Kia News: Kia K5 Previews US 2021 Optima

[Drew Dowdell]

After a fairly clear teaser image last month, the South Korean market Kia K5 has been unveiled. Kia hopes to make the same splash that Hyundai did with the mechanically similar 2020 Sonata.  While this K5 is in Korean domestic market spec, we're fairly certain that the North American Optima will look virtually identical to this K5.

The K5 may look like a hatchback similar to the Volkswagen Arteon or Buick Regal, but it is still in fact a sedan, the swoopiness of the car accentuated by the frameless windows.  The new K5 is bigger than the outgoing Kia Optima by about 2 inches in length, and widened nearly an inch.   Wheelbase has also been lengthened about 1.8 inches. 

In Korean spec, the base model will come with 16-inch wheels while 17, 18, and 19-inch upgrades are available. The interior hasn't been revealed yet, but a concept sketch shows a more upmarket interior with large LCD screens. 

Powertrains for the U.S. will likely mirror those of the Hyundai Sonata with a 191 horsepower 2.5 liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder or an upgrade to a 1.6-liter turbo-direct-injection with 180 horsepower and a wide torque band maxing out at 195 lb.-ft. 

The K5 goes on sale in the Korean market in December.

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[Drew Dowdell]

[G. David Felt]

Reminds me of Honda, pass.

[ykX]

Actually looks great IMO.

Will be one of the better looking sedans on the market

[oldshurst442]

It no way looks like any Honda ever made in history...   It doesnt even have specific Japanese or Korean styling cues.  It looks like a modern KIA product.  And its quite a stunning car. In a good way. In a very good way.  Unless of course one does not like fastback, coupe like sedans.  

I like that styling! A lot!   I may not like, in fact hate, that it wont have a hatchback opening.  In a fastback like that, its better for the consumer of said product to have access to a hatch...

Edited November 12, 2019 by oldshurst442

[frogger]

It would be great if it had the hatch style opening like the Stinger but it still looks pretty nice.  Hopefully the interior is up to snuff, probably will be if Telluride is any indication.

 

 

 

[ccap41]

It looks pretty sharp, IMO. 

[Robert Hall]

Looks good...the Stinger would look good w/ a front end like that. 

[Drew Dowdell]

2 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Looks good...the Stinger would look good w/ a front end like that. 

Could be good for a mid-cycle refresh

[G. David Felt]

To me lots of similarities from the Honda Family.

[ccap41]

What two mid-size sedans can you NOT pull design cues from and say they look similar? Everything has the same general shape. 

The Camry might be the lone shark that's pretty unique and hasn't gained the "coupe" body style. 

9 minutes ago, dfelt said:

To me lots of similarities from the Honda Family.

Those genuinely do not look very similar outside of general shape. 

One has a bumper out front, the other has the grille, the lights are placed differently and shaped differently, the side "vents" are shaped completely different(one is more horizontal rectangle and the other is vertical and "pointier"). One mirror is on a door, the other on the body. 

[USA-1]

47 minutes ago, dfelt said:

To me lots of similarities from the Honda Family.

I've noticed that Hyundai/Kia copy every car and CUV out there and always have. Cues from Honda, Ford, Chevy, even Audi and MB with the Genesis line I think it's the G80 that has the MB look. Kia Telluride looks like a CT car with Cadillac signature vertical taillights in back and Hyundai Palisade front end has the similar Cadillac signature vertical LED light bars. Both awkward looking to me on the road. Even the name Palisade...Escalade...dream big Hyundai. LOL!

Edited November 12, 2019 by USA-1

[frogger]

46 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

What two mid-size sedans can you NOT pull design cues from and say they look similar? Everything has the same general shape. 

The Camry might be the lone shark that's pretty unique and hasn't gained the "coupe" body style. 

 

Also Subaru seems to have kept to bland 2009'sh style for their sedans.    Would be interesting to see total midsize sedan sales figures from 2004 vs 2019, maybe down by 50%?

 

 

[oldshurst442]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

To me lots of similarities from the Honda Family.

Not even close.

They are both fastback, coupe styled vehicles that have 4 doors. Both are grey in colour. 

The grilles are different. The Honda has a chrome bar that continues its course into the headlights. The KIA has a bumper-esque body coloured thing resembling a...bumper dividing the top half of the fascia from the bottom.  The Honda has a conventional mouth/grille going on with no bumper/esque separation going on. 

