My 9-3 has been in the shop for several weeks recovering from a fender bender and Enterprise put me in an 2006 Kia Optima. It is the 4-cyl LX (lower trim range) with cloth seats and no options I can detect other than an automatic. On Edmund's, it goes for a bit under $18k. For a transportation appliance, it is a pretty decent package. Not fun or sporty, basically an Accord clone for less money. The engine has good low speed punch but runs out of breath above about 40mph.

My standard acceleration test is a freeway on-ramp* that starts out uphill then crests to a longer downhill section, about a quarter-mile in all to the merge sign that is my "off the gas" point. My automatic '02 9-3 with a BSR software upgrade will hit 110 and the Optima manages about 85.

Gas mileage with the 2.4L 4-cyl, the automatic, and my heavy foot, has been pretty bad -- 17.5 for 700 miles of all urban/suburban commuting. I expected better from a 162hp 4-cyl 3,100# econobox. (I get in the low 18s in my Saab in similar driving, but it has 50% more power pulling the same weight and I use it all.)

Not as good with cargo as the Saab hatch, but I did get 12 bags of bark chips in by folding down the rear seatbacks and stacking 6 in the trunk and 6 on the seatsbacks.

Anyway, it was interesting to drive it as a baseline for decent low-cost transportation at about half the sticker of a new Saab. (Or just about exactly what I paid for my CPO 9-3 when it was three years old - now *there's* a value proposition for you!) I will admit that it has better cup holders and a nice little sunglasses caddy above the windshield like my wife's G35.

Opinion only, YMMV.

/Geoff
'05 G35 8k
'02 9-3SE 57k


* For L.A. readers, it is the entrance to the southbound "2" from Foothill, near the YMCA, in La Cañada.

• A month in a Kia Optima, Geoff, Wed, 23 May 2007 07:29:55 <-- Viewing This Message
  • Re: A month in a Kia Optima, B. Millar, Thu, 31 May 2007 19:35:41
  • I just did 2 days in a Hyundai Sonata, Noel, Thu, 24 May 2007 06:16:54
  • Agreed nice styling, SeeVTSaab, Thu, 24 May 2007 06:09:13
  • Generic cars...., Mike Lynch , Wed, 23 May 2007 12:29:49
  • I assumed it was a 4-cyl, but...., Geoff, Wed, 23 May 2007 09:26:59
    • It was definitely the 4-cyl. n/m, Geoff, Wed, 23 May 2007 11:25:20
  • V6 Optima, formerly_buddy, Wed, 23 May 2007 08:58:21
    • don't be so sure...., Noel, Fri, 25 May 2007 10:55:30

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