Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
10/28/20 2:00 p.m.
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The Kia K5, the car formerly known as the Optima, now wears the same name worn in its home market of South Korea. Name aside, the K5 has been redesigned for 2021 with a new exterior and interior, though still shares its Hyundai-Kia N3 platform with its cousin, the Hyundai Sonata.

Aside from the upcoming GT trim, all K5s come powered by a turbocharged …

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bobzilla
bobzilla MegaDork
10/28/20 3:29 p.m.

That's pretty.

Kreb (Forum Supporter)
Kreb (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand UberDork
10/28/20 7:46 p.m.

The Turbo 2.5 sounds like a winner. As for the lesser motors, I prefer the NA 2.5 to the turbo 1.6 having driven both in the current Sonata.

 

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
10/28/20 10:09 p.m.

I said a few months back that Kia and Hyundai were knocking things out of the park. Then they killed off a lot of manual transmissions. I'm intrigued about their DCT they are starting to throw into things. 

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy MegaDork
10/28/20 10:24 p.m.

First Chevrolet's Blazer isn't a Blazer now Kia's K5 isn't a K5. Maybe I don't want to live on this planet any more. 

Good news is we still got Dolly Parton.  

chandler
chandler UltimaDork
10/29/20 9:07 a.m.
Datsun310Guy said:

First Chevrolet's Blazer isn't a Blazer now Kia's K5 isn't a K5. Maybe I don't want to live on this planet any more. 

Good news is we still got Dolly Parton.  

I was also hoping for a classy box on wheels

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito PowerDork
10/29/20 9:46 a.m.

The new not-a-Blazer Kia K5 looks nice both in pictures and in person. I think it looks a lot better than the outgoing Optima, which itself wasn't all that bad looking, minus the strange roof treatment they had. The K5 still has something funky going on with the roof trim, but the rest of the car makes up for it.

For GRM-minded folk, it's the turbo 2.5 or nothing. That drivetrain looks a lot more fun than the detuned 1.6T from the Forte GT in this car. I'm wondering if the GT comes with the new wet-clutch DCT they have been working on instead of the dry clutch unit that's in the Forte GT. 

One more thing, and this goes for all the Kia vehicle lines: the GT-Line and GT are completely different cars. The GT-Line is basically an appearance package, while the GT has the mechanical bits to back it up. That's confusing to consumers; when I was car shopping and looking at my Forte GT, this threw both me AND the dealership off, since they offer different financing and incentives for the two lines. They should change the name of the GT-Line to something else, like Touring or Sport, to differentiate them. Take a note from Honda on this.

 

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
10/29/20 9:50 a.m.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I can confirm that the GT will get the wet clutch DCT.

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter)
ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) UltimaDork
12/28/20 2:45 p.m.

I'm not fond of the exterior styling but I like the interior look.

kevinatfms
kevinatfms Reader
12/29/20 6:44 a.m.

So its AWD in the K5 GT with the 2.5L but they snuff the Sonata N-Line with FWD?

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