From £22.5k, a very sensibly priced estate car, with huge boot capacity and plenty of features usually found on pricier cars
Kia is a brand that has surprised people in recent years and it has sold a shed load of cars in the process. Their latest area of expansion is a foray into the snappily named D-segment of the market with a new estate car – the Optima Sportwagon. This is a first for the Korean manufacturer and for a load lugger it’s a very large stylish motor. To quote a colleague: ‘That’s a great looking car. What? It’s a Kia – no way!’
The range starts at just under £22.5k but the car I was testing was nearly £31k. It sounds like a lot of dough for a Kia estate car but it is loaded to the gunnels with toys and technology. Apart from the usual niceties such as leather upholstery and panoramic sunroof, it has stacks of features you would normally find on a much more expensive car.
The cabin area is voluminous and as you would want with an estate car it offers practicality with a capital ‘P’. It’s easy to load bulky items into the rear luggage area and with all the seats down you get nearly 1700 litres of load space. More than enough room for the proverbial kitchen sink.
The Sportwagon’s 1.7-litre turbo diesel engine has a shade under 140bhp which doesn’t offer rapid progress but is enough to propel it from A to B. The words ‘agile’ and ‘estate’ do not usually appear together but Kia have worked to make sure the Optima is more capable than most.
Like all Kia models the Optima Sportwagon will come with the company’s unique-in-the-UK seven-year or 100,000-mile warranty which should give you one less thing to worry about. I would recommend a drive in the Optima Sportwagon. I think you will be more than surprised.
Kia Optima Sportwagon 1.7 CRDI GT-LINE S
Price: £30,755
Engine: 1685cc 4-cylinder diesel
Power: 139bhp
Torque: 340lb ft
Transmission: seven-speed auto
Performance: 0-60mph in 10.7sec, 124mph
Combined mpg: 61.4
CO2: 120 g/km
Boot space (min/max litres): 552/1686
Website: kia.co.uk
Driving
Motorsport