2011 Kia Optima Review

The 2011 Kia Optima. Yes, Kia Optima.

The progress made by Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai the past few years has been nothing less than remarkable. It's the same basic story as how Toyota, Nissan (then Datsun) and Honda went from footnotes to mainstream best-sellers, but with a much steeper curve, negotiated much more quickly.

But even the rapid rise to respectability couldn't prepare us for the giant leap that is the 2011 Kia Optima. Until now a generic-looking sedan that fit right in as a rental car, the Optima now is gorgeous (if not absolutely, then certainly by family sedan standards), stylish and has bypassed contemporary for futuristic.

Rear view of the 2011 Kia Optima.

That particular "F" word, "futuristic",  is fraught with peril for manufacturers on that side of the Pacific, who have produced some designs that look like mutant insects from a 1950s sci-fi flick. But not the new Optima. The future here is one that's within sight from the present...where other manufacturers have been heading, but won't arrive for another move or two, that's where the 2011 Kia Optima is now.

The Optima starts at a very reasonable $19,200 for the LX with a manual transmission. Our tester was the EX with an automatic...boosting the price of entry to $22,495. You keep the same 2.4 liter four cylinder engine (200 horsepower), but step up to 17" wheels from 16s, and you get chrome accent door handles, clear-lens projector headlights, front fog lights, dual body-color heated power mirrors, Smart Key & pushbutton start, dual zone automatic climate control, the passenger gets an auto-down feature for the power window, door mood lamps and rear reading lamps, auto-dimming rearview mirror with HomeLink and compass, an 8-way power driver's seat, leather seat trim and aluminum interior trim. That's a lot of upgrades for $3,295.

2011 Kia Optima Interior.

And then there's the interior. And I'll be honest. At first, I felt let down. The surfaces and materials felt cheap to me. I finally figured it out...they're exactly right and maybe a bit better than they need to be for this segment and this price point....but the car gives the impression of being a much more expensive piece...my brain was thinking $40,000 when I slid behind the wheel. Again, the reality is $22,495.

That, of course, is before options, and the Kia press fleet folks added two...the Technology Package (a navigation system with backup camera and Sirius Traffic plus an upgraded Infinity audio system with 8 speakers) for $2,000...and the EX Premium Package (Panoramic sunroof, power front passenger seat, driver seat memory, heated and cooled front seats, heated outboard rear seats and a heated steering wheel) for $2,250.

Regular TireKicker readers know our mantra when it comes to $2,000 factory nav systems ("Your phone does that"), but the Infinity audio system sounds mighty nice, so maybe that's only a grand worth of nav.

With those two options and a $695 freight and handling charge, the sticker price on the 2011 Kia Optima we drove was $27,440. Slick, smooth, clean, quiet...EPA estimates of 24 city/34 highway and Kia's 10 year/100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty, 5 year/60,000 mile limited basic warranty and 5 year/60,000 mile roadside assistance. Hard to go wrong.

And there's a hybrid version for 2012 that will be in our hands in early October.

Camry, Accord, Altima, Mazda 6, Sonata, Fusion and Malibu, move over. There's a new contender you have to share the stage with.

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2011 Ford Fusion Review

These have to be sweet days for Ford. Not only did they spare themselves the bankruptcies GM and Chrysler went through (by mortgaging the famous Blue Oval logo), they're making and selling cars.

That probably sounds like a no-brainer...I mean, Ford's a car company, right? But the fact is that Ford and the other domestics spent most of the last two decades selling trucks and SUVs. Sure, they made cars, but they weren't the company's prime focus (way more profit in the trucks and SUVs) and consumers had long since put Toyota and Honda on the top of their family sedan shopping lists.

Well, that's all changing...and three weeks (yep, an extended test) in a Ford Fusion SE (courtesy Bell Ford in Phoenix, Arizona) goes a long way toward explaining why.

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Want to know how good a car is? Get as close to the base model as possible. In this case, the tester was one level up...the four-cylinder SE. A base price of $22,830 buys a six-speed automatic transmission, 8-way power driver's seat, an AM/FM/SiriusXM Satellite Radio with CD, mp3 capability and six speakers, automatic headlamps, foglamps, floormats and 17" alloy wheels.

Loaded?  No. Nicely equipped? Absolutely.  Cloth seats breathe nicely in the summertime, so the lack of leather was actually a plus. And the interior design...the placement of all the controls...is so intuitive, so logical, that the Fusion went from a pleasant ride in its first few days to being an extension of the driver as the days and weeks went on.

As an automotive journalist used to a week at a time, multiplying the test window could expose serious flaws or at least niggling shortcomings, but not with the Fusion. It held up. I could see living with this car for the length of a 5-year car loan. Especially when you consider that the bottom line of this one is right at about $23,500 with delivery charges.

