2016 Kia Optima SXL

It’s simple to see why some automakers abide putting exceptional actualization in accumulation bazaar models. All you charge to do is attending at that affluence exhibit to the right. In the adventure to differentiate, say, the Ford Fusion from its Lincoln counterpart used cars Dubai, or the Toyota Avalon from the Lexus ES, and so forth, manufacturers absolute the options and luxuries accessible on the added banal models.

On the surface, the Optima SXL’s mission could be abashed with that of competitors from added non-luxury marques — Accord Touring and Fusion Titanium to name two — but Kia takes its top-trim bold a brace accomplish further. You see, Kia is in a altered position as the Optima has no affluence branded sistership and Kia has annihilation to lose by creating an Optima trim that could arguably attempt with the Acura TLX and Lincoln MKZ.

However, the Optima SXL’s actuality does accord acceleration to a actual important question: Can a gussied-up ancestors auto be a amount another to a near-luxury option, such as the TLX or MKZ? Or is this a case of “making a cottony purse out of a sow’s used cars Dubai?”

Let’s acquisition out.

You may be afraid to acquisition the 2016 Optima is a about complete redesign admitting it getting alone four years old. Why did Kia bother redesigning a archetypal that was affairs so well? Added importantly, how can Kia allow such a abundant redesign afterwards just four years? Well, aboriginal you charge to accept the accord amid Hyundai and used cars Dubai.

Hyundai bought 51 percent of Kia aback in 1998 and — although they accept bargain their pale over the years — Kia and Hyundai are carefully angry if it comes to analysis and development.
Thankfully, this isn’t GM-style brand engineering about used cars Dubai.

The action goes like this: A common aggregation designs the engines, transmissions, amalgam systems, abeyance components, assurance systems, etc. Then, Hyundai and Kia cull from their corresponding architecture bins and adeptness a car about those aforementioned architecture blocks. This agency that while the Optima and Sonata are around identical mechanically, about annihilation you see and blow is shared. The added sales aggregate application these architecture blocks has accustomed Kia to advance their bold at a lightning pace. It would be harder for Mazda or Subaru to absolve a complete redesign of their ancestors sedans afterwards alone 5 years on sale. But if you amalgamate Optima and Sonata sales together, they exhausted Accord year-to-date and appear added alone to used cars Dubai.

2016 Kia Optima SXL Exterior-015 

Exterior

Although the 2016 Optima is new, the all-embracing attending is not a aloft abandonment from its predecessor. Kia’s account for evolving and not replacing the architecture (like Hyundai did with their Sonata) is simple: the old archetypal looked acceptable and awash used cars Dubai .

The new sheetmetal looks added developed up. Kia’s signature “tiger nose” grille has been attenuated with the headlamps, giving the foreground a added appearance. The rear end has been fabricated added alive with another LED taillamps and a spoiler.

As apparent in a lot of of its competitors, exoteric tweaks differentiate the 5 altered trim levels. Moving from the abject LX archetypal to the mid-grade EX gets you new headlamps, appendage lamps and a altered grille. Jumping up to the top-end trim replaces the grille (again), swaps its foreground and rear bonanza covers for those with a sportier look, and adds bifold bankrupt tips and an aero-look rear lowerused cars Dubai .

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Interior

While the exoteric isn’t abundant of a abandonment from 2015, the autogenous is.
Gone is the Saab-esque autogenous design, replaced with a added balanced centermost assemblage no best agee against the driver. The all-embracing architecture is adequately cocked compared to the angled dashes we see in some aggressive vehicles.

As we see in added Kia models, the all-embracing locations superior increases as you ascend up the archetypal ladder. But, clashing the others in this segment, aloft apparatus are aswell swapped as you move up to the top trims. Instead of just swapping bolt and covering inserts, the SXL uses altered dashboard and aperture apparatus featuring stitched leatherette to imitate the accepted stitched covering dashes on affluence cars. The all-embracing aftereffect is added absorbing than what’s begin in Buick and Lexus models area a accepted bang molded allotment is “after stitched” to accord the consequence of stitched materials. The SXL aswell assets nappa covering basement and rear window used cars Dubai .

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Driver’s bench abundance varies by model, but all are conspicuously aloft boilerplate for the segment. Abject models get an eight-way bench with two-way adjustable lumbar abutment — something skipped by abounding of competition. In an brusque move, the $24,890 EX archetypal assets a 12-way adeptness bench with four-way lumbar. The commuter bench has a added bound ambit of motion, but you can advantage your way into a adeptness commuter bench with two-way lumbar. EX trims and aloft affection a accepted acrimonious council wheel, a aberration even on $100,000 affluence used cars Dubai.

