Kia is busy at this year’s New York auto show, debuting the redesigned Sportage, the new Forte hatchback, and the all-new Optima sedan detailed here.While preliminary sketches suggested an Optima with a hot-rod chop to the roof, the production version has less-severe proportions and windows out of which people can actually see. Longer (by 1.7 inches), lower (by an inch), and wider (by 0.9 inch) than the outgoing car, the Optima forms a much more dramatic shape than the model it replaces, yet its shape is not as commanding as that of its platform-mate, Hyundai’s suddenly smokin’ Sonata.
If the shape of the Optima isn’t quite as sultry as the Sonata’s, the powertrains will be precisely as stimulating, because they’ll be shared. A direct-injection, 2.4-liter inline-four is the standard engine, available in the base LX trim with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic. A direct-injection, turbocharged four is the hot mill, with a whopping 274 horses from just 2.0 liters. Sadly, that engine will only be available with the automatic. And like the Sonata, the Optima will yield a hybrid option early in 2011. The suspension, too, is shared with the Sonata, with MacPherson struts, coil springs, and an anti-roll bar up front and a multilink setup with coils in back.
