Loved it… I loved it so much and became so intoxicated with the mileage that I went out to test drive a Lincoln MKZ hybrid yesterday as a possible replacement to the A8. More on that later. For now, let's talk about the Optima.
The Looks
Looks great. It's not trying to be anything more than it is: a Camry/ Fusion/ Accord competitor. It's not trying to be too upscale. The interior has a great look to it, is functionally well laid out and build quality is what I would consider to be *gasp* above average.
The Handling
Not great. Don't get me wrong, the ride is comfortable and harsh Chicago potholes don't upset the car but you get into a turn and hit a bump and the car quickly demonstrates that it's fighting physics. It will hobble and jump sideways. Of course, I'm driving more aggressively than your average Optima buyer. I don't fault the car… It's probably no better or worse than a Camry or Accord in this respect and admittedly the hybrid model is probably riding on the worst suspension. A GDI is probably a different car altogether. Nonetheless, great ride, not great handling. For a car like this, you can't fault it.
The Build Quality
It's not an Audi but it's very well built. There are some hard plastics but they are in the right places. Most everything else is soft. No creaks or rattles but one thing that concerned me was weather or not this interior would stand the test of time. I was able to distort the soft touch hood over the instrument cluster and it never came back to it's right shape. There was foam under there and when you squeezed it you could hear it breaking up. Squeeze it again and the noise wasn't there any more. You could essentially permanently damage the dash just by squeezing it. This is the difference between trying to make an interior look high quality and actually making a high quality interior. In 10 years I fear this dash would distort and warp without any third party intervention. The sun will do it for you.
The Mileage
Intoxicating, and this is far from the best hybrid. Maybe it's because one of my cars gets 15mpg and the other gets 16 that a car with 36mpg impresses me so much but what really impressed me is that the car doesn't seem to give up much to get this kind of power. In fact, I think the hybrid drivetrain is probably a better experience over the stock base model engine. More on that later. I was in Chicago for a week and got 520 miles out of 9/10ths of a tank. It averaged out to 36mpg and that was with no effort on my end to make it more efficient.
The drivetrain
Let's ignore speed here because if you're buying this you likely aren't looking for a hotrod. It's amazing. It completely changed my perception of what a hybrid car is supposed to be. The battery in the car is actually impossibly small and only capable of powering the car in EV mode for a couple minutes. But how it uses EV mode is what makes the car so great.
For instance, unless you're beating the snot out of the car it will always start in electric mode. This makes the car deceptively smooth and torquey. The engine finally kicks in during the shift to second gear but's it's not something you'd notice. In fact, the engine is always turning on and off and you never notice. But this feature alone completely changes the car for me. There's no low torque 4 cylinder lugging you from the stop light. Just smooth, linear acceleration.
As soon as you start to slow down the engine shuts off which means that as you get to the stoplight it's off. In this sense the car almost always feels like an all electric unless you're heavy on the throttle.
On the expressway the car will go into EV mode and then when the battery runs low it will turn on the engine for a moment to simultaneously charge the battery and drive the wheels. 30 seconds later it might turn off again but again, you'd never know. When the engine turns on and off you don't know unless the radio is off. The 4 cylinder engine is quiet and well behaved. This is an amazing drivetrain.
Overview
As equipped this car was $25,900. That included bluetooth, a decent stereo and and the hybrid drivetrain. That is an absolute bargain for this car. The Honda Accord Hybrid starts at $4000 more. I don't know if that's a better car or not but $26,000 for the Kia is amazing in my opinion.
The only complaint I could really muster up was that the passenger seat was low like a sports car. My wife is 5' 4" and her knees were up in her face. There was no adjustment to raise it. I assume on the higher trim level cars you get a power seat but this should be adjustable regardless of trim level.
It's a Double Feature!
This takes me to the Lincoln MKZ which I reviewed and largely liked last year. The A8 is a lovely car but I find myself driving it so much and it only gets 15 mpg in LA traffic. So when I got back into town a couple days ago I started looking for a hybrid that I wouldn't mind having on a day to day basis. The Kia is great but I like a little more luxury and something a little more sporty driving.
