Gadgetory

the Kia Optima yeah basically a sonata but the look is real different we'll see about the rest as we drive a 2011 Optima e.x and check the tech Mondays on roll these days but less is being said about its corporate cousin Kia until lately Kia was mostly seen as a cheaper version of a Hyundai that's not cool but now that Hyundai underpinnings are a good thing Kia's building on that with its own bold styling thanks to nabbing former outie design boss Peter Schreyer he's the guy who did the TT while this is the sibling of the Sonata it shares little of that car as swoopy external looks instead the optimist kind of bold more handsome of the two sort of a demi sob two Hyundai's Demi Lexus inside the same applies the Kia exhibits the now rare driver centered cockpit layout that most cars have given up now the first thing you notice in this Optima is it ain't a sonata in the cabin that's not I've got a whole different thing with this Darth Vader mask and the kind of weird face down here it's very centered this car is totally cockpit oriented it reminds me a lot of a Saab cabin I don't know where they picked up that design motif but you've got the 3-ring thing it's very hyundai-kia but this sort of angled cockpit panel a lot of folks have commented to me hey I don't see that very often and I like it so it's a very driver centric setting you've got a steering wheel crammed with lots of interesting buttons they're useful media on the Left cruise control on the right eco trip and reset on the left we'll talk about that in a minute and here's your voice command your Bluetooth controls over here by the way the Bluetooth rig is standard on this Optima EX let's go to the head unit you've got your single CD slot right here which also digest mp3 cds though not WMA I don't think here's your navigation screen pretty good resolution that's optional by the way we'll talk about the pricing a little later but you've got touchscreen voice command as I mentioned but not really kind of any sort of standardized controller there's no howdy MMI or BMW idrive it's either touch or voice or you've got some dedicated buttons but this is not a master jog wheel nothing like that lots of buttons for the nav system it gets a little bit fuzzy here you have map and voice not quite sure why those are all on one button little odd destination is a destination screen route is a separate set of route options you see they kind of split this up a little bit much for my tastes but it's easy to use and notice the response is quite quick on this guy to do a destination address it's real simple and it moves quickly I like that now let's go to our media options am/fm no HD radio available on this car any way shape or form satellite radio is the serious flavor the media button brings you up to our phone which is bluetooth streaming as well as the Bluetooth hands-free I talked about we've also got the CD option in here if I didn't have my ipod plugged in which is another option I do have these two connectors down here standard analog aux and I've got the USB jack the only weird thing is Haeundae key I still use this guy which you're not going to find at Best Buy if you lose it it's a USB aux signees connector they move audio over one connector do control and charging over another the game while the sound out of there is a six speaker kind of generic audio system bass or we had the Infinity rig which is obviously noted up here it's part of a premium package by the way gives you a variety of settings you know you get a mid control which I don't think the base rig has auto volume control might not be on the base rig aside from that it's not fancy the transmission is one choice only on this guy it's a six-speed Automatic through automatic it's not a CVT it's not an automated manual it's got a little sport shifting gate here on the left which isn't all that sporty they all work about the same okay the last cool thing in this car which is kind of mid tech is this roof well roofs won over me won over them you've got this control right here which does a dual power rollback of the screens and then slides this big glass panel up over the second row they still end with a pretty good glass-top overhead or better yet if you're going to be a little more magnanimous just bring your panel forward and give it a little kick up to tilt and then everyone gets a full glass overhead now what's most interesting about this engine is not that it's a 2.4 liter sidesaddle inline 4 seen about a million of those but these 3 letters GDI gasoline direct injection kind of cutting-edge stuff especially for a car in this price class the Sonata has the same powertrain there's also a turbo by the way and a hybrid coming on this Optima but we'll cover those in another video here are the numbers 200 horsepower out of this guy 186 foot-pounds of torque 0 to 60 is about 9 point 4 seconds for this 3,300 pound car and the mileage is pretty darn good 24:34 ok on the road this car's not terribly impressive on paper with 200 horsepower but the power is ready and willing it's what a car like this needs to have is power across a wide range of rpms and it does have that the combination of the direct injection and the other technologies being used here like this eco we've got going on give you a really good fuel economy for a biggish car at the same time it's not a gutless car now the Eco button down here that I mentioned what that does is modify throttle response shift points on the transmission and air conditioning which means the air conditioner is going to engage less often as I understand it all of those lead to better fuel economy through different means when it's in Drive and you're in Eco you definitely feel a difference the car gets a little non-responsive but for drivers that want to maximize their mpg they don't care if you're cruising down a boulevard perfect mode to be in but I found driving around town and eco mode was annoying it made the car kind of rubbery and numb so pink I popped out of it most of the time that said what am I seeing here in my average nineteen point nine mpg I've probably been more city than highway by far up and down a lot of hills and like I say out of eco mode so I'm pushing it down toward the bottom of its average range the steering is very heavily weighted on center so once you come off center it doesn't really want to stay there wants to go back to center very strongly which all cars do the thing is this one is very heavily weighted back down toward the middle I bring this up because in Long sort of leisurely driving on curved highways or boulevards you kind of need two hands to keep it in the curve one hand will get fatigued and that kind of takes away from the everyday driving comfort a little bit but overall it's nice to see I'll put together a new entrant to go up against Camry and Accord and not one that makes you think okay what can it do being a second-rate car now you just have to grade it as a first-rate car okay let's price this Optima again it's a 2011 e.x they only come front-wheel drive it's kind of the mid trim there is an S EXO sporty or one above it and like I mentioned there's also a hybrid and a turbo for another time this guy will base it 23 2 to go see that style you got really one package and maybe one other to think about the one you got to get is the tech package 2,000 bucks that gets you the navigation system that whole super speedy interface Sirius satellite radio the better infinity sound the backup camera for 2 grand kind of a steal then there's this Premium Package to get you the panoramic roof which I like and heated and cooled front seats power passenger's seat and the rather novel heated rear seats I think I'd go for that too