2011 Kia Optima Turbo Review

The 2011 Kia Optima Turbo.

It occurs to me I don't know the Korean word for "hat-trick". Or the one for "three-peat".
It's just never come up.

Until now.

If the face above looks familiar to regular TireKicker readers, that's because it is. It's the Kia Optima Turbo. On September 10, we reviewed the base Optima, on October 11, the Optima Hybrid, and now, on November 19, it's the Turbo's turn.


One car, three powerplants. The  standard Optima has 200 horsepower, the Optima Hybrid packs 166 horsepower from its gasoline engine and an additional 40 from the electric, for a total of 206 (and neither of those cars is slow) and the Optima Turbo brings 274 horses to the party.

Rear view of the 2011 Kia Optima Turbo.

You also get a sport-tuned suspension, high performance dampers and 18-inch tires with Sport Design Alloy wheels...which are controversial, but we like 'em.

The rest of the car? Loaded like Lindsay Lohan on a Friday night. Dual-zone climate control, AM/FM/CD/mp3 audio system with Sirius satellite radio, USB, auxilary jacks and Bluetooth. Leather. power everything. HID headlamps. LED taillamps.

For $25,995.

Yes, you read that right. A loaded, big luxurious and sporty sedan that looks like the two pictures above and has 274 horsepower for five bucks shy of 26 large.  The uplevel standard Optima (the EX) starts at $22,495. The Optima Hybrid begins at $26,500.

The 2011 Kia Optima Turbo interior.

Yes, a mere $505 spread between the Turbo and the Hybrid. Odds are, though a Hybrid intender won't seriously consider the Turbo and vice-versa. So your question will be "should I spend the $3,500 extra to move up from the Optima to the Optima Turbo and party with those 74 extra ponies under the hood?"

The good news is that if you do, you'll pay the smallest imaginable penalty in gas mileage. Here are the EPA figures:

Optima: 24 city/34 highway

Optima Turbo: 22 city/34 highway

A draw on the highway...a two mpg penalty in the city.

Operating purely on base price, the Turbo makes a strong case for itself. But base price is only part of the story. For as our Optima got optioned up to $27,440 from $22,495, the Optima Turbo didn't sit at $25,995. Two option boxes got checked by the Kia PR people...both with sizable price tags.

The Technology Package (Navigation with back-up camera, Sirius Traffic, and an 8-speaker Infinity  audio system): $2,000.

The SX Premium Package (Panoramic sunroof, power front passenger seat, driver seat memory, heated and cooled front seats and heated ourboard rear seats).

With $695 freight and handling, the bottom line becomes $30,840. And that becomes a fairly pricey Kia, as good and as fast as it is.

The good news is that nothing in either of those two packages is indispensable (though the 8-speaker Infinity upgrade to the audio system is awfully nice), so you could just go stock and come in below $27K.

Frankly, all three Optimas amaze us, and we've been driving and noticing the continual progress of the brand. If you haven't driven a Kia in a while, or ever, you'll be astonished.

During our week with the Turbo, I had a parking lot conversation with a guy who drives a 5-series BMW, had just test driven the Kia Optima Turbo and was considering trading. Not because the Optima Turbo is a match for the Bimmer, but because it gets him most of what he enjoys in the BMW and puts money back in his pocket for other things like food, clothing, shelter and education for his kids.

Any one of the Optimas (Optima, Optima Hybrid, Optima Turbo) would be a solid choice. The Turbo's the most fun.

2011 Kia Optima Turbo

Base price: $25,995.

As tested: $30,840.

Likes: Styling, room, comfort, power.

Dislikes: None.

EPA estimate: 22 mpg city/34 mpg highway.

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2011 Kia Optima Hybrid Review

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid.

As impressed as we were with the 2011 Kia Optima just a month ago, nothing could have prepared us for the Kia Optima Hybrid.

Here's the recipe: Take everything that makes the Optima a winner, and add a hybrid powerplant. But make it a hybrid powerplant that delivers the mileage. 24 mpg city/34 highway in the gasoline Optima becomes 35 city/40 highway in the Optima Hybrid...good enough to vault into 7th place on TireKicker's Top 10 Fuel Savers, ahead of smaller, lesser-performing cars like the Honda CR-Z and Lexus HS 250h.

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid rear view.

Best part of it all? The price spread between gasoline and hybrid is small as such things go...$4,005.  Now, admittedly, that's the difference between $22,495 and $26,500. But if your priorities include using less gasoline and putting fewer pollutants into the air, there are higher prices to pay.

Much like the gasoline version from a month ago, this Optima Hybrid was loaded. You might remember the $22,495 wound up being $27,440. Well, in this case, a single option, the $5,000 Premium Technology Package (Nav system with backup camera, Sirius Traffic, an Infinity audio system, panoramic sunroof, auto-dimming rearview mirror with Homelink and compass, upgraded 17-inch tires with alloy wheels, auto-leveling HID headlamps, leather seat trim, driver's seat memory, heated and cooled front seats, heated outboard rear seats, a heated steering wheel and power front passenger's seat) ran the price with $750 freight and handling to $32,250.

Yeah, that's a pricey Kia. But again, it's less than five grand above the loaded gasoline version.

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid gauge cluster.

So...the big question: How's the mileage? Well, we did 225 miles of purely city street driving over the course of a week, and got 31.0 miles per gallon. Yes, the EPA estimate is 35 city, but the small print under that number says "expected range for most drivers 29 to 41 mpg". So we're in the ballpark. As always, your mileage may vary. I'd bet on having hit 35 had we done our usual amount of freeway driving...and on a roadtrip, 40's probably realistic.

Bottom line: Kia's on a roll, and the Optima is a contender not just among family sedans, but among alternative-energy vehicles as well.


2011 Kia Optima Hybrid

Base price: $26,500

As tested: $32,250

Likes: Styling, smooth power, impressive mileage for its size.

Dislikes: Overly sensitive tire pressure monitoring system.

EPA estimates: 35 mpg city/40 mpg highway.

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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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