V8 Engine Feels Strong - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

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V8 Engine Feels Strong - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

For a big, comfort-oriented luxury sedan, I find the 2015 Kia K900's acceleration to be pretty impressive.

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bankerdanny

First, the Kia is strong, period. Second, it's functional vs absolute speed.

Sure the Audi is much faster, but the Kia is still objectively fast (IL's Ferrari 308 and Black Plague 911 couldn't have beat it 0-60), and in most people's driving lives, where there is a minivan, SUV, pickup, or sedately driven Camry in front of them, the absolute advantage of the Audi is useless. The Kia is as fast (faster really) than most drivers will ever need or be able to take advantage of.

gslippy

A V6 Camry is just about as quick as the K900. If 0-60 on a budget is all some buyers care about, then lots of cars don't make sense. I agree that the K900 sounds like it's plenty quick enough.

chol92594

0-60 numbers are flaunted a lot, and while they do give an idea of a car's potential, they only show a small piece of the overall picture. Midrange acceleration is, in most cases, more relevant than acceleration from a standing start. Slower times from acceleration off the line don't necessarily translate into slower midrange acceleration and less midrange punch for, when example, you're passing someone on a two lane road or trying to catch a gap in traffic. My 2009 Civic (auto, unfortunately) is rated somewhere between 9 and 10 seconds for 0-60, but it's decently powerful in the midrange for passing, especially below 70 mph or so. This is a common characteristic among a lot of Honda's VTEC engines. It all boils down to where in the rev range an engine makes the most power and how usable and exploitable that power band is in real-world driving situations.

fordson1

But when you get into this kind of car, more power, more speed, more size, more luxury, more features, better ride, quieter, etc. are what differentiate it from something like a Camry. Saying it doesn't need to be faster than a Camry...you might just as well say it doesn't need any of the features you can't get on a Camry. When somebody spends $66k+ on a car with 420 hp, they expect something for their money.

This car continues the history of Korean horsepower not being as powerful as for example German horsepower - no German sedan with a roughly comparable powertrain and power-to-weight ratio would post numbers like this. Part of the reason for that is also the behavior of the transmission, as noted in the test - that behavior would also hurt acceleration from a roll.

Good cars for the money, but they have a way to go to match the established brands.