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My husband drives a Hyundai and recently saw the Kia Optima 2014 on a commercial ad and said he liked it more than the Hyundai (Genesis/Azera). What are your thoughts when comparing these vehicles?
I looked at the Optima very closely and liked it a lot. I actually preferred it to the Camry, but wound up buying a 2012 Camry because it had a tad more headroom in it(Im 6'7" so I need every little inch).
The optima was just a very cool car. Drove very well, just felt like a lot of fun to drive. Beautiful car. Friend has had one for a year, and his sunroof had to be replaced, but he is still very happy with the car.
The direct injection 2.0 turbo motor has plenty of power, and would be a ton of fun, but I drove the 2.4 as well, and was pleasantly surprised. A well optioned 2.4 would have tremendous value.
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Specifically addressing your question, the Optima is a smaller car than the Azera/Genesis series. Its a cousin to the Sonata.
I looked at the Optima very closely and liked it a lot. I actually preferred it to the Camry, but wound up buying a 2012 Camry because it had a tad more headroom in it(Im 6'7" so I need every little inch).
The optima was just a very cool car. Drove very well, just felt like a lot of fun to drive. Beautiful car. Friend has had one for a year, and his sunroof had to be replaced, but he is still very happy with the car.
The direct injection 2.0 turbo motor has plenty of power, and would be a ton of fun, but I drove the 2.4 as well, and was pleasantly surprised. A well optioned 2.4 would have tremendous value.
***
Specifically addressing your question, the Optima is a smaller car than the Azera/Genesis series. Its a cousin to the Sonata.
My husband currently drives the Genesis Coupe. I would say the Turbo would be the one he would look at. So he doesn't need the size of the Genesis/Azera. He had an Elantra before the Coupe.
He got a coupe while our girls are small. His next car will probably be a sedan. He keeps looking at the Lexus ES, Genesis/Azera, etc and I keep trying to tell him that they won't make him happy. He prefers smaller sporty cars. He doesn't need a big sedan. He commutes 70+ miles round trip to work on a daily basis. We don't take his car on trips (I have a minivan). I don't know why he thinks he needs a big car.
If he likes sporty cars though, he's heading in the wrong direction. I'm not saying the Optima is bad, but a FWD family sedan isn't going to be sportier than a RWD coupe (the Genesis he currently drives).
Someone in my condo complex recently got a brand new Kia Optima. All I can say is it looks beautiful. I currently drive a honda but before the honda I had three hyundai's. Two elantra's and a tucson. I think Kia's are prettyer, more stylish than Hyundai. Maybe a few dollars less than their hyundai counterpart.
According to the build your own, it looks like the sporty-looking details are included in the base LX trim. This is different than last year where you had to go with the SX. I think it's a bug in the BYO designer on the site as it says LX is 16" wheels and what they show are 18s. Same problem with front/rear valences and side sills. What I'm saying is if you want it to look good, you need the top of the line trim in the SX.
Comparing it with the Sonata SE, both are good, but slight edge to the Kia.
The Optima is a good looking car! Kia needs to follow what the Japanese did (as they always do) and create a luxury brand and put all their "better" more expensive cars into it. The Kia nameplate in my head will always associate with a subpar product, which I'm not saying is true now. Hyundai should do the same, people shelling out $60-70k don't want to tell other executives they drive a Hyundai. Germany, US, and Japan figured this out long ago....
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