Naza Kia Malaysia, the official distributor of Kia Motors vehicles in Malaysia launched today, the new Kia Optima K5. Running with the tagline, “A game changer”, Naza Kia Malaysia targets that this car will change the game that is played in the D-segment market in Malaysia.
Targeting a market group of between aged 26-40 year old customers, the Optima K5 is positioned to provide a mixture of both comfort and styling in an affordable target price of RM149,888 