Kia Optima review

This is a big car with a suspiciously small-sounding engine: just the single 1.7-litre CRDi motor. This can't quite disguise the big Kia's sheer size on the road, proving polite enough but wholly reliant on its short burst of turbo power to make progress. You thus have to work the six-speed manual hard, although a sleek enough automatic is available if you can't be bothered. The ride will come as a surprise if you drawn conclusions from the big angry-faced front end: it's set up soft, with its pillowiness only occasionally undermined by the 18-inch wheels offered on certain models. The cracks and bangs they transmit mean we'd rather go for the 2 Luxe model rather than the 2 Tech they're standard on. Unfashionable they may be, but the standard 16-inch wheels give maximum squashability which is somehow in keeping with the mood of the Optima.