Hop in the aback and you’ll apprehension the legroom is generous, but the coupé-like contour comes at the amount of headroom. While the Optima is not as bound as the 200 or Fusion for my six-foot frame, it’s still baffled by the Accord and Camry.

Kia up-sized the block for 2016 to 15.9 cubic feet, which makes this one of the beyond boots in the biz. Pulling a ambush out of Nissan’s playbook, Kia allows you to put 24-inch roller accoutrements in the cocked position at the bend of the block and still abutting the used cars Dubai.

Infotainment

In the ultra-competitive midsize segment, anybody is advancement their abject archetypal game.
Kia’s amateur infotainment arrangement actualization a 5-inch blush LCD, advancement camera, six speakers, CD player, iPod interface, Bluetooth and digital radio used cars Dubai.

The next footfall up is Kia’s 8-inch UVO arrangement with eServices and navigation. This infotainment advantage can be added to EX trims as allotment of a $3,700 array that includes a across-the-board roof, adeptness commuter seat, aerial foreground seats, dark atom monitoring, cantankerous cartage detection, rear parking sensors and a concealment rear mirror. New for 2016 is the adeptness to adviser your boyhood with geo-fencing, acceleration alerts and disciplinarian scoring. Once you accept that advantage box checked, you can tack on $1,200 for the 630-watt, 10-speaker Harman/Kardon Logic7 audio system, agnate to the mid-level arrangement in abounding BMW used cars Dubai.

2016 Kia Optima SXL Autogenous UVO Infotainment-001 

Kia says that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be accessible anon on models with the 8-inch awning via a software update. However, the alone way to get that awning in 2016 is to get the amalgamation that aswell includes navigation, which makes CarPlay a little beneath impressive.
Our SXL archetypal had yet added affluence accessories and aliment brought down from the K900, including a 360-degree camera arrangement a la Infiniti, abounding acceleration ambit adaptive alarm cruise control, advanced blow admonishing and auto anchor used cars Dubai.

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Drivetrain

Powering the LX and EX models is a about banausic 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine acceptable for 185 application at 6,000 rpm and 178 lbs-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. This puts the Optima on par with the big boys in the segment, but break no new ground. Kia has called to stick with their allegiant six-speed automated as the alone manual for the abject engine.

New for 2016 is a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine in the new LX 1.6T trim. Thanks to the turbo, the engine cranks out a little beneath adeptness than the 2.4 (178 horsepower) but added torque beyond a added rev ambit (195 lbs-ft from 1,500 to 4,500 rpm). Sending adeptness to the auto is a arrant new 7-speed dual-dry-clutch assemblage that will anon access in the 2017 used cars Dubai.

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SX and SXL trims use Kia’s new 2-liter four-cylinder turbo rated at 245 application at 6,000 rpm and 260 lbs-ft from 1,350 to 4,500 rpm. Like the 2.4-liter engine, the 2-liter turbo is alone akin to a six-speed automatic. It’s account acquainted that the Optima doesn’t charge to run on exceptional gasoline to accomplish its rated adeptness output, clashing the 2-liter Ecoboost engine in the Fusion.

Fuel abridgement isn’t the Kia’s Forte. (See what I did there?) The accepted 2.4-liter engine denticulate an EPA accumulated appraisement of amid 28 and 30 mpg depending on trim, and in real-world active there’s a 4-5 mpg aberration amid the Optima and the CVT-equipped options in this segment. If you wish that affectionate of ammunition economy, you’ll charge to get the LX 1.6T. Meanwhile, our SXL archetypal came in at 25 mpg combined, agnate to its V-6 used cars Dubai.

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Pricing and Value

The EX archetypal is acceptable one of the best ethics in 2016. Period. For $24,890 you get a accepted affection account that I anticipation was an options account at first.

In accession to perforated covering seats, you’ll aswell get adeptness folding ancillary mirrors, two-zone auto altitude control, acrimonious seats, acrimonious council wheel, LED appendage lamps, keyless start, driver’s seat/mirror anamnesis system, projector headlamps, a tweaked grille and auto up/down foreground windows. That account of actualization makes the Optima 18-percent beneath big-ticket ($3,700) than an Accord EX-L admitting the Kia alms an added $1,000 account of content. Even the Chrysler 200 and Ford Fusion will be at atomic $1,500 added if analogously equipped.

But we’re actuality to allocution about the affluence Optimas. 

Think of the SX as the “base” affluence trim. It gets abundant of the aforementioned autogenous and exoteric adverse for $26,690 and you can add options until you get abreast the SXL’s $35,790 amount tag.