The headlights are worlds apart from one another.  Like I said, the Honda has that chrome bar designed into the headlights  while sporting Acura's jeweled themed style while the KIA has just 2/3 lights. No chrome bar or chrome whatsoever in the front of the car...

The side slabs of both vehicles are world's apart. The Honda is flat and the rake moves upward from the front to the back while the KIA  looks to be more horizontally straight and has all kinds of creases  while there are hip bulges on the rear wheels.

The C Pillar is different.  Two totally different direction stylings on the C Pillar.    The mirrors are different.  The Honda mirrors are attached to the body while the KIA's is not. 

Even the door handles are placed in very different locations of the doors because the doors are not even the same style and positioned in the same way.  And if you look closer than what you wanted to do to justify your opinion, the KIA  is a  sleeker vehicle...it looks waaaaaaay newer than that Accord. That Accord pic you posted already looks dated...

Now...other than having modern  day computer engineered aerodynamic  fastback silhouettes that makes ALL cars of the modern era to somewhat resemble each other, there are virtually NO similar design cues anywhere on both vehicles...

Edited November 12, 2019 by oldshurst442

[balthazar]

Both look like crap.

[surreal1272]

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

To me lots of similarities from the Honda Family.

The only similarity is possibly the profile which quite a few cars have these days courtesy of the coupe look craze. Nothing else on those two cars come close to matching otherwise IMO. The Kia looks far better too. 

3 hours ago, USA-1 said:

I've noticed that Hyundai/Kia copy every car and CUV out there and always have. Cues from Honda, Ford, Chevy, even Audi and MB with the Genesis line I think it's the G80 that has the MB look. Kia Telluride looks like a CT car with Cadillac signature vertical taillights in back and Hyundai Palisade front end has the similar Cadillac signature vertical LED light bars. Both awkward looking to me on the road. Even the name Palisade...Escalade...dream big Hyundai. LOL!

All car makes borrow from each other these days. It’s not just a Hyundai/Kia thing anymore. 

[G. David Felt]

Honda is a big seller in the PNW so probably as you guys stated the over all general shape makes me thing Honda. I totally agree with @balthazar that these cars look like crap.

[Robert Hall]

The shape is quite similar, similar to the Malibu also.  All 6 window fastback midsize sedans w short rear decks. The differences are in the details.    

I kind of like what Hyundai and Kia have been doing lately on their new models w/ the lighting details and bright trim..the Sonata is very distinctive, and this car appears to be also..

Edited November 13, 2019 by Robert Hall

[smk4565]

I think it looks good, but it has a lot of Audi A7 in the rear, which is part why it looks good.  But at the same time, since everyone is doing 4-door coupes, if someone made a 3-box sedan it would actually be unique.  The decklid looks about 6 inches long which seems ridiculous, but there could be trunk space still with how big that rear window is.

[daves87rs]

Gives me Charger vibes....

[ocnblu]

7 hours ago, smk4565 said:

 The decklid looks about 6 inches long which seems ridiculous, but there could be trunk space still with how big that rear window is.

I could be wrong, but I believe at this moment the cutline for the trunk lid goes up into the black, so it is larger than it looks at first glance.  I don't think that's all glass.

WTF IS THIS?  THIS IS NOT A K5!  THIS RIGHT HERE IS A K5!  GOD I HATE CHEVY FOR DOING THIS!  oh wait

Edited November 13, 2019 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

I too think that the trunk looks too ... truncated.  It needs some more length back there. But yea Ocn, you're right that the cutline does to up into what is meant to look like window.

[oldshurst442]

If you zoom the pic, you could kinda see that the back seats end near the C Pillar.  Then you could safely assume that almost immediately after that, the trunk commences. And if you could visualize, that makes for a huge trunk. But then, you could almost assume, safely assume, that the trunk opening is low, and not very big.  THAT is why from a design like that, that a hatch opening SHOULD have made it in the design.

Where the glass ends, it seems like its tinted glass...  Or it could be another material, plastic?  like a floating roof style thing, to make it seem like the glass IS that big...

And then from this angle, you clearly see that its a plastic covering of some sort that lines up with the opening of the trunk which confirms my assumption that the opening seems low and maybe not sufficient. 

 

Why do automakers INSISTENTLY  do this MAKING it DIFFICULT for the users of these vehicles to USE the TRUNK of their sedans?    THEY KNOW that custmoers CHOOSE CUVs for the EASE of entry in and out of the vehicle, BUT ALSO for the EASE of USAGE of the CARGO space which INCLUDES the HATCH of the CUV!!!

