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Ever since its interior took TTAC’s Best and Brightest by surprise, we’ve been keeping an eye on Kia’s K7 flagship sedan. Now Autospies has caught one cruising stateside, revealing a design that’s less edgy than some of the other Scheryer-era Kias, but that fits right into the American automotive landscape. And not the way its predecessor the Amanti did…
38 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Picture: The Full Amanti Edition...”
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Nice copy of the LS!
LS? Really?
Otoh, the Legacy is pretty much all BMW from the side/greenhouse and rear.
So the question becomes, Passat or Amanti? Kia did themselves a huge favor by hiring experienced designers.
Am I the only one that sees black soot on the bumper from the exhaust? Kinda weird for a new car…
That looks fantastic. Why can’t Lincoln look 1/8 this good?
BECAUSE LINCOLN ISN’T FILLED WITH HACKS WHO RIP OFF DESIGNS FROM THE GERMANS.
I never liked the MKS, MKX, MKT or MKZ but one thing I can say in their defense is they aren’t INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THIEVES.
When a Kia looks like an Audi, something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the world. I’ll never, ever, EVER buy their products.
Didn’t ford design the Five Hundred to be an American Passat?
Almost looks like they stole away the designer from Audi.
Oh, wait… :)
If it drives as nice as it looks, look out Buick!
Not sure if it’s that I didn’t expect a Kia to look this good or if it’s just objectively a nicely designed car, but whatever it is, nice job.
Wow, an Audi A6, a Pontiac G8 and a Lexus LS had a nasty drug fueled three way and this is the beautiful offspring from that romp.
I like all but the rear end, not crazy about the tail lights. Looks fabulous from the side. Oh sure, other cars look better but this is a freakin’ Kia.
For their next design project, Kia needs to come up with a new badge. Seeing KIA spelled out in brightwork still causes my nose to wrinkle a bit, strictly out of reflex. The vehicles they’re turning out these days can easily anchor a new icon.
One thing that always got me about the KIA logo was that they spell it K I and use a lambda Λ (L sound) for the last character. When I first saw it, it spelled KIL to me.. anyway, time for a logo change, definitely..
OK, I get it now. Hyundai is trying to be the Korean Toyota/Lexus. Kia is trying to be the Korean VW/Audi. From pictures only, they’re well on their way. I hope the long-term quality and durability of the Kias prove to be closer to that of what Hyundai aspires to be.
It does not look particularly extravagant or elegant, but pretty good, this I feel is what a reasonably priced (23k) car needs to look like to make sense, even though I know it may cost a bit more. I hope it rides/drives like it looks.
Kinda looks like the new Saab to me. KIA soon will be kicking more a$$ and taking more names.
Holy cow. If this thing drives like it looks and is as durable as my Sonata I WILL be checking this out.
Great looking car. Is it off of the Genesis platform?
So is Kia just prying out Audi taillights with a crowbar?
No – that would be Honda/Acura w/ the MDX, RDX and Civic.
So, this is the replacement for the Amanti, tentatively called “Cadenza” and based on the same front-wheel drive platform as Hyundai Azera. It must be cheaper than the Azera and probably a competitor to larger front-wheel drive cars such as the Chevy Impala, Ford Taurus, Toyota Avalon and the Buick Lucerne V-6, as well as the V-6-powered Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300.
It should also compete well with smaller mid-sized cars in the Camcord class at a similar price. Looks good.
Buick Lucerne is dead.
This is VERY nice.
Japan (looking at you, Toyota-san) has to be truly worried now that Hyundai’s blood relative is making cars that appear to be truly nice (and I bet the interior quality is leagues above ANY Toyota or Nisaan).
Fluffy big FWD sedan with some style in it? Cram the same, or even more, available gadgets than will be in the new Optima (e.g. cooled seats), and interest piqued…
It looks like RWD proportioning to me.
That is a great looking car. Looks high-end. Good job Kia, again!
