very cheap and it looks weird. There's the standard, foot-operated parking brake on lower trim models that reminds me of my dad's '80s Toyota pickup truck.
Not to mention the excessive use of exterior chrome trim – yuck. Also, Apple CarPlay not being available until next year is a major disappointment, especially since Honda has it on the refreshed Accord.
Final verdict
Pricing for the turbocharged Kia Optima SX starts at $29,690 (AU$48,331 as the Optima GT; no UK availability yet) but you get quite a lot of kit at that price, including sportier front and rear fascias, bi-Xenon HID headlights, 12-way adjustable leather sport seats, leather-wrapped heated steering wheel, sportier suspension and integrated navigation functions.Add the optional $4,800 SX Premium Technology Package, and Kia throws the kitchen sink at you with the driver assist technologies, 360-degree camera, the excellent Harman Kardon premium sound system, a panoramic sunroof, ventilated front seats and heated rear seats. That brings the price to $35,315, or you can splurge and go for the range-topping SX Limited at $36,615 and treat your behind to finer-quality Nappa leather.
This year's Optima may not look much different than the previous generation, but its toned down and shows a higher level of refinement, the equivalent of putting on a suit and tie. If you're looking for a mid-size sedan that's stylish and satisfies your needs for a comfortable daily commuter and family car, you can't go wrong with the 2016 Kia Optima.
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