MAKE  a sleek, fastback SEDAN but WITH a hatch, and MAYBE sell MORE sedans?

On my next car purchase, if sedans continue to be fastback, coupe styled, but the trunk opening is crap, I may switch over to a CUV/SUV myself...  The Fusion is at the limit of what my wife and  I could accept. 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by oldshurst442

[G. David Felt]

47 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I too think that the trunk looks too ... truncated.  It needs some more length back there. But yea Ocn, you're right that the cutline does to up into what is meant to look like window.

You guys are talking this section of the black fake window right?

[Drew Dowdell]

5 minutes ago, dfelt said:

You guys are talking this section of the black fake window right?

Yes

[ccap41]

I don't like that black piece you guys have pointed out... 

[Robert Hall]

34 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Yes

That detail and the C-pillar quarter window shape kind of remind me of the MXZ.

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

That detail and the C-pillar quarter window shape kind of remind me of the MXZ.

So True, in this regards it does fail that part and now that it has been brought to my attention, I have to agree with @oldshurst442 that small opening into a large trunk would make me go CUV/SUV if I was a car guy. Sadly once Cadillac stopped offering cars with large trunks, I went SUV and never looked back.

[USA-1]

I can't stand the hatchback look on any sedan.

The DRL LED bars that go that far up the front quarter panel is a unique design taken from the whole Cadillac line of vehicles that they've had since the 2008+ CTS and 2013+ ATS now CT4 and CT5, 2010+ SRX/XT5 and new XT6 as well as 2015+ Escalade and the full width taillights are also pretty similar to the current Charger. I also see the Charger front hood line and even the Mustang inset grille look in the side view of front end. I guess they can all take it as a compliment, but Hyundai/Kia always mix like 4 or 5 different competitors makes and/or models nearly identical design cues into each of their vehicles which makes a weird Frankenstein like look, the Koreans need to spend more on R&D and stop taking identical design cues from everyone else, they're the worst about it. 

[G. David Felt]

When Cadillac went to this design is when I went SUV.

To me, that is what I see Kia has done with their trunk, killed the opening with a stupid look like this.

[ccap41]

27 minutes ago, USA-1 said:

I can't stand the hatchback look on any sedan.

The DRL LED bars that go that far up the front quarter panel is a unique design taken from the whole Cadillac line of vehicles that they've had since the 2008+ CTS and 2013+ ATS now CT4 and CT5, 2010+ SRX/XT5 and new XT6 as well as 2015+ Escalade and the full width taillights are also pretty similar to the current Charger. I also see the Charger front hood line and even the Mustang inset grille look in the side view of front end. I guess they can all take it as a compliment, but Hyundai/Kia always mix like 4 or 5 different competitors makes and/or models nearly identical design cues into each of their vehicles which makes a weird Frankenstein like look, the Koreans need to spend more on R&D and stop taking identical design cues from everyone else, they're the worst about it. 

I genuinely do not see any of what you're seeing. All of those things you pointed out see like such a stretch to say they took those design cues. 

[USA-1]

57 minutes ago, dfelt said:

When Cadillac went to this design is when I went SUV.

To me, that is what I see Kia has done with their trunk, killed the opening with a stupid look like this.

I was going to say, never looked back? Have you seen the trunks in the CT6 and CT5 or even the 2008 or 2014 CTS? They're YUGE!! Lol!

 

CT6

 

CT5

 

2014 CTS

 

2008 CTS

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by USA-1

[ccap41]

23 minutes ago, USA-1 said:

Have you seen the trunks in the CT6 and CT5

The CT5's trunk is anything but huge, it's 11.9 cubic feet. 

For reference, a Corolla's trunk is 13.0 cubic feet. 

More appropriately;

C Class trunk volume: 12.6 cubic feet

E Class trunk volume: 13.1 cubic feet

3 Series trunk volume: 17.0 cubic feet

5 Series trunk volume: 14.5-18.7 cubic feet

Audi A4 trunk volume: 13.0 cubic feet

Audi A6 trunk volume: 13.7 cubic feet

[USA-1]

55 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I genuinely do not see any of what you're seeing. All of those things you pointed out see like such a stretch to say they took those design cues. 

Really? None?

Eh you're right CTS and the new CT cars do look a hellava lot better ?

