Kia Optima 2003-2006 was also produced in Russia (Plant Autotor Kaliningrad). We called it Magentis. I bought this car in 2006 and still drive it. Maximum configuration EX V6.
I daily drive a 2004 Kia Optima, will be featured on the Shooting Cars RU-vid channel. Fantastic car, given I paid $2700 for it. Got me from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio to Ithaca, New York to test drive a 1984 Trabant 601S that I used to own in 2018 and getting back later this month.
"there's little bottom end grunt with the engine not coming alive until almost 5,000 rpm"....right after it just did a sweet ass little wheelie. Idk if John was slipping, but it takes considerable bottom end grunt to get both front wheels spinning loose in a nose heavy front wheel drive car. Especially with a wasteful 4 speed automatic.
Interesting but this 2001-02 optima looked much better than the 2007-2010 optima. Even the 2003 facelift made it look worse than the pre 2003 model. It was a mistake to facelift it. Instead they could’ve go on with this one up until 2006.
I’ve got a 2002 Sonata LX and interestingly the styling stayed exactly the same through 2005 without a facelift. I enjoy it as a daily driver and it still looks new.
@@L4sleeko I really loved the 2002-05 Sonata with the V6 and the alloy wheels. The Kia Optima was basically the same car and it was also nice until that 2003 facelift ruined the front end and the dashboard. The 2006 to 2010 second Optima was even worse: it was the most boring car ever sold by Kia, while the 2006-10 Sonata which it was based on was a beautiful car. That is a bit strange. The design teams of the two brands belonging to the same company split.
