Kia Optima GT 2016 review | road test

We recently reported on Kia’s success in the 2016 JD Power Initial Quality Study (IQS), the USA car industry’s benchmark for new-vehicle quality. The South Korean company was number one. While the result will have surprised many it is anything but a surprise to those of us that have been watching the steady rise of the giant Hyundai/Kia group.

We’ve just spent a week in the latest version of the Kia Optima, released late last year, and quality is the word that immediately sprung to mind. This isn’t just a good Korean car, it’s one that stands comparison with many much more expensive cars from either Japan or Europe.

Styling

New Optima is the first Kia to be developed under the full control of Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Design Officer of Kia Motors.

"The interior has that luxury feel and ambiance that we except from much more expensive cars."

It features edge surfaces, sharp body lines and creases, and a more elongated sedan silhouette. The GT variant that we tested has a bold, purposeful, look with an aggressive front bumper design; black high gloss side sills; a rear air diffuser with integrated dual tailpipes and GT badging.

Engines / Transmissions

The Optima range has been trimmed back to two variants: the $34,490 Si with the carryover 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder 138kW, 241Nm engine. The $43,990 GT is powered by a new all-alloy 2.0-litreturbocharged petrol motor. Boasting 180kW and 350Nm, the latter features a twin-scroll turbocharger and dual continuously variable valve timing technology.

Both engines drive the front wheels through Kia’s own design of six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters. Both also come with three drive modes: Normal, Sports and Eco.

The Optima rolls on either 17-inch (Si) or 18-inch (GT) alloy wheels with Continental rubber on Si and performance-rated Michelin Pilot Sport 3 for the GT. Both carry a full-size spare.

Interior

Optima is around the same size as the Toyota Camry that dominates sales in the medium family category in Australia, and is not that much smaller than the Commodore and Falcon. Interior space is well-managed with plenty of leg, shoulder and headroom both front and rear although the GT does come with a panoramic sunroof that steals some headroom, which could annoy taller occupants.

Kia Optima Si has cloth seats, GT gets black leather with contrast red stitching, which are heated and ventilated in the fronts. Red interior trim with dark grey stitching is also available in the GT.

Boot capacity is 510 litres. The GT gets a ‘smart trunk’ system that automatically opens the boot when the key is held near to the rear of the car. A three-beep warning alerts the key-holder to the imminent boot opening and allows it to be aborted if necessary.

Safety

Both models get the usual safety equipment including front, side and curtain airbags, enhanced ABS brakes and stability / traction control. Also standard are front and rear parking sensors; reversing camera; lane departure warning; autonomous emergency braking; LED daytime running lights and front fog lights; dusk sensing automatic headlights; auto dimming rear mirror; static cornering lights; and IsoFix rear seat child restraint anchorage points.

Optima GT adds blind-spot and-lane change assist; rear cross traffic alert; adaptive front lighting; as well as a smart key with push button start.

New Optima has yet to undergo ANCAP testing but given that it has more safety equipment than its five-star rated predecessor that top score seems little more than a formality.

Multimedia

Equipment levels are high with colour LCD touchscreens (7.0-inch in the Si, 8.0-inch in the GT); with satellite navigation; Bluetooth phone and audio; Auxiliary and USB inputs; and speed dependent volume control. GT also gets a higher grade 590 watt Harman/Kardon sound system.

Driving

Our test car was the turbocharged petrol engine Optima GT. Kia’s not the first company to stretch the truth a little with the GT (as in Grand Touring) label and won’t be the last. It’s not a long-distance luxury cruiser, nor is it especially sporty, but just about everything else it does extremely well.

The interior has that luxury feel and ambiance that we except from much more expensive cars. The seats are supportive and comfortable and the various displays and controls are all conveniently placed and intuitive. Bluetooth pairing took less than a minute.

As with all Kia models new Optima’s suspension has been tuned to suit Australian conditions, and it shows. The ride is comfortable in normal conditions but also coped with a few unexpected potholes and ridges that we encountered over the semi-rural segment of our usual test route.

The new turbo-petrol engine, one that Optima shares with its Hyundai Sonata Premium sibling, brings a Euro feel to the car’s performance. It’s responsive, punchy and powerful especially in the mid-range gears. Gear changes from the six-speed auto are smooth and fast.

About the only downside is fuel consumption which is officially tested at 8.5 litres per 100 kilometres on the combined urban / non-urban cycle. We averaged just under 10 L/100 km in our test.

Verdict 

The days of Korean cars selling primarily on price are now probably in the past. While they still provide good value the latest offerings combine quality with good looks and high levels of standard equipment.

We recommend a test drive of the Kia Optima but make sure that you approach it with an open mind and without any badge preconceptions. If you prefer to trust the judgement of others then you’ll find that Optima GT won its category (Medium Cars Under $50,000) in the latest Australia’s Best Cars award as judged by Australian motoring clubs.

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Kia Optima GT: Keen, comfortable and confident

A more powerful and focused addition to the Korean manufacturer’s popular D-segment saloon car range, the Kia Optima GT has the performance and dynamic abilities to match its now sharper more muscular design. Succeeding the previous generation US market Optima Turbo the GT is the first — and very welcome — performance-biased Optima introduced to the Middle East.

