JSwain: Long-Haul Luxury: 2016 Kia K900 Road Trip

Friday, March 18, 2016

Long-Haul Luxury: 2016 Kia K900 Road Trip

CARS.COM — One day, we may live in a world where "Kia" and "luxury" used together in the same sentence don't arouse incredulity. That day hasn't arrived. But if everyone could take the Kia K900 on a road trip to experience firsthand why their snobbery is at best hasty and at worst uppity, it would literally and figuratively go a long way toward not having to ask, "Are we there yet?"

Earlier this month, I took Kia's full-size luxury sedan on a 1,000-mile round trip from Chicago to the jazz-and-barbecue mecca of the Midwest, Kansas City, Mo. And on that long ride to the Show Me State, the K900 showed me that it can road trip with the Lexes, Bimmers and Benzes it aspires to share the highway with.

2016 Kia K900

Cars.com photo by Matt Schmitz

Seat Comfort

Cabin comfort is one of the most important factors on a long trip, and the K900 has it where it counts. Its lightly bolstered leather seats struck that delicate balance between cushy and supportive you hope for in a mattress. The multi-adjustable seats can move in just about any evolving combination of positions you need over the course of a long drive to support your back, neck and thighs, keeping your rear end from feeling like it's been permanently flattened. Moreover, the heated-and-cooled seats worked like a charm on a trip that called for both, going from the Windy City's 30-something temps to Kansas City's mid-70s.

The Drive

Another big contributor to car-travel fatigue is the cumulative sensory assault of too much road feel and the dull roar of the wind rush. The K900's cabin does a commendable job of keeping outside noise outside, and enveloping you in your own 70-mph cocoon so you can argue with your travel companion over music selections in peace.

In his review, Cars.com's Detroit Bureau Chief Aaron Bragman complained of "creaks and squeaks" filtering in through the suspension over rougher pavement. I didn't notice much of this, though I did share some of Bragman's dissatisfaction with the steering, which felt floaty and required constant correction — kind of a bummer on a long ride when you just wanna flick on the adaptive cruise control and take 'er easy.

Power from the standard 311-horsepower, 3.8-liter V-6 mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission was serviceable from a stop and ample at merging and passing speeds. And when you're cruising down the highway, the ride is deceptively tame enough and acceleration robust enough that you occasionally have to rein in your speed upon realizing your foot's grown heavy.

The K900's V-6 is EPA-rated at 17/26/20 mpg city/highway/combined. We did a little better than that; the trip computer logged 27.4 mpg on our way to K.C. and 27.3 mpg on our way back to Chicago.

Cargo & Storage

The K900's 15.9 cubic feet of trunk space was plenty for a midsize suitcase, weekend bag, backpack and shopping bag. The console had plenty of space for our snacks and soft drinks, but there was no flat, traylike space to keep a mobile phone secure and visible for navigation purposes. My passenger also complained that the door compartments were too narrow to hold her water bottle.

Tech & Equipment

Bragman's review also lauded the K900's highly competitive tech features. Those I found most useful during my trip included blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert, the head-up display (showing both your speed and, less-reliably, the current posted limit) and the easy-to-read 9.2-inch multimedia touch-screen.

Our Android phones paired easily with the K900's UVO system, mercifully enabling us to listen to something other than "Renegades" by X Ambassadors and "I Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd for the 900th time.

Chasing Cachet

Despite all its luxurious attributes, the K900 has a K2-size mountain to climb in terms of perception before the average car shopper will seriously consider it among established luxury nameplates. Sister brand Hyundai seems to have recognized this challenge and spun off the Genesis name into a stand-alone line of luxury sedans.

Indeed, pulling up in front of a specialty coffee shop on K.C.'s Country Club Plaza, you can almost feel the attention initially elicited by the K900's eye-catching exterior styling quickly turn to, "Ohhh? Oh ... ," as onlookers zero in on the Kia badge. Which is a shame, since the K900's as-tested price of $60,850 (including a $950 destination charge) comes in at $20,000 to $30,000 less than anything you can expect from its highfalutin competitors.

Can the K900 overcome its cachet conundrum? The road is long, but it seems to be headed in the right direction.

2016 Kia K900

2016 Kia K900