2015 Kia K900 V-8
It's an honest-to-goodness luxury car—from Kia.
The 2015 K900 could be the car that changes Kia forever. The car that elevates what has been a value-oriented brand to the top tier of luxury automakers. In a few short months, as the V-8–powered K900 hits about a third of Kia’s 765-ish U.S. showrooms, the Korean maker’s name may begin to be spoken in the hushed tones now afforded to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce. It could happen. But it probably won’t.
It’s not that the large, rear-drive K900 isn’t a good car—it is good, and a good luxury car—it’s just not that good. This is Kia’s next step up the prestige ladder, but it’s not a leap to the top. Kia still isn’t an “aspirational brand,” but it’s no longer a brand for which one must settle. After selling cars in America for 20 years, Kia is a car company that buyers can rely on. And now they can rely on Kia to sell them a big luxury sedan.
At 200.6 inches long, the K900 is 4.3 inches longer than its close corporate cousin, the outgoing Hyundai Genesis. (Hyundai just introduced an all-new 2015 Genesis.) More relevant, the K900’s 119.9-inch wheelbase is exactly the same as that of the even larger Hyundai Equus, although the K900 is 2.5 inches shorter overall. The K900 is closer in size to a BMW 7-series than it is to a 5-series, and at $66,400 for the V-8 model, it’s priced in the vicinity of a 550i.
The K900 isn’t, strictly speaking, Kia’s version of the Equus. But it’s close. Close enough that they share engines, transmissions, and much of their chassis design and suspension components. Only V-8–powered K900s will be available when the car launches this spring. A V-6 model, Kia promises, will follow a few months later.
The K900 looks like a slightly overinflated Cadenza, which itself has the appearance of a thick-shouldered Optima. The K900 is handsome, and many details like the LED elements residing in the headlight buckets are interesting. But there’s a heaviness to how it’s sculpted that seems to fight against the more established—and more playful—Kia design elements.
It Has Luxury Stuff
It takes a firm heave to open the driver’s door simply because there’s so much steel in it. Inside, the cockpit is finished in acres of supple nappa leather, and as in virtually every other current luxury car, the K900 carries a thick load of gadgetry that runs from a heated steering wheel to an LCD that constitutes the instrumentation. A 9.2-inch navigation screen dominates the center of the dash. The cabin is attractive and seems well assembled, although there’s nothing in the design that seems particularly distinctive.
The center screen displays a neat bird’s-eye mosaic of what’s surrounding the car when it backs up (similar to Nissan’s system), the car emits a pleasant chime as it starts up or shuts down, and the rear seats—when equipped with the full-boat VIP package—are roomy, offer power recline, are heated and ventilated, and flank a rear center armrest dotted with various environmental controls. The front seats are power-adjustable thrones. Accommodations are what this car does best.
Capable, but Not Involving
The 420-hp, 5.0-liter direct-injected V-8 idles in virtual silence. It takes a moment to figure out the goofball shift wand—one of the worst things about modern BMWs is now among the worst things about a Kia, too—but the eight-speed automatic transmission operates so unobtrusively that it would take an MRI to detect the shifts.
The K900 might not feel fast, but it shouldn’t be slow. Kia isn’t quoting any performance times, but considering the output and how it’s delivered, as well as an estimated curb weight of 4550 pounds, it seems reasonable to expect the K900 to waltz to 60 mph in about 5.5 seconds, with the quarter-mile going by in roughly 14.
Although the all-independent suspension uses multiple aluminum links at each corner, those links are more interested in smothering the pavement to death than engaging it. The electrohydraulic power steering system’s reservoir is apparently filled with embalming fluid, but the 245/45R-19 front tires react with some immediacy, and it would take a rocket-propelled grenade to knock the tail off its 275/40R-19s. The ride is always controlled but never exciting.
There are three chassis modes, but the experience doesn’t change much whether the car is operating in Normal, Sport, or Eco. The notable differences: In Sport, the dampers seem a little stiffer, but the throttle response is no sharper. The ride goes a bit floatier in Normal or Eco, and Eco dulls the throttle response to where it feels like it’s been shot full of lidocaine.
A Personal Limo
The K900 is a virtual sensory-deprivation chamber on four wheels, closer to an old-school Cadillac than any new Cadillac outside the XTS. There’s something to be said for soothing isolation, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for 21st-century luxury. Too many big luxury cars are out there that better balance comfort with responsiveness.
It’s no longer news that Kia knows how to build cars well. The K900 might be exactly the right car for happy Optima owners to move into after they hit the Powerball. But this is a luxury car built around a steel structure when much of the competition has moved on to aluminum. There’s some limousine in its DNA that keeps it from being a true driver’s car.
Kia will likely sell only a few thousand K900s here, and several thousand more in the rest of the world where it has already been on sale as the K9 or Quoris. This is not a car on which the near-term future of the company rides. But in the long term, it indicates—along with vehicles like the GT4 Stinger sports-car concept—that Kia isn’t going to be satisfied with being merely reliable.
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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIi4Ddp8Lnk[/video]