Quick, composed, comfortable and confident, the GT is the range-topping model in a new fourth generation optima range, first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show late last year. Evolutionary in nature, the new Optima is aesthetically more assertive, but also features structural and dynamic improvements, better refinement and more contemporary infotainment and driver assistance systems.

Aggressive evolution

An evolutionary design that is subtly but distinctly more aggressive and muscular, the new Kia Optima features a more sculpted bumper section, side sills and body surfacing. With noticeably blistered fog lamp/side gill housings, more swept back yet heavily browed grille and headlamps, side ports, sharply angled slim rear lights and built-in bootlid spoiler, the Optima a wider more purposeful presence.

Rakishly angled with coupe-like roofline, tautly pulled back sheet metal and flowing waistline line stretching from the headlights to the rear lamps, the new Optima both visually more dramatic and slightly larger. Roomier in all directions, and with 10mm longer wheelbase, the new Optima features 25mm more rear legroom and slight shoulder and headroom increases front and rear.

Driven with the largest available 235/45R18 footwear filling in its bulgy wheel-arches, the sportier Optima GT is distinguished by a yet more aggressive bumper design with slatted metallic side gill slats and long lower intake slat. The GT also features black gloss side sills and aggressive rear diffuser section with integrated dual exhaust ports.

Quick and confident

Powered by a 2-litre turbocharged direct fuel injection four-cylinder engine driving front wheels through a smooth shifting six-speed automatic gearbox, the Optima GT produces 241BHP at 6000rpm and 258lb/ft torque throughout an early arriving and flexibly broad 1400-4000rpm. Though down from the previous non-Middle East Optima Turbo’s 274BHP and 269lb/ft, the new GT does however deliver better low and mid-range responses and improved fuel efficiency.

A welcome addition to Kia’s regional line-up, the Optima GT offers performance more in tune with its decidedly aggressive design. With quick spooling twin scroll turbo, the GT virtually eliminates turbo lag and is responsive off-the-line. Welling up muscularly to an effortlessly punchy and accessible wide and versatile mid-range, the Optima GT felt decidedly more athletic than headline figures suggest.

Eager spinning to redline and maximum power, and underwritten by generous torque, the GT felt urgent yet refined, with useful real world performance and little torque steer, despite the absence of electronic torque vectoring to tidily channel power to the driven front wheels. Covering the 0-100km/h sprint in 7.4 seconds and capable of 240km/h, it also returns 8.5l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Composed and committed

Using 150 per cent more advanced high strength steel, the new Optima benefits from 50 per cent enhanced structural rigidity, which pays dividends in terms of crash safety, ride refinement and handling precision. Meanwhile, wider suspension subframe mountings improve stability and the use of four — rather than two — front bushing mounts, more robust wheel bearings and dual rear lower control arms.

Collectively improving lateral stiffness, steering response and precision, cornering traction and agility, the sportier Optima GT, however, also receives firmer high-performance dampers for better responses and body control. An altogether tauter more connected driving experience, the Optima GT felt stable at speed and settled on rebound, yet eager, poised and committed into and through corners.

Despite limited opportunities to fully explore its dynamic envelope during test drive in Oman, the Optima GT felt tidy and direct on turn-in, with good front and rear grip under load and through corners. Tauter damping provided a sportier and more reassuring drive, with noticeably improved body roll control and a more buttoned down feel over imperfections.

Classier comfort

Tauter and more connected than other Optima models, the GT’s sportier handling abilities better reflects its assertive design, and finds a good balance between keen handling and ride comfort. Supple yet stable riding, the new Optima also benefits from improved acoustic and vibration refinement owing to improved aerodynamics, window seals, dashboard insulation under-floor cover and larger cross member bushings.

Better refined, classier and roomier inside, the new Optima features a cleaner less cluttered design with horizontal emphasis. More upmarket in appearance and feel, it gains more soft textures and improved materials, and features unified metallic accent tone and texture throughout the cabin. Supportive and comfortable, the GT-specific sports seats featured rich red leather and contrasting dark grey stitching.

Well equipped with standard and optional infotainment, convenience and safety and driver assistance systems, the Optima GT features optional 10-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, up to 8-inch infotainment display, Bluetooth connectivity and wireless phone charging. Also available are 360° around view parking camera, sensors and assistance, and rear cross traffic, blind spot and lane keeping alerts.


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Kia will launch a Ford Fiesta ST rival

Kia is all set to establish a new high-performance GT line. The range will be headed up by the long-awaited GT sports car, and now the brand’s announced that a Rio hatchback-based Ford Fiesta ST rival is on the cards, too.

The GT sports car is set to arrive in showrooms in 2017, but the production model could be revealed as soon as October’s Paris Motor Show. With styling taken from both the four-door GT coupé concept and the Stinger compact coupé concept, it’ll act as a halo model for the rest of the line-up.

The Procee’d GT and Optima GT have already been revealed, and now we understand that the Rio GT should arrive in 2018 to take on Ford’s legendary hot hatch. Kia wants to use the model, which was developed under ex-BMW M boss Albert Biermann, to cement its performance small car reputation.

The newcomer is slated to feature a c.180bhp 1.6-litre engine and an all-new platform that’ll debut in next year’s next-generation standard Rio. That hatch is claimed to be lighter and more dynamically agile than at present, with “a quantum leap” of cabin and infotainment improvements. Kia’s ultra-efficient 1.0-litre petrol triple will feature in a revised engine range. A new Picanto is also due in 2017.

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