Project: 2012 Kia Optima SX Turbo

[SlimKlim]

As some of you saw in the old thread, ol' "Battleship Cruiser" is no more. The E39 was a hell of a car, and we had a really good run with it, but some big ticket repairs were starting to stack up, and we had to choose between sinking money into it and still having a high mileage, no-warranty German V8 to deal with, or put the money towards a newer car that has modern features and gizmos, better mileage, and a full warranty for the foreseeable future. Powertrain runs out at 100k or in 2022, Bumper-to-Bumper runs out at 60k or in 2017.

Enter the 2012 "Snow White Pearl" Kia Optima SX (Turbo) with Premium and Technology packages. It weighs ~3300lbs and makes 274hp and 269ft-lbs, which it produces from 1750-4000rpms. The Premium package gives it a panoramic sunroof, keyless entry system, illuminated door sills, infinity sounds system (which kicks ass), power front seats, power folding mirrors, heated and cooled front seats, and heated rear seats. The Technology package adds the back-up camera, "Uvo" entertainment system with voice control, navigation, and SIRIUS traffic information.

The new MSRP is ~$34k, we picked this one up with 25k miles on the clock for ~$21k from a tiny little low-overhead wholesale lot down in Fredericksburg. They dealt primarily in $5-10k used cars and were trying to get rid of inventory to free up cash for new stuff in January. It started sleeting as we were doing the paperwork, so they totally half-assed the car prep and gave it to us with a filthy interior. She was all melancholy about abandoning her beloved 540i, so I went out on Sunday morning and scoured the inside from top to bottom to make it actually feel like a new car.











Driving Impressions:

I'm shocked by how much I like to drive this thing. It will purr down the highway at 80mph, barely above a resting heart rate, silent as a bank vault, but if you prod the pedal it will slingshot you to whatever speed you desire. The absurdly wide torque band has a way of making the speed sneak up on you, it doesn't feel like you're even up to speed yet, but all of a sudden you're doubling the limit.

It handles surprisingly well for it's size, which is made possible by about a dozen stability and traction control systems. The steering is surprisingly responsive, and it will scrub speed pretty well when you realize you're doing 25 mph over the speed limit and see a trooper at the bottom of the hill. Some people complain the suspension is too stiff compared to the Sonata, but it's the perfect balance of comfy and sporty for us.

Future plans:

-Voice control, it don' work. You have to do something along the lines of setting up a voice profile, which I can't figure out how to do (it took me about an hour to change the outside temp from celsius to 'murican), and right now it doesn't understand anything we say.

-There's an occasional rattle from the subwoofer, I need to pop the cover off and see if it's just a piece of trash bouncing around, or if it's torn and I should take it in. it sounds great most of the time, so my guess is something is just a bit loose or trapped in there.

-"Kia"-com?: I want to see if there is a way to get the dealer software and go tweak some of the functionality. Like saving the mirror position with the memory presets, or getting rid of the stupid warning screen before the nav will pop up.

-Oil Change: I need to call a dealer and see if they were the last ones to do an oil change because the little counter in the instrument cluster isn't set up. If they don't know when it was I'll just do one this weekend for good measure.

-Polish: the paint is nearly perfect as it is, but once the weather warms up I'll throw a buffer on it and clean up some light spider webbing from automatic car washes, then get several coats of sealant on it to protect it from the stupid fucking crab apple tree above our driveway.

-Vinyl Wrap: she likes the "piano black" finish around the climate buttons and nav screen that comes on the '14s, I like the idea of blacking out the chrome trim that runs over the doors, so I can kill two birds with one stone if I order some gloss black 3M vinyl for it.

Future, Future plans:

-Rimz: We really don't like these wheels, maybe they'll grow on us. When the tires run out of tread we might pick up an aftermarket set, and she wants me to paint her brake calipers red or hot pink. :roll:

-Intake: The motor is practically dead silent which is nice most of the time, but it would also be nice to hear the turbo sucking all that air in. There's probably a baffle in the intake like the GTI that I can pluck out, which will help, then maybe an actual intake down the road for that deep wooshy sound, provided it won't void anything.

