Kia tunes up for Downunder

The Downunder Optima has had revisions to its suspension and steering to suit Australian and New Zealand roads. Photo / Alastair Sloane

South Korean carmaker Kia's engineering team is doing for New Zealand and Australia what former Formula One star Chris Amon did for Toyota NZ about 30 years ago.

Amon criticised the ride and handling of the Corona sedan and Toyota hired him to improve it, using the Peugeot 405 as a benchmark. The relationship lasts to this day.

Former Toyota Australia engineer Graeme Gambold has been helping Kia tune suspension and steering to suit Downunder conditions. Gambold is a consultant to the Snow Farm proving ground near Wanaka. New Zealand technician Nick Reid is also on the Kia team.

The first model to get the Downunder treatment was the Sportage crossover, launched to much critical acclaim here in August last year.

The Optima gets similar revisions, with changes to suspension spring rates, its ZF Sachs high-performance dampers and stabiliser bars.

The Downunder Optima also gets a hydraulic-powered rack-and-pinion steering system over the electric set-up offered in other markets.

The suspension changes were largely made to make the car sit flatter through corners on irregular road surfaces, the kind found on both sides of the ditch. The steering, says Kia, was re-tuned to provide a more meaty feel.

Tuning was not fully finished on pre-production Optimas I drove over 200km of good and bad roads in and around South Korean capital Seoul last October, although Kia said one of the cars was close to NZ-spec.

The cars were let down by tyres, run-of-the-mill rubber on 17-inch alloys that masked much of Gambold's work on the steering rack and suspension: MacPherson strut/coils up front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear.

But the NZ-spec model appeared more composed all-round, its ride more forgiving on rutted sections of road and its steering not as vague. If anything, the steering was quick and direct.

The Optima shares its underpinnings with the Hyundai i45, criticised at launch last year for its ride and handling. That prompted Kia to get Gambold on board.

Hyundai responded by hiring former Australian rally driver Rick Bates to re-work the i45.

Kia believes the Optima's European styling and Downunder suspension tune will give it an edge against its big brother, the Hyundai i45.

The Optima's styling was created by former Audi and Volkswagen head designer Peter Schreyer, and the interior of the car has obvious influences from the two German brands.

Schreyer joined Kia as design chief a few years ago, setting out to give the brand a distinct global face. He called it the "power to surprise", an identity removed from stablemate Hyundai.

Schreyer has had a hand in the final look of a couple of models but the Optima's styling is all his own work.

"It's a car that people will simply not expect from Kia - and that's exactly what we set out to achieve," he said.

The Optima features a new interpretation of Kia's "tiger" family face - "powerful, yet kind of friendly" - that's edged by piercing projector headlamps.

There's a raked roofline, high shoulder line leading to sculpted flanks and an extended wheelbase, complemented by flared wheelarches and a shallow glasshouse.

Schreyer, who believes in the simplicity of a straight line, says the design gives the car a muscular, self-assured stance.

The Kia identity is a development process, he says. "It depends on the size of the car, the character, not always on the family face.

"Like BMW, the look is not always the same. But we want buyers to recognise Kia immediately."

Optima is longer, lower and wider than the Magentis before it. Its coupe-like profile is enhanced by the sweeping chrome arc that flows from A to C pillar, a distinctive design motif that visually lowers the car further still and enhances its cab-backwards proportions.

In profile, it features a sharply creased C-pillar, mimicking the famous Hofmeister kink seen on all BMWs, and further hinting at Kia's premium brand aspirations. Lights with horizontal LED bars feature at the rear. Kia itself looks back on the Magentis as a "good car but with no characteristics - too plain, white milk and icecream".

The Optima EX was launched in the lower North Island 48 hours ago. It is powered by a direct-injection 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine delivering 148kW of power at 6300rpm and 250Nm of torque at 4250rpm.

The gearbox is a six-speed sequential automatic with paddle-shifters on the steering wheel.

The 2.4-litre unit is more than adequate to pull the 1550kg Optima along, with Kia claiming town-and-around fuel economy of about 8 litres/100km, or 35mpg.

The well-equipped Optima EX starts at $46,990. The LTD version, of which 25 were landed a couple of months ago, sits at $51,990.