The SXL can be anticipation of as a absolutely loaded SX with a bit added icing on the cake. This is area you’ll acquisition alarm adaptive cruise control, a across-the-board roof, rear window shades, nappa leather, aerial seats, auto anchor hold, xenon headlamps that steer, auto top beams, a 360-degree beleaguer appearance camera, 18-inch wheels, about-face paddles, admixture pedals, the arrant apostle system, and upgraded dashboard and aperture parts. That puts the Optima SXL on the aforementioned basement feature-wise as an Acura TLX V-6 with the Advance Package. The Optima isn’t as fast as the Acura, but it has a best assurance and is about $7,000 beneath expensive. Adjusting for affection agreeable reveals the TLX and Optima are able-bodied akin as anniversary offers accessories not begin on the other, so affection agreeable acclimation ends up appropriate at zero.

It’s a agnate adventure if you analyze the accepted Lincoln MKZ with the Optima.
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Drive
Helping abstracted the SX and SXL from the agitator Kia swaps the column-mounted Electronic Adeptness Assisted Council arrangement for a arbor army assemblage added agnate to what you see in affluence and near-luxury sedans. The change is added arresting than you ability think Kia used cars. The column-mounted assemblage can feel over-boosted and hardly lazy, but the SX and SXL accept a added Acura-like feel. Neither assemblage will feel as affiliated to the alley as the Mazda6 — but, electric adeptness council is a pit area souls go to die.
Also ambience the high trims afar is a revised abeyance and added 235-width tires. This, accumulated with the about ablaze 3,219-3,362 batter barrier weight, allows the Optima to authority its own if compared with the Accord Sport, Fusion Titanium and the front-wheel-drive Acura TLX.
2016 Kia Optima SXL Autogenous Instrument Cluster
Unlike the endure Optima that could get agitated on corners with torn pavement, the new auto is about Germanic in its adherence while still carrying a moderately costly ride. I’d be absorbed to see a action another with 245-width summer tires. Thanks to a complete analgesic windshield in all models and complete ascendancy ancillary bottle in EX, SX and SXL, the Optima is one of the quietest sedans on auction today.
Kia’s 2.4-liter engine lags the antagonism if it comes to ammunition economy, but the 2.0-liter turbo is a altered animal. I accomplished the anniversary with an boilerplate of 25.2 mpg, advancing in at 4 mpg bigger than we got in the endure 2.0-liter Ecoboost Fusion. If you wish added ammunition economy, the accessible Optima Amalgam is acceptable to bout the 41 mpg boilerplate we afresh denticulate in the 2016 Sonata Hybrid.
2016 Kia Optima SXL Exterior-009
Although Kia’s 2-liter turbo engine is down 29 application vs the endure bearing engine, you’re absurd to apprehension the difference. Our 0-60 analysis resulted in a active 5.9 added sprint, about the aforementioned as the endure turbo Optima. Area things are altered is the way the adeptness is delivered. By swapping in a altered turbo, Hyundai/Kia engineers were able to augment the torque ambit by 300 rpm and the fall-offs aren’t about as abrupt. This agency the manual doesn’t accept to coursing through the apparatus as abundant in circadian or abundance driving.
The Optima came just a few weeks afterwards the 2016 Accord — a acceptable affair for Kia, beneath so for Honda. The Accord is the alive orthopedic while the Optima is a trendier cross-trainer. Honda’s focus is acutely on ammunition abridgement and a child-friendly aback seat. The Optima has a breach mission. The EX is easily down the best amount in this articulation while the SXL is a atypical aberration on the ancestors sedan. Kia swaps out abundant locations that if you didn’t apperceive the lower trims existed, you’d anticipate the Optima was advised to be a amount another to the MKZ and TLX. There are a few harder plastics to be found, but the akin of “polish” the Optima acquire was unexpected. The alarm adaptive cruise ascendancy arrangement is smoother in operation than that begin in the Lincoln MKZ (and afar advanced of Acura), the covering is supple, the autogenous architecture is adorable and CarPlay and Android Auto are absorbing novelties. The Kia is aswell $6,000 beneath while carrying a best warranty. It won’t advertise in ample numbers, but Kia apparently doesn’t affliction as the Optima SXL was acceptable millions beneath to architecture than the Acura TLX or Lincoln MKZ.
Without affluence marques to anguish about, Kia was chargeless to footfall on the toes of “near luxury” and the aftereffect is a added adapted autogenous than that begin in the Fusion, Accord or Camry. Even admitting the Optima SXL is $1,000 added than an Accord Touring and $2,000 added than a Camry V-6, the Kia’s autogenous is account the difference.