2021 Kia K5 – Upward Mobility by Design
The consensus amongst some automotive journalists is that BMW has lost its way in recent years. To get the responsive steering and sharp reflexes that were once standard with any BMW, you must pay for costly M package upgrades. That adds a couple thousand dollars to an already expensive car. That little crack in BMW’s sporting armor has become an opportunity for other manufacturers to try and zero in on the profitable sports sedan market. Increasingly, those nipping at the heels of BMW are no longer its traditional upmarket rivals, but embolden upstarts in the performance car arena. Kia has become one of them.
New Name, New Attitude
That performance car market has only become more crowded now that formally modest family sedans like the Kia Optima are trying to encroach on BMW territory. After nearly two decades of design innovation, Kia has thrown out the Optima’s name equity and renamed it’s mid-sized sedan K5. The K5 name has been a fixture in most the world since the inception of the Optima. Perhaps Kia felt that Americans were not ready for the robot/ spaceship naming convention we usually associate with letters or numbers that come from Europe and Japan. Either way when the 5th generation Optima became the K5, it was something of a surprise considering the strong brand heritage the Optima name garnered for Kia in The States.
BMW Competitor?
With a new aggressive style from its Eurocentric design chief Karlim Habib, the Kia K5 has moved into sport sedan territory in a more convincing way than any Optima before it. Kia has been ambitious in promoting the K5’s merits against the BMW 330i (from a model year before). By besting the BMW in a few key performance metrics like 0 to 60 times (by fractions at 5.8 seconds), Kia has proclaimed it’s 2.5 liter four cylinder turbo GT model the sports sedan champ. There is of course a lot of disclaimers and fine print to that claim like the BMW was rear wheel drive and not the all quicker all-wheel drive version. What’s fascinating about the K5 GT is that it offers 290 hp (nearly 50 more than the 330i) and fully loaded with all-wheel drive still costs less than what the starting BMW would be (by almost $10,000!).
There will no doubt be buyers who might cross shop the K5 GT with the BMW, but I suspect that there won’t be as many as Kia hopes as it is a apples to oranges type comparison. Many people myself included by a BMW for it’s brand heritage, assuming its quality and performance are high. Increasingly, BMWs are seen by their well heeled buyers as fashionable coats that they wear and exchange after a season (hence the overwhelming tendency to lease vs. owning these potentially expensive to live with cars. For that reason, tts debatable that the average BMW driver never even opens their hoods, can’t change a tire and doesn’t care about pulling g’s and slalom numbers as much as brand prestige and comfort.
The Real Competitor
More likely, the K5 will chomp away at less dramatic cars like the Chevrolet Malibu and Ford Fusion (they still sell those right?). Entry and middle models from Acura and Infiniti will likely be cross shopped with higher trims of the K5. While traditional Japanese rivals are either refreshing or redesigning their bread and butter sedans, it looks to be a tough fight against the Accord and Camry in the entry and middle trim arena.
It really all depends on what you’re looking for and how important style is to you. The Accord offers comparable performance, but it’s not an easy car to like for some people. The Camry is super reliable and boring to drive, but it can look as dramatic as the K5 in GT or GT-Line trim. In it’s base LX trim with the 180hp 1.6 liter turbo, the K5 is likely to do well against other base model competitors as it looks more expensive than it is with a starting price around $24,000.
Americans were once accustomed to Kia being a cut rate discount car maker. Lately, however the company has stepped up it’s design and performance cred with the Stinger and Forte GT. Now with the K5 filling in the middle gap and offering some of the design language that made the Stinger so attractive, Kia’s lineup looks impressive to say the least.
Like it’s N3 platform stablemate, the K5 has a sloped roof line. Also like the Sonata, it has a distinctive front end. The K5 features an evolution of the corporate tiger grille – now stretched to Alice and Wonderland‘s Cheshire cat proportions. In a strange way the K5’s front end reminds me of the 8th generation Mitsubishi Galant morphed and wind stretched. Both Hyundai and Kia have come up with unique solutions for daytime running lights with the Sonata arguably being the more striking and original.
The Value of Design
Design has been part of Kia’s value proposition since the Optima’s arrival in 2000. With the sportier trims comes more aggressive design details like the vented panels in back similar to the Toyota Camry. The vents, ports and creases border excessive in the GT and GT-Line trims. Of the eight color options available white and blue seem to best highlight the car’s lines (or hide some of them). The base models offer a good balance between aggression and restraint and are likely to be big sellers as Kia’s are often heavily discounted.
Increasingly, Kia has added technology to the mix with top trims getting things like 19’ rims, panoramic sunroofs, air filtration systems and 10 inch touchscreens. That of course is on top of all the safety/nannyware that comes with just about any new car now.
The new K5 is also very efficient – in fact it’s EPA ratings put some compact cars to shame with up to 38 mpg on the highway with the 1.6-liter. All versions of the K5 come with a 8 speed automatic transmission to keep things simple, it’s the same transmission in the Sonata. Speaking of simple, the interior in just about all mainstream cars are starting to look alike – or like some variation of BMW’s 3 Series design from five years ago.
In the K5, the touchscreen is pushed up against the main instrument cluster producing a large mass that’s broken up by a strong horizontal line accented with brightwork and depending on the trim. There are fake wood or metal-like plastic surface accents that further add variety to the interior surfaces. It’s a clean modern design that is functional and attractive. The center console rises at the right edge with a grab bar like it does in some sports cars like the C8 Corvette, which is a nice touch.
Kia’s Next Hit?
Low and mid-level K5’s have been on the streets for a few months now, but as of this writing many dealers are just getting shipments of the GT. The sweet spot in the model line up might be the GT-Line which in Kia tradition, offers sporty top of the line looks with more modest performance from the 1.6-liter.
Perhaps the K5’s biggest competitor is the equally interesting Hyundai Sonata which seems to be marketed more as an all around car vs the K5’s sporting aspirations. Either way both Hyundai and Kia look to have a hit on their hands. There have been a lotof crazy thigs to happen in 2020, but I might have never guessed that a Optima (or K5 if you will) would be a competitor to BMW.
Autopolis 