SINGAPORE – The first decade of the 21st century will probably be noted for being the years in which Korea went big: K-Pop, Psy, tourism, Samsung, and of course, Hyundai and Kia.

As Ju-Len noted in our CarBuyer analysis piece in October, Kia’s one of the few brands of the past years to have consistently upped its game in nearly all measurable factors. Currently, Kia’s ranked on Interbrand’s list of the 100 best global brands at 83rd spot, worth US$4.7 billion, and making it more valuable than brands like Starbucks, Moët & Chandon, and even Ferrari.

It’s also ‘pulled a Volkswagen’ when it comes to engineering, consolidating technologies, reducing platform diversification and maximising economies of scale. In 2009 Hyundai and Kia sold 32 different in total, all built on 18 different platforms, whereas now they offer 40 models all running on just six platforms.

Even more impressive is Kia’s pledge to put one in the eye of everyone else by changing established tradition. The modern life of a car is around six years, with a mid-life facelift every three years. Kia’s new way of doing things is to facelift every two years instead, or twice in the life of each of its products.

That’s what you see here with the first revision of the Optima K5 big sedan. If anything, the Koreans are making sure they’re winning the Christmas tree wars on this end of the car industry. LED DRLs were introduced on the previous Optima but now they revised, and joined by LED tail-lights as well as LED fog-lamps, another instance of Kia’s generous ‘a segment up’ approach to doling out standard equipment.

Overall these touches simply enhance the Optima’s previous reputation, that of the sportiest-looking big sedan in the segment, and it’s a feeling furthered by the interior as well.

The overall layout is similar but there’s some differences in the design, including some additional curves which emphasise the ‘driver centric’ layout. The steering wheel shown in this test unit isn’t the same that production units will get – they receive a sportier D-shaped steering wheel with a revised button layout.

As before the K5 comes with a huge amount of equipment – panoramic sunroof, rearview camera iPod/USB connectivity, full-colour displays for the infotainment and driver’s instruments as well as air-conditioned seats. But wait, there’s more! (As they say in infomercials, although with less risk of a bum product here) New to the Optima is an Infinity premium sound system, along with new safety features: Blind Spot Detection, which also incorporates a rear cross traffic alert (helps you when reversing out) and lane change assist. All this stuff, as we said before, is ‘a segment up’, and only the more expensive and very-accomplished Honda Accord has this kind of bursting-full feature list.

The 2.4-litre engine is new-ish, it’s the familiar Theta II unit, but which was dropped from the line-up previously. Now it’s the sole variant, although Cycle & Carriage haven’t ruled out a return of the 2.0 if market conditions make it prudent – Singapore, as a right-hand drive market, sadly misses out on the hybrid and 2.0 turbo variants.

Kia Optima K5 2.4

NEED TO KNOW
Engine 2,359cc, 16V, inline 4
Power 180bhp at 6,000rpm
Torque 231Nm at 4,000rpm
Gearbox 6-speed automatic
Top Speed 210km/h
0-100km/h 9.5 seconds
Fuel efficiency 8.5L/100km
CO2 197g/km
Price $XXX,950 with COE

Also Consider: Hyundai i45, Toyota Camry

Photos by Derryn Wong