Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Kia's K900 luxury liner can run with the bulls

This review first appeared in the May 2019 edition of the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News published out of Folsom, California – mg

Sacramento, California Kia's K900, redesigned for the 2019 model year, is a road-burner disguised as a luxury car.

Or maybe it's both. You can call it what you want once you buy one, after all.

As for me, I'll emphasize the performance.

The K900's look is smooth, elegant and sporty looking.  The jewel-like "cells" in the grille are particularly striking. Kia says there are 176 of them, if you're keeping count.

What's under the hood is all you could ask for in this class.  It's a 3.3-liter, twin-turbo V-6 with 365 horsepower.

Yes, that's the same power plant Kia has dropped into its fire-eating Stinger.

Nailing the accelerator on the K900 produces immediate, press-you-into-your seat results.  It's startling at first, this being a luxury car.  But once you get accustomed to smoking past pokes, you're pretty much hooked and seeking the speed rush on a regular basis.

Naturally, you pay a bit of a price on the fuel mileage, but it's not tragic: 18 miles per gallon in the city and 25 mpg on the highway.

Interior amenities are generous ... in more ways than one.

The navigation system includes a sizable 12.3-inch touchscreen, which Kia calls a "Human Machine Interface."

There's a 9.7-inch head-up display that has more on-the-fly content than most in-dash displays.
The primo Lexicon sound system has 17 speakers.

The list of beyond-the-norm luxo features is incredibly long.  Over-the-top goodies on that list include multi-color interior mood lighting and power rear window sunshades.

The driver gets a super-helpful bonus in the dash, with full-on side-view camera displays in the speedometer and tach readouts when you hit left or right-turn signals.

I know, can you believe it?  This is a Kia.

Kia was known for years as a discount auto producer, but with this much going on in the K900, the price is hefty -- just short of $65,000 on the tester.

Throw in Kia's generous warranties, and this is a package that ranks right up there with anything produced by BMW, Mercedes-Benz or Lincoln.

Performance car.  Luxury liner.  Yes, the K900 is all that and more.

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