K900 Gives Kia a Luxury ‘Multi-Vitamin’

Kia K900 felt at home on California mountain roads.

By John Gilbert

To the uninformed, K900 might sound like the latest super-vitamin, capable of doing mighty things for your well-being and overall health. In a way, it is that for Kia, because the K900 is Kia’s all-out luxury sedan, powering Kia to rise to a new dimension in automotives.

Skeptics might say that Kia has become known for building strong and inexpensive economy cars, so what are they thinking building a large sedan to compete in the all-out luxury car segment? “We didn’t build the K900 just to serve the market,” said Orth Hedrick, Kia’s vice president of product planning. “This car is designed to change the perception of Kia.

“We had four points we focused on — design, luxury, performance, and technology. In design, we think we hve a modern, timeless look that has a presence.

“For luxury, we have an elegant version of the signature grille and 16-element LED headlights on the outside, and a new definition of what a luxury interior has to be, with modern, sophisticated materials and every touch point making you think luxury and sophistication. It took us three or four years to find a source for the Nappa leather hides from South America that were exactly what we wanted, and the natural wood accents complement it.

Four 4-beam clusters make 16 LED headlights for the K900.

“Performance comes from the platform with a stance that can only be gotten by rear-wheel drive,” Hedrick added. “We’ve got 52 percent of the weight on the front and 48 percent on the rear, with a solid structure.”

Of course, the 5.0 V8 is a key element of the performance, with 429 horsepower and 376 foot-pounds of torque, running through an 8-speed automatic that Kia has tweaked for quicker shifting, up and down.

Technology is evident throughout the exterior styling and mechanical features, but blends with luxury that surrounds occupants on the inside. Seats are encompassing in their support and comfort. The multimedia driver assist has a 9.2-inch screen in the center stack, with adjustable redundant readouts on a heads-up display. The optional Harmon Kardon Lexicon audio system has a 12-channel digital amplifier and 17 speakers. Adaptive lane-finding is a feature on the headlights, which have a unique arrangement with two 4-LED clusters on each side, making 16 separate beams. Read more

• About the Author

  John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
  
  For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
  
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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.