New daily: 2014 Kia Optima SX turbo

[sutyak]

Thought I'd try something different. Kias in general seem to have come a long way, and you get a lot of car for the money. I also prefer to buy American-made cars, and these Kias are now built in Georgia. Ironically the last Focus I bought was from Mexico. I picked this one up with 37K miles on it.
Performance specs are 274hp/269tq from a turbo 2.0. Not many people seem to drag these, but 1/4 times are low 14's around 98mph.
The interior is nice! It's the most luxurious car I've owned, with "leather" everywhere. Leather on the dash, doors, and the seats are a nice soft leather, not cheap hard junk. The only wear I'm noticing so far is a fake chrome ring around the front cup holders is flaking off. I'll post interior pics after I finish cleaning it up to my standards. I'll also take it in for some 35% tint soon.
The color is very close to mineral grey, but it reflects the color of anything around it, which is why every picture it looks different.

[bluoval]

Congrats on your newest ride! My mom just bought a new Optima - it's prolly the non-turbo version but she loves it!!

[fiveliter]

I had a 2012 version of the same car. To be honest, I was not a fan. From the fake leather steering wheel that kept cracking ( Kia replaced twice ) to the turbo not working in cold weather, to the terrible gas mileage ( there's a class action suit against Kia for the Optima's poor gas mileage), stereo malfunctions, cracked windshield when I washed the car on a sunny day, the car pulling to the right even after two alignments, I just couldn't waiting for the lease to be up. I even felt that the horsepower ratings where over-rated. There's no way that car had 274 horsepower. It seemed like it couldn't get out of it's own way. Then with three months left on the lease, I went to buy a 15 Mustang ecoboost. Ford called Kia-Hyundai finance and told them that I'd be paying the last three months upfront, and to come pick up their car. Kia told them that I was not allowed to turn the car in early, even though I was paying off the lease early. Kia said they would auction the car and I would be responsible for paying the difference if the auction came in under book value. Ford ended up buying the car outright. In short, Kia lost a customer for life. By way of comparision, my Ecoboost had a cheaper sticker price and has given me zero problems after 2.5 years and 32,000 miles.

The car seemed like a lot of value for the dollar when I first looked at it, but for me, it ended up being one of the worst car leases I ever made.


I hope my experience is isolated and I truly wish you the best of luck with the Optima turbo.

[sutyak]

Thanks for the info. So far no issues like that. It sounds as if that car had a problem with the turbo. This one hauls. There is noticable lag, mainly due to it always being in a gear too low to expect the turbo to spool quickly. But seriously, when it spools up it pulls hard!
They did change the steering wheel in these models, and the leather is nice. The city mpg is definitely not as good as hoped, but the interstate seems excellent.
Only issue I'm having is moisture in the tail lights. I'll be pulling them soon to investigate and see if it's something worth talking to Kia about.

[03Shadow Grey]

Best part is, its small enough to keep good clearance in the garage for the
Mach !!