I like the Forte-like tail, but it needs the excellent Forte/Sorento nose.
Is that a grill from a Chrysler Pacifica?
The K7/Cadenza won’t be the Kia flagship for long w/ the RWD K9 in the works.
The side looks like a shortened Dodge Intrepid. Not bad at all. The front clip is short unlike the Intrepid and better proportioned.
It looks a melange of Lexus GS, Jaguar XF (which itself owes a debt to the GS), and new Saab 9-5.
It is also, by some considerable distance, the best looking car Kia has ever put its name to. At least they have finally started stealing from the right sources (handsome mid-large-ish saloons), instead of other Korean shitboxes and what was easily the naffest Jag of all time (take a bow, Aman—err, S-Type). Credit where it’s due: At least they’re heading in the right direction. Well done, Kia.
Nice looking. The only competitor that I see that should be worried is the Infiniti M and perhaps the Acura TL. And any other “not really a luxury brand” car.
I see Buick Regal in the front, last-gen BMW 5-series from the side, and Audi A4 in the back. Hyundai’s Sonata might be ugly, but at least they’re trying out their own design language. Kia should go ahead and change its name to “Crib”
Hyundai still has plenty of derivative designs. The Genesis is very Mercedes-esque, and the Sonata has a lot of Mercedes and VW overtones. Then again, almost all car designs are derivative to a degree, and the Koreans are far from the only ones to copy the look that sells.
In comparison to the Amanti (which I happen to think is handsome in a peculiarly proportioned way) which is a blatant homage inside and out to the Jaguar S-type, this at least doesn’t look exactly like anything else, and implements some of Kia’s growing and developing design language.
Considering that the K7/Cadenza has been in production in SKorea for a year, the vague resemblance it has to the Regal is purely coincidental.
As for the side, it really looks nothing like the last-gen 5 Series – diff. greenhouse and doesn’t have the Hofmeister kink (the Pontiac G8, otoh).
As for the rear, yes, it has Audi-like taillights but forgive Herr Schreyer for liking a design/shape that arose from his days as head of Audi design (Honda/Acura, otoh, doesn’t have that excuse).
As for the Genesis, it’s not very Mercedes at all.
Other than having a horizontally slotted grill w/ a center divider (which is differentiated by the waterfall/klingon effect) – the Genesis is much more like BMW w/ the its take of BMW’s greenhouse and the Hofmeister kink (put a center divider down the horizontal slatted grill of the LS430 and it becomes an even bigger S Class clone than it already was; and pretty much every automaker has copied BMW’s greehouse w/ the Hofmeister kink at one time or another – Honda, Infiniti/Nissan, VW, Subaru, Volvo, GM, etc.)
As for the Sonata, it has really little CLS or CC overtones (otoh, the CC has been derided by auto designers as “carbon copy” – being a virtual clone of the CLS w/ regard to its greenhouse and C-pillar).
The Sonata’s greenhouse and C-pillar design is much more like a more rakish A6 design (while not an exact copy like what Ford did w/ the ill-fated 500); w/ Jaguar taking it even to a greater extreme.
I can’t really tell what plates the other cars have, but I swear these photos were taken on the freeway in Irvine, CA. I’m sure I recognize the building in the 3rd pic. Anyway, it would make sense since that’s where Kia Motors America is headquartered. But I don’t get why the car itself has MI plates.
EDIT: Yep. This photo at AutoSpies catches an exit sign for Aliso Viejo, so it’s likely the 5 through Lake Forest at that point:
http://www.autospies.com/news/photo.aspx?photoId=45641&galleryId=2464
I guess it looks OK for a Kia, but I can’t honestly say I’d give this even a first glance on the highway. It’s another entry in two long decades of mostly anonymous blobs.
I am intrigued. A nice looking mid-sized car. Two pluses, knowing KIA it will be affordable as well as available with a stick.