2011 Kia Optima Hybrid
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The magazine Consumer Reports is deeply trusted by many car buyers for its analysis of auto reliability, so when it pans a car, automakers sit up and listen carefully to its criticisms. We suspect Hyundai Motors America is sitting bolt upright about now, because in its November issue, the publication slams the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. 69 points, lower than big brother While the Sonata Hybrid it tested returned 33 mpg, it criticizes the car for lumpy hybrid behavior and other dynamic failings, including its throttle response, braking, and handling. Most telling, it rates the car a full 20...
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2011 Kia Optima Hybrid: First Drive ReviewIf any brand has emerged from the bottom of the market into awareness lately, it's Kia. The Korean brand is halfway through introducing an entirely refreshed line of smart, stylish, and inexpensive vehicles that are getting noticed--and selling well. The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid we recently...
John Voelcker -
2011 Kia Optima Hybrid On Economy Drive, 69 MPG So Far...
We've learned to take official EPA gas-mileage ratings with a pinch of salt in the past. They're useful for comparing model to model, but not always representative of the figures real people out in the real world will achieve. That's not to say that the EPA's fuel efficiency numbers can't be...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Kia Optima Hybrid To Cost $26,500, Less Than Camry, Fusion Hybrids
Kia has announced that its 2011 Optima Hybrid midsize sedan will carry a starting price of $26,500 when it arrives at dealers in June. (That price does not include a mandatory $750 destination fee.) The car is the first-ever hybrid electric vehicle from the Korean carmaker, which is owned by...
John Voelcker -
Success or Failure: 2011 Kia Optima Goes Turbo
There is no doubt that the folks driving Kia today have a sense of humor. There is also no doubt that they have an agenda to get noticed by consumers and go head to head with their Japanese competition—not to mention competition from the American contingent like Ford. That said, performance...
Jonathan McGrew -
Making Silent Electric Cars Noisier: 3 Carmakers, 3 Sounds
It looks like carmakers are going to make their quiet, electrically powered cars a lot noisier. And that's going to happen regardless of whether there's any actual data to support the notion that electric cars are so silent they pose a hazard to blind pedestrians. As of now, three different...
John Voelcker -
Kia has been on a roll lately. The younger, lower-priced sibling of Korean car colossus Hyundai has received rave reviews for the styling, features, and general competence of its its new 2011 Optima midsize sedan. Now Kia has iced the cake by adding a hybrid-electric model of the Optima to the lineup, along with a turbocharged and direct-injected version as well. The company launched the 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid yesterday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Despite the radically different styling, though, the Optima Hybrid shares essentially its entire powertrain with the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid...