EPA estimates: 23 city/33 highway. Camry and Accord are still strong choices, but they can no longer take for granted that it's all theirs.

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Honda Crosstour 4WD EX-L NAV Review

Companies don't have ideas. The people that work for them do.

People retire, die and are replaced by other people with other ideas.

Nothing lasts forever.

Nobody's perfect.

No, TireKicker has not become the official journal of the obvious. I'm reminding myself how we can go from a 25-year string of absolutely brilliant products (virutally everything Honda built from the 1976 Accord onward) to the Honda Crosstour.

                        

I'll usually recall my dad's car dealer friend Jim Ellis' words ("there's an ass for every seat") when considering styling and then default to a phrase like "a matter of taste".

But....no. The Crosstour is ugly. Not quite Pontiac Aztek ugly...but ugly. And with a blind spot the size of....well, a 1976 Accord.

I know BMW started the big four-door hatchback thing with the X6, but if BMW jumped off a building......

What's wrong with it? Well...let's put it this way...it's an Accord...with four-wheel drive, an open hatch instead of a trunk, the aforementioned blind spot, the aforementioned ugliness, and in the case of our tester a price sticker of $36,930....or more than 5 grand more than the bottom line for a loaded Accord EX-L V6 with navigation.

Would you?

Me, either. And, not seeing a bunch of these on the street, I'm guessing most people are passing.

If there is in fact a market for something beyond the Accord sedan in terms of versatility and capability, the best move would be to bring back the Accord station wagon. No, it wasn't much of a hit last time around, but wagons were at their low point in terms of appeal...there's a revival going on now. And the Accord's new larger platform could make for a truly useful machine.

A good looking one you could see out the back of.

                        

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Lock Up Your 19 Year Old Accords! The Top 10 Most Stolen Cars In California

There's probably at least one of every kind of desirable vehicle on a street or in a garage somewhere in the Golden State.

But what do thieves steal most? The answers may surprise you. From The Los Angeles Times.

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TireKicker Time Machine: 1980 Honda Accord LX

Say hello to the car that changed the world. It looks unassuming and frankly very small now, but from 1976 through 1981, this was the Accord that showed that Japan in general and Honda in particular was deadly serious about making very good small cars.

                          

Five years after exploding Ford Pintos and imploding Chevy Vegas, the idea of a small car built to a standard and not to a price was an appealing one to American drivers. The first-gen Accord was jewel-like. And the demand was huge. Dealers were charging $1,000 over sticker price...and getting it.

   

                           

The LX model was added as an upgrade from the base Accord...Air Conditioning, a digital clock and power steering were standard. And while Detroit was still pushing four-on-the-floor, the Accord's manual transmission was a 5-speed.

                           

Power? Not much by today's standards. 72 horsepower for the 1980 model you see here. But there wasn't much weight to move, either...about 2,000 pounds. And gas mileage was astonishing...35 city/45 highway...with some owners reporting far more.

                          

And the interior was a revelation for the time...far roomier than the exterior would have you expect...with logical control layouts that were exactly where your hands would fall. This one shows the usual signs of age...which is to say, some fading and splitting of the upholstery and not much else.

For as big a seller as the 1976-1981 Accords were, they're not a common sight anymore. Though 15 years and 200,000 trouble-free miles was a common Accord owner experience, like most Japanese cars, at the 20 year point, the cost of a major repair was more than the car was worth and the owner (by then the third or fourth) sent it off to the junkyard.

As a result, the remaining ones, now between 29 and 34 years old, are starting to see values climb...one in this condition is probably $1500...you could have gotten it for $725 a decade ago. Best one on earth?  The NADA guide says $3250. That's more than half what it sold for new.

As a former early 80s Honda owner (mine was a Civic), if presented with the choice of spending $3250 for a mint condition first-gen or nearly $30,000 for the current Accord coupe, I'd seriously consider going with the classic.

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Honda Settles Class Action Suit Over Accord, Acura TSX Brake Wear

Honda has settled a class-action lawsuit claiming that the rear brakes on a quarter-million Accords and Acura TSXs wear out more than three times more quickly than they should.

Drivers complained their vehicles needed rear brakes at between 15,000 and 20,000 miles...instead of the typical 70,000....and that Honda refused to make repairs under warranty.

But don't think the drivers are getting rich from this. Details of the settlement, which still leaves the drivers out some money, via the New York Times Wheels Blog. (hat tip to K George).

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2013 BMW 3-Series To Include Blind-Spot Special

If you're among those who find the recent outbreak of four-door fastbacks (BMW X6, Honda Accord Crosstour, Acura ZDX) disconcerting from an aesthetic and practical point of view, get set for a long ride.

Automobile reports that BMW's next-gen 3 series, due for 2013, will have just such a model, the GT.

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