Waynerm002
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With the Stinger coming to market, like the Optima a few years back, this will be many people's first time driving one of KIA's modern vehicles. That said, other than the Stinger which one of the newly redesigned KIA vehicles produced for the model year 2016 (these would be the Sorento, Sportage, Niro, RIO, Soul EV and Optima) and newer have you driven and what's your opinion on that vehicle compared to other brands you know and or own. Did you go to check out KIA because you thought they had the best price or was it the design or maybe the quality or were you just a happy owner that wanted the next level up vehicle or their latest design?
In 2015 we started to check out cars for my wife and I figured it was a good time to get something a bit sporty and a bit luxurious, if the price was right. Since it would be a car for the wife, we went to drive the cars she liked. We checked out Acura, Audi and BMW, I tossed in Volvo as like KIA they were the value option in that segment. On the Normal car side, we Checked out Hyundai, Honda and Mazda, I said why not look to see what KIA had. To make this short, she immediately dropped the others Germans as their "affordable" offerings lacked the safety features so Volvo rose to the top, while not having all the latest tech in the dash, they worked well. Oh, we did also look at the Discovery sport but their transmission was flakey and the ride quality a bit bouncy (maybe over inflated tires but it was ok). Honda was do busy with the dash and the cars were not as quiet as the current 2014 Optima Hybrid. Hyundai was similar to the KIA but the ride was more on the softer side and I prefer, firm and sporty feeling. The Mazda 6 rode like the 3 series and was really fun to drive (for me) but again, the noise level was louder than my car, we did short list it as we both liked the interior options.
The 2016 Optima blew us away with how quiet it was. She saw the Sportage and her CUV loving side got her to go drive it, without me, and she said it was nice and luxurious. I saw it and it does have a nicely appointed cabin (we are talking EX and SX), and it did seal out noise when the door was closed but I never drove it to confirm road noise but will one day. The Sorento was the most impressive to me with features like you find in luxury vehicles, ride quality to rival the older gen X5 (no, we are not talking M-Sport or M) and similar level of quietness. The handling was also good, the sales folks were proud of that and made sure we cornered it in parking lots to showcase that. Now, my only SUV to this point in my driving history was the 2005 VW Touareg with air suspension. It was quiet, quick, sporty and luxurious. This 2016 Sorento in my mind felt quite European in it's ride and handling. I keep telling the wife, we would have to give it a serious look before I said ok to the XC60. I give Volvo props for having the most comfortable seats I've sat on in a car but their redesign have bumped their prices and I was disappointed with the level of noise on the road from their 2016 XC90 so there is that.
In a nutshell, KIA now has a few vehicles I feel are great competition to the other brands. The fact that many auto reviewers are telling folks to check them out prior making a decision, says a lot for the brand. So what's your experience?
In 2015 we started to check out cars for my wife and I figured it was a good time to get something a bit sporty and a bit luxurious, if the price was right. Since it would be a car for the wife, we went to drive the cars she liked. We checked out Acura, Audi and BMW, I tossed in Volvo as like KIA they were the value option in that segment. On the Normal car side, we Checked out Hyundai, Honda and Mazda, I said why not look to see what KIA had. To make this short, she immediately dropped the others Germans as their "affordable" offerings lacked the safety features so Volvo rose to the top, while not having all the latest tech in the dash, they worked well. Oh, we did also look at the Discovery sport but their transmission was flakey and the ride quality a bit bouncy (maybe over inflated tires but it was ok). Honda was do busy with the dash and the cars were not as quiet as the current 2014 Optima Hybrid. Hyundai was similar to the KIA but the ride was more on the softer side and I prefer, firm and sporty feeling. The Mazda 6 rode like the 3 series and was really fun to drive (for me) but again, the noise level was louder than my car, we did short list it as we both liked the interior options.
The 2016 Optima blew us away with how quiet it was. She saw the Sportage and her CUV loving side got her to go drive it, without me, and she said it was nice and luxurious. I saw it and it does have a nicely appointed cabin (we are talking EX and SX), and it did seal out noise when the door was closed but I never drove it to confirm road noise but will one day. The Sorento was the most impressive to me with features like you find in luxury vehicles, ride quality to rival the older gen X5 (no, we are not talking M-Sport or M) and similar level of quietness. The handling was also good, the sales folks were proud of that and made sure we cornered it in parking lots to showcase that. Now, my only SUV to this point in my driving history was the 2005 VW Touareg with air suspension. It was quiet, quick, sporty and luxurious. This 2016 Sorento in my mind felt quite European in it's ride and handling. I keep telling the wife, we would have to give it a serious look before I said ok to the XC60. I give Volvo props for having the most comfortable seats I've sat on in a car but their redesign have bumped their prices and I was disappointed with the level of noise on the road from their 2016 XC90 so there is that.
In a nutshell, KIA now has a few vehicles I feel are great competition to the other brands. The fact that many auto reviewers are telling folks to check them out prior making a decision, says a lot for the brand. So what's your experience?