So that brought me to the MKZ hybrid which is rated 45mpg city and highway (unless you ask [MENTION=12]Bru[/MENTION] or anybody else that doesn't work for Ford). Couple that with a $315 a month lease and I'm thinking I can actually trim some money off our monthly expenditures while getting a new car that's under warranty for my wife.
And then I drove it. It sucks. If Kia managed to make a Hybrid drive tolerably, Ford seems to have gone out of their way to suck every last semblance of fun out of the experience. Unlike the Kia, the MKZ's engine kicks in with almost any amount of throttle off the line. Theoretically you could accelerate up to 62mph all electric but realistically you would be putting your life in jeopardy if you tried because someone behind you would eventually break down into an epic fit of road rage. We're talking fully loaded semi-truck levels of acceleration if you want to stay all electric… Nothing like the Optima.
And maybe this would be forgivable if the engine was quiet but it's loud and rough. It sounds like a sewing machine every time you leave a light and it's almost worse that it shuts off at lights because every time it springs to life it reminds you how bad it really sounds. Maybe this works in the Fusion but it has no place in a $42,000 "luxury" sedan. Hell, it has no place in a Fusion either, not when your cheaper competition offers something so much better for so much less.
And then there's the CVT transmission which means that when the engine kicks in it sounds like a slipping transmission until it settles in at the proper RPM. And that CVT transmission? Wretched… If there was a hope for this car it would be in a traditional shifting transmission but no.
I walked away from that car so disappointed and I walked into the dealer literally ready lease one. After leaving I went and got some parts I've been putting off buying for the Audi. I'll take 15mpg over living with a car like that.
Whereas the Kia felt like an electric car that was made better with an engine, the Lincoln felt like a traditional car that was made worse with an electric motor.
I don't know which one drives more traditionally as far as how hybrid systems generally run but if I could get a higher power car with a hybrid system that works like the Kia's I'd be all over that.
TL; DR? Load up a Kia Hybrid and you'll have an easier to live with, cheaper to buy car than the MKZ/ Fusion.
The Looks
Looks great. It's not trying to be anything more than it is: a Camry/ Fusion/ Accord competitor. It's not trying to be too upscale. The interior has a great look to it, is functionally well laid out and build quality is what I would consider to be *gasp* above average.
The Handling
Not great. Don't get me wrong, the ride is comfortable and harsh Chicago potholes don't upset the car but you get into a turn and hit a bump and the car quickly demonstrates that it's fighting physics. It will hobble and jump sideways. Of course, I'm driving more aggressively than your average Optima buyer. I don't fault the car… It's probably no better or worse than a Camry or Accord in this respect and admittedly the hybrid model is probably riding on the worst suspension. A GDI is probably a different car altogether. Nonetheless, great ride, not great handling. For a car like this, you can't fault it.
The Build Quality
It's not an Audi but it's very well built. There are some hard plastics but they are in the right places. Most everything else is soft. No creaks or rattles but one thing that concerned me was weather or not this interior would stand the test of time. I was able to distort the soft touch hood over the instrument cluster and it never came back to it's right shape. There was foam under there and when you squeezed it you could hear it breaking up. Squeeze it again and the noise wasn't there any more. You could essentially permanently damage the dash just by squeezing it. This is the difference between trying to make an interior look high quality and actually making a high quality interior. In 10 years I fear this dash would distort and warp without any third party intervention. The sun will do it for you.
The Mileage
Intoxicating, and this is far from the best hybrid. Maybe it's because one of my cars gets 15mpg and the other gets 16 that a car with 36mpg impresses me so much but what really impressed me is that the car doesn't seem to give up much to get this kind of power. In fact, I think the hybrid drivetrain is probably a better experience over the stock base model engine. More on that later. I was in Chicago for a week and got 520 miles out of 9/10ths of a tank. It averaged out to 36mpg and that was with no effort on my end to make it more efficient.
