Monday was a sad day for me. I waited all day for my shiny, sporty 2011 Kia Optima SX Turbo to be picked up…
The only negative side to test-driving it was that I had to give it back!
Now, I am a fan of Kia in general. I owned a Kia Spectra before purchasing the SUV I am driving now, and I can only say good things about it – it was a nice little car and I drove it 60 miles a day on the highway when I commuted to the next county for work – for almost five years.
So when I was presented with the opportunity to test drive a nicer Kia model, the Kia Optima SX Turbo, I was pretty excited to see how much Kia progressed since I bought my Spectra in 2001!
Ten years is a long time in the automotive field…when they dropped off my Kia last week, I thought they brought me a sports car by mistake!
Look at that thing! Red. Shiny. Aerodynamic.
Hot.
My daughter instantly fell in love with the Kia Optima SX Turbo – she is only 14 so she can’t drive yet, but she was begging me to let her drive it. Um, no? She settled for sitting in the passenger seat while we ran tons of errands.
And she begged me to buy her one when she turns 16 from the second she saw it until the day that they came to pick up the car!
I responded the way I usually do. Maybe.
My daughter was blown away that the Kia Optima SX Turbo was keyless! Honestly, that was one of my favorite things. As long as I had the key fob in my purse or on me, I just opened the door, pushed start and it was that easy!
I loved the camera showing what was behind my car when I shifted into reverse – I am always so paranoid about backing into something or running over something! My daughter squealed when she saw the monitor turn on for the first time!
The Kia Optima SX Turbo really had every feature I could think of, plus some I didn’t know even existed!
Things the whole family loved
- Seat heaters in the front and back seats
- a cool glove compartment where you can keep your drinks on road trips!
- cooling seats in the front! – That’s right, not only does it have heat, but it has cool too!
- Super awesome rims – my husband noticed this!
- Sirius Satellite radio
- Aux to hook up your iphone or ipod to play through your Infinity speakers
- Awesome gas mileage. We’re talking 22 city and 34 highway!
- With 275 horsepower at 6,000 RPM – this baby goes!
- Lots of safety features, like dual front airbags, front seat mounted side airbags, side curtain airbags – and a steel reinforced body!
My boyfriend bought a Kia Forte Koup just a few months ago and it is awesome! My impression of Kia beforehand wasn’t exactly a fond one, based primarily on cars they put out years and years ago, but — like you said — they’ve really come a very long way. I recently purchased a new car as well and had highly considered the Kia Forte as well (closer to my budget than some other models) for many of the reasons you’ve highlighted in your review of the Optima.
If the boyfriend and I didn’t want to be “that” couple with the exact same car, I probably would have went that route — but we chose to avoid being those people, ha.
I had a Sephia about 10 years ago and hated it. I hear that Kia has come a long way since then. Maybe I will have to check them out again.
I had a KIA 15 years ago, and it was nothing Fancy. Kind of like Kathy said. I recently drove a Sorento around and it WAS fancy! It had all the bells and whistles and really was a very nice vehicle. KIA’s have come a long way and I would definitely choose one as my car of choice. The optima looks really nice, too.