 

[USA-1]

30 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

The CT5's trunk is anything but huge, it's 11.9 cubic feet. 

For reference, a Corolla's trunk is 13.0 cubic feet. 

More appropriately;

C Class trunk volume: 12.6 cubic feet

E Class trunk volume: 13.1 cubic feet

3 Series trunk volume: 17.0 cubic feet

5 Series trunk volume: 14.5-18.7 cubic feet

Audi A4 trunk volume: 13.0 cubic feet

Audi A6 trunk volume: 13.7 cubic feet

Corolla? LMAO! Relax dude, I was giving @dfelt a hard time. It's called friendly banter.  

[USA-1]

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

When Cadillac went to this design is when I went SUV.

To me, that is what I see Kia has done with their trunk, killed the opening with a stupid look like this.

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by USA-1

[ocnblu]

Except... the bustleback Seville's lid was actually pretty long, it just had its kink toward the top of the lid, not the bottom, the actual opening was not that tiny.  And it lost .5 cu ft trunk space v. the previous X-body based car (14.4 v. 14.9 cu ft).

Edited November 13, 2019 by ocnblu

[balthazar]

^ True dat; opening was quite decent. 
But the prior car was a K- Body, not X.

Edited November 14, 2019 by balthazar

[ccap41]

16 hours ago, USA-1 said:

Really? None?

Eh you're right CTS and the new CT cars do look a hellava lot better ?

 

I really don't.

And absolutely, the CT cars definitely look better, I just don't see a resemblance. 

Also, the LED curling up the fender was already designed by Kia before the CT5 was released.. It wasn't something they threw together in the last 2-3 months. 

[balthazar]

The aspect many are copying Cadillac is linear light piping trailing out of the headlight/tailight cluster. Very distinctive and like USA-1 stated, goes back over a decade now.

[G. David Felt]

17 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Except... the bustleback Seville's lid was actually pretty long, it just had its kink toward the top of the lid, not the bottom, the actual opening was not that tiny.  And it lost .5 cu ft trunk space v. the previous X-body based car (14.4 v. 14.9 cu ft).

Still Fuggy, looks like it got its ass cut off and makes the front awkward looking with that flat ass.

[balthazar]

Some folk like flat asses tho. ?

[ccap41]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

The aspect many are copying Cadillac is linear light piping trailing out of the headlight/tailight cluster. Very distinctive and like USA-1 stated, goes back over a decade now.

They started that in 2013 in the ATS and 2014 in the CTS. 

[USA-1]

4 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I really don't.

And absolutely, the CT cars definitely look better, I just don't see a resemblance. 

Also, the LED curling up the fender was already designed by Kia before the CT5 was released.. It wasn't something they threw together in the last 2-3 months. 

2008+ CTS. I had a White Diamond 2013 CTS-V Coupe (first pic) so I know first hand what it had. With the 2014 CTS it was more defined and went further up the fender, but the large headlight fixture had the long vertical LED light bar from bumper to top of fender in 2008. It's a distinctive Cadillac design cue long before the CT4 and CT5.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Still Fuggy, looks like it got its ass cut off and makes the front awkward looking with that flat ass.

Super aerodynamic in reverse though! ?

Edited November 14, 2019 by USA-1

[ccap41]

Personally, I would not say that trails out of the headlight cluster until the 2013/2014s. 

[USA-1]

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Personally, I would not say that trails out of the headlight cluster until the 2013/2014s. 

My point and @balthazar is that Cadillac has had the distinctive vertical LED light piping design cue front and back for over a decade and no other manf. has gone there until now with Hyu/Kia Palisade and K5.

To your own point Cadillac has been doing it for 7 years in the front.

[Drew Dowdell]

The Palisade is specifically supposed to riff on the Escalade I think 

[USA-1]

1 minute ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The Palisade is specifically supposed to riff on the Escalade I think 

Exactly. Even both names are 3 syllables that end in "ade". Can't blame Hyundai for tryin' ?

[Drew Dowdell]

Just now, USA-1 said:

Exactly. Even both names are 3 syllables that end in "ade". Can't blame Hyundai for tryin' ?

I'm going to have a Palisade in for evaluation in 2 weeks. Should be interesting to see how it stands up. 

[USA-1]

5 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I'm going to have a Palisade in for evaluation in 2 weeks. Should be interesting to see how it stands up. 

Drive it like you stole it!! Just get it back with 4 wheels still intact. ?