Kia Motors is not known for building upscale cars. Long considered the poor cousin of Hyundai, itself a budget automaker, Kia has been following Hyundai’s steps in recent years to upgrade its image and product line. No doubt, the Kia Optima is a now a beautiful midsize sedan, priced right and offering many of the amenities today’s car buying consumers desire.
Available in two trim levels-LX and EX–the LX offers many amenities standard including air conditioning, power windows, 12-volt power outlets in the front and cargo areas, tilt-adjustable steering wheel and height-adjustable front seats. The EX steps it up a notch by offering a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, telescopic steering wheel, illuminated vanity mirrors, automatic folding rear seat, keyless entry with alarm, a dual temperature control air-conditioner with ionized filtration, illuminated and cooled glove box, power driver’s seat with lumbar support for additional comfort and support.
Today Kia Motors is a subsidiary of Hyundai KIA Automotive Grove and is South Korea’s second largest automobile manufacturer. Its CEO is Chung Eui-sun and has its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. Kia Motors also maintains a presence in the United States as Kia Motors America and on October 20, 2006 broke ground for its first United States assembly plant in West Point, Georgia. Kia Motors has enjoyed tremendous success on the European market and is currently the fast growing car company in the United Kingdom.
Until recently, Kia was never considered to be a design leader, offering mostly bland, boxy models and hiding in the shadow of its Korean brother, Hyundai. That all changed in the 2000s, when Kia’s California design studio was unleashed to design and build some of the most stylish cars on the road. A prime example of that new design language thinking can be found in the Kia Soul, its urban utility vehicle.
The Cheap Kia manufacturer is actually based out of South Korea and it is one of the largest dealerships of the country. The name Kia stands for rising up out of Asia and it surely has done that. After a few years of production now the Kia corporation has some well known names working for them that used to hang their name plate with the well known luxury automobiles of our time. The Kia corporation has come a long way and if their past is any idea of what their future will do, then they will be growing at an exponential rate.
The 2010 Kia Optima comes equipped with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder that can produce up to 175 hp and 269 pound-feet of torque coupled up with a five-speed manual transmission for the LX and a five-speed automatic tranny for all other models and the four-cylinder gets an estimated fuel economy of 22/32/25 mpg. There is also an optional 2.7-liter V6 engine that can be paired up with EX and SX models that can produce up to 194 hp and 184 pound-feet of torque, and this engine is coupled up with a five-speed automatic tranny and it can get a fuel economy estimation of20/28/23 mpg.
On the other end of the spectrum, some aftermarket parts are purchased to improve the performance and appearance of a car. Aftermarket parts can be just as high quality as their OEM (original equipment manufacturer) counterparts, but it is important to verify their quality before spending money on them. Research is essential. There are many places online where car owners can review the quality and performance of aftermarket parts, and these should be thoroughly explored before making a purchase. It may also be a good idea to get advice from someone in the auto industry with experience in dealing with aftermarket parts.
