Great choice, that's a beautiful car! The optima punches well above its weight. That blue paint looked stunning in your video. I'm sure you love the car.
Good review. I have had my Optima for a year and a half. Best car that I have ever owned. Period. I spent 3 months and test drove everything from domestic to import. I had never even been in a Kia before and was blown away by the product. Honda and Toyota are scared.
Just bought a 2016 SXL in the titanium paint with ivory interior. I love it so much, I think this car offers the best value and looks in its 20-35k class.
Just bought mine 3 weeks ago used (my first daily driver dream car), she only had 10,700 miles on her, clean title, and instead of $37,000 her sticker price was $23,600. Same year at the SXL Turbo trim level HELL YEAH!!!
Awesome review Matt, its great to see an actual owners review. I'm planning to possibly purchase the new SXL soon but i would change out the badges to the kia K logo badges instead. My cousin switched out his badges on his 2014 SX and everyone is impressed with the car but they have no idea what brand or model it is.
This is all personal preference, honestly my Kia is a lot nicer than any comparable cars I have seen and even many a class above in my personal experience. My relatives just leased a loaded $65k Volvo XC90 which itself is an award winning luxury car and this has features even they don't have so... I can't say I care what people think about the badges because they're the idiots that didn't buy one so maybe we have a different perspective lol...
Matt, if you had bought the Maxima, you wouldn't have power folding mirrors, electronic brake, heated rear seats, android auto, or LDP. Also, you would have to use Premium fuel. These things really irritated me.
Matt, I picked up a white SXL 3 weeks ago and I am loving it! I traded in my 2016 Maxima Platinum because it didn't have all of the features included on the Optima (i.e., Lane departure warning).
Awesome, congrats. I actually really like the new Maximas too but it was about $5k more and the reliability is questionable. I do a lot of miles so the 100k mile powertrain warranty was a selling point.
Have you had any issues with it yet? I pick up my own SXL on Monday, but I'd appreciate your longer term review of the car so far, and any issues I should be aware of with it.
Beautiful car man I want one so bad. I've seen reviews of this car and some have said it had wireless charging. Kia hasn't really advertised it. Just wondering if it really has it?
yes it does, the space in front of the cup holders is a wireless charging pad. the only problem is that Android Auto requires the phone to plug in and my Galaxy Note 5 won't fit while plugged in. It does fit (barely) if it's unplugged though.
I like the 2015 Kia Optima SXL a lot better than the 2016 Kia Optima overall design; however, the 2016 Kia Optima SXL is the way to go with heavy tech features like a 360 degree camera that is usually found on cars priced above $45k.
14500 miles and so far so good. Mileage averages around 26-29 in mixed driving, I did an at-home update to the infotainment system via the SD card to add Apple Carplay, that went well. I noticed the car is air tight - so much so that when I open a door after having the vents blowing, there is a quiet "pop" as the pressure releases. Drove a $120k Tesla Model S for a week and decided I wouldn't trade the Kia for my every day driver.
+Kool Acclaimed™ I've never driven the previous generation turbo but I know reducing turbo lag was one of their focuses... the torque comes on much earlier, 265 lb. ft. at only 1350 so there is a lot of low end power at the ready for normal spirited driving. the turbo is also twin scroll now so... I have not noticed any turbo lag at all esp. in sport mode.
Matt Well, it is the same turbo from the previous generation while reducing horsepower and torque for better fuel efficiency; however, some owners have said turbo lag on their 2016 Kia Optima SXL is manageable and minimum from a straight line acceleration due to the "exhaust pressure to spin the turbo and pump compressed intake air into the engine." While Kia and Hyundai were trying effortlessly to help reduce turbo lag, it is also impossible to completely illuminate the lag, but in my Optima, the lag is very minimum when I accelerate in eco mode then the turbo will kick-in within seconds of accelerating and that can be a little annoying. With that said, what about torque steer under hard acceleration? Mine has minimum torque under heavy acceleration that well have the wheel tugging incredible rough until both hands should be kept on the wheel at all times during those kind of accelerations. Although the car is a front-wheel drive layout without any torque-vectoring of any kind or all-wheel drive to help maintain a balanced ride with that much power.