The drivetrain
Let's ignore speed here because if you're buying this you likely aren't looking for a hotrod. It's amazing. It completely changed my perception of what a hybrid car is supposed to be. The battery in the car is actually impossibly small and only capable of powering the car in EV mode for a couple minutes. But how it uses EV mode is what makes the car so great.
For instance, unless you're beating the snot out of the car it will always start in electric mode. This makes the car deceptively smooth and torquey. The engine finally kicks in during the shift to second gear but's it's not something you'd notice. In fact, the engine is always turning on and off and you never notice. But this feature alone completely changes the car for me. There's no low torque 4 cylinder lugging you from the stop light. Just smooth, linear acceleration.
As soon as you start to slow down the engine shuts off which means that as you get to the stoplight it's off. In this sense the car almost always feels like an all electric unless you're heavy on the throttle.
On the expressway the car will go into EV mode and then when the battery runs low it will turn on the engine for a moment to simultaneously charge the battery and drive the wheels. 30 seconds later it might turn off again but again, you'd never know. When the engine turns on and off you don't know unless the radio is off. The 4 cylinder engine is quiet and well behaved. This is an amazing drivetrain.
Overview
As equipped this car was $25,900. That included bluetooth, a decent stereo and and the hybrid drivetrain. That is an absolute bargain for this car. The Honda Accord Hybrid starts at $4000 more. I don't know if that's a better car or not but $26,000 for the Kia is amazing in my opinion.
The only complaint I could really muster up was that the passenger seat was low like a sports car. My wife is 5' 4" and her knees were up in her face. There was no adjustment to raise it. I assume on the higher trim level cars you get a power seat but this should be adjustable regardless of trim level.
It's a Double Feature!
This takes me to the Lincoln MKZ which I reviewed and largely liked last year. The A8 is a lovely car but I find myself driving it so much and it only gets 15 mpg in LA traffic. So when I got back into town a couple days ago I started looking for a hybrid that I wouldn't mind having on a day to day basis. The Kia is great but I like a little more luxury and something a little more sporty driving.
So that brought me to the MKZ hybrid which is rated 45mpg city and highway (unless you ask [MENTION=12]Bru[/MENTION] or anybody else that doesn't work for Ford). Couple that with a $315 a month lease and I'm thinking I can actually trim some money off our monthly expenditures while getting a new car that's under warranty for my wife.
And then I drove it. It sucks. If Kia managed to make a Hybrid drive tolerably, Ford seems to have gone out of their way to suck every last semblance of fun out of the experience. Unlike the Kia, the MKZ's engine kicks in with almost any amount of throttle off the line. Theoretically you could accelerate up to 62mph all electric but realistically you would be putting your life in jeopardy if you tried because someone behind you would eventually break down into an epic fit of road rage. We're talking fully loaded semi-truck levels of acceleration if you want to stay all electric… Nothing like the Optima.
And maybe this would be forgivable if the engine was quiet but it's loud and rough. It sounds like a sewing machine every time you leave a light and it's almost worse that it shuts off at lights because every time it springs to life it reminds you how bad it really sounds. Maybe this works in the Fusion but it has no place in a $42,000 "luxury" sedan. Hell, it has no place in a Fusion either, not when your cheaper competition offers something so much better for so much less.
And then there's the CVT transmission which means that when the engine kicks in it sounds like a slipping transmission until it settles in at the proper RPM. And that CVT transmission? Wretched… If there was a hope for this car it would be in a traditional shifting transmission but no.
I walked away from that car so disappointed and I walked into the dealer literally ready lease one. After leaving I went and got some parts I've been putting off buying for the Audi. I'll take 15mpg over living with a car like that.
Whereas the Kia felt like an electric car that was made better with an engine, the Lincoln felt like a traditional car that was made worse with an electric motor.
I don't know which one drives more traditionally as far as how hybrid systems generally run but if I could get a higher power car with a hybrid system that works like the Kia's I'd be all over that.
TL; DR? Load up a Kia Hybrid and you'll have an easier to live with, cheaper to buy car than the MKZ/ Fusion.
