If you are looking for a decent estate car that has everything throw in for a decent price – then look no further than the Optima Sportswagon.
What Kia have done here is made the perfect estate car that has a minimum of 552 litres of cargo space – plus the added option of dropping the rear seats to increase this to 1,686 litres. This also gives Kia the perfect opportunity to break into that important D-segment where they hope the Optima Sportswagon will grab a slice of the business and fleet sales market.
Power and Efficiency:
The version I currently have on test is powered by a1.7 litre turbocharged diesel engine with 139bhp and 340 Ib/ft of torque which makes the Optima move along at a decent pace considering its size. Fuel economy figures are also good and you can expect to achieve around 60.0mpg (combined) plus a decent top speed of 124mph.
On the road:
The Optima feels pretty good on our roads – and there are no dramas to talk about here because its well balanced and settled even on some of our most demanding roads – meaning you will have less to worry about if you decide to start planting the Optima briskly into the corners.
I know I have said this before – but the Kia engineers really do put a lot of effort into making their cars handle well and you can feel that in the way the Optima tells you exactly what’s going on beneath you – while Kia’s onboard safety features do their job by keeping everything present and correct even in the event that you do go and get it all a bit wrong.
Safety and Technology
Trim levels inside the Optima don’t feel as good as they do inside the Sportage – but this is a load lugger and a car that is able to accommodate a large family and pretty much everything you can throw at it – so when you think about it, the interior is actually well thought out with modern hard wearing materials that will be very good at resisting wear for many years.
With technology now being one of the most important factors most people look for when buying a new car – the Optima needed to offer a lot toys for not much money. Well, I can happily report that the Optima does not fall short here – and comes with a whole array of features such as;
Front & rear parking sensors, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, 8″ Touchscreen Satellite Navigation, dual automatic air conditioning with an automatic windscreen de-fog system, 18” alloy wheels, LED front fogs, Led rear lights, Blind Spot Detection, ABD with EBD, Lane-Keep Assist and speed limit information, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and twin side (front) curtain airbags. This is just a small amount of the features you can expect to see on the Optima Sportswagon.
To sum up: Go out right now and see for yourself what the Optima Sportswagon has to offer.
Standard price (from) £24,495 as tested By Anthony Yates