-Lights and electronic doodads: She really likes the LED running lights on the '14s, which can be added to the older cars without too much fuss, but she might lose interest in it once she gets used to not having it. An aftermarket company sells a module that makes the mirrors fold when the car is locked, and kia sells a remote starter for some models, not sure if we could get it for ours.

She seems as equally bummed out about getting rid of the 540i as she is excited about the new car. The thing I keep reminding her is we had a lot of great memories in and around that 5-series over the past 3 years, now we have a brand new car to fill up with brand new memories. :thumbup:

[Jake]

Hooned this thing around for a few minutes last night, and quite liked it. Definitely a great value for that class of car. It's got some ass to it when you put your foot down, and the couple of small-ish corners I threw it into were handled well and without any drama. I really like how the interior is laid out - center stack is canted toward the driver, everything illuminates in red (save for the gauges) which gets +++ points for me.

Very cool car and has a bit of a sleeper vibe to it. I dig :thumbup:

[JPolen01]

I've been waiting for someone to pick one of these up. Glad to see it's the turbo model. In for long term updates.

[SlimKlim]

This is pretty much how i'd like to have it set up.

19" Factory Genesis Coupe R-spec wheels, black window trim and DRL LED strips in the fog light housing. This one has a 1.5" drop that we wouldn't do because she'd just rip the front bumper off of it. It probably comes close to scraping it's nose on the driveway as it is.

I sorta like those "KDM" badges too...

[ScottyB]

holy crap those wheels are SUCH an improvement. its a sharp car to start with but that makes it really handsome.

nice pick up btw...neat cars. it blows my mind how far Kia has come in the last 10 years. i still have to battle with the vision of their cars that i knew as a teenager which were basically disposable shitheaps at the time. now? i'd probably take one over a honda.

[SlimKlim]

I know, shit's crazy. I remember when they'd GIVE you a Rio if you bought another one of their cars. Give you one. For free. Now you can spend $21k for a Rio and it'll have most of the features of the Optima SX.

I think Kia/Hyundai "got it" in 2008 and Honda, Toyota etc, all went the wrong direction. Honda figured that after the recession we would want the cheapest possible new cars we could get, which led them to the horrible blunder that was the '12 Civic. Kia/Hyundai said ok, let's give the broke bastards a really, really, really, really nice car, and slap the best warranty in the industry on it. Korea is the new Japan.

[SlimKlim]

Found the Kia owners website and created an account with the car's VIN#. Once you create the account it gives you a little dashboard, shows the (estimated) vehicle mileage, lets you make a dealer appointment, shows you any recalls, and has sort of an online owners manual for some of the features. (Maybe one of them will help me figure out the voice control thing). Pretty cool.



But what really impressed me is the maintenance info. It shows you a timeline of what needs to be done at what mileage, which means I can just login and run down the checklist every time I need to service it to make sure I'm staying on top of everything it needs, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.



Interesting that they recommend oil changes every 5k when the other manufacturers are all going to 7500 or even 10k. The VW dealer told me mine only needed to be done every 10k. Which I disregard and change at 7k anyway.

[ScottyB]

does it have an onboard oil life monitor? those are usually pretty accurate.

if not, do a 6k oil change run and have it analyzed. go from there. if you're just poking around, a good synth should be a 6 to 7k oil without issue.

[SlimKlim]

It has a monitor for oil and tire rotation but both of them say "not in use," according to the factory schedule it should be 3k away from an oil change and 5k from a tire rotation, but that assumes the previous ones were done at the correct time.

I still haven't actually called a dealer, I guess I'll call them in the morning and see if they have the last time it was done on file, if they don't I might just change it this weekend to stay on the safe side.

[ViPER1313]

Nice pickup! Kia has come a hell of a way since the days of the Spectra. You can't beat the tech the Koreans put into all their cars.

