Kia Motors, founded 73 years ago in 1944 is South Korea’s second-largest automaker and a household name for budget-friendly cars. Like most Japanese brands, the Kia brand is not seen as a luxury brand in the United States. However, BMW is.
BMW, founded in 1916, has been established as a high-end luxury brand. Although they have been making cars spanning a wide caliber and price range (even in the $30,000 USD range) for many years. A similar rule applies to Kia. The 2019 K900 is not Kia’s first luxury car.
The current 2017 Kia K900 (the 2019 is coming out shortly) is a luxury sedan with a starting MSRP of $49,900 USD with a 3.8L V6, while the BMW 5-series has a starting MSRP of $53,400 with a turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine (RWD).
‘Turbocharged’ means that an air compressor driven by exhaust gases forces additional air into the cylinders to bolster performance. This is in contrast to naturally aspirated engines, which don’t use this forced-air induction concept.
I can’t speak for the Kia K900’s handling or user experience compared to the BMW 5-series. However, Joel Stocksdale from Autoblog explains that nicely. From outside, the K900 does have that elegant presence and poise you’d expect to see from a luxury car. It also has 311 HP to back that up.
The rear-end and side of the K900 also have an elegant luxury car-like appearance, but it doesn’t look like an exotic car. This is neither a good or bad thing, as not everyone wants to advertise their wealth with a status symbol. While on the other hand, some people love the presence of said status symbols (like BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars).
All images obtained with thanks from Kia.