One small note to anyone buying a used Kia or Hyundai, the 100k power train warranty is original owner only, otherwise it's 60k - just something to keep in mind.

[Ken]

One small note to anyone buying a used Kia or Hyundai, the 100k power train warranty is original owner only, otherwise it's 60k - just something to keep in mind.

good to know, thanks!

[SlimKlim]

One small note to anyone buying a used Kia or Hyundai, the 100k power train warranty is original owner only, otherwise it's 60k - just something to keep in mind.

Well I'm f*cking idiot. I thought the differences between the CPO and a used one was just you got a fresh 10 years/100k from the time of purchase, vs the remainder of it if you bought used. I now realize I was living in a fool's paradise.

I guess the good news is the only CPO car within 250 miles that meets her criteria is listed for $25k, and according to one Flordia's dealer website, I *could* purchase an extended powertrain plan (from the same company that does the CPOs) that would provide the same levels of coverage for the same period of time for ~$1600. So if we think we want to keep it forever, we have until the car hits 35k to purchase it. Not sure if it's worth it though, especially if we keep the car for 5-7 years and replace it.

I also can't get an actual person to confirm that option is available, the lady at the dealer couldn't get any results and said the "system was acting weird." The dealers are the only path to purchase the coverage, you can't get it directly from the company.

Also I did contact the last dealer that serviced it and it's due for an oil change so I'll knock that out this weekend.

[Beej]

Coworker bought one of these a couple years ago (probably MY2012). I only sat in the thing in his garage, but it was a 'whoa' moment. I was impressed, in more than a "for a Kia" kind of way.

The wheels on that second one you posted are actually kinda dope.

[SlimKlim]

I've already found a couple sets of those genesis wheels for sale, they go for pretty cheap, maybe $6-700/set. The trick is getting a non-staggered set, they are normally 8s and 8.5s.

We may very well end up getting a set for it once we run all the tread off of the factory tires and get a good bit of the car paid down. They look like they're about 1/2 used up at 25k miles, so we probably have a while, especially given that her commute is ~2 miles...

[Beej]

Meant to ask. Would you say it's more "nicer" (quieter, ride) than the e39? The two make for an interesting comparo.

[SlimKlim]

Is it nicer than the 140k 540i with a more or less completely blown out front end that we drove down to the dealership? Yes.

Is it nicer than a 540i in top condition? Ehhh, tough to say. It's definitely quieter, both in road noise, which is good, and engine noise, which is less good. Still sounds nice, but nothing can match the sound of that V8 climbing through the revs. As far as the ride, I'd have to drive a well maintained 540i then the Kia to make an honest comparison. Both cars were definitely designed to put away some highway miles.

The Kia is definitely more comfortable to be in than the BMW, at least from the driver's seat. The '00 didn't have lumbar support, while they lack some bolstering, the seats in the new car are extremely comfortable.

[SlimKlim]

Allegedly the oil was changed "recently," but I had no documentation to prove it, the last time the Fredericksburg dealer saw it was at 17k. I picked up a 4-pack of factory filters for $27, and got a 5-gal jug of Mobil 1 5W-30 for $36. The oil that came out of it was most definitely not brand new, and there was a Mobil 1 brand filter on it, which can potentially void the warranty, so my anxious need to change it immediately felt validated.

Then I spent a few hours getting it cleaned up and making it look like a new car. Washed it with dish soap to strip the old wax off, then made a quick pass around it with a clay bar to pick up all the trash that had embedded itself in the paint, then did two coats of Poorboy's EX-P Sealant applied with a DA with a terry cloth bonnet on it. There's minimal spiderwebbing in the paint but I decided not to go down the rabbit hole of polishing it because we had other stuff to get done for the weekend, that'll be a good summer project. I forgot to take pictures, but it looks more or less brand new.

After the holidays we're going to take it back to the Kia mothership and have it checked for software updates and to see which of the 3 "modes" the variable steering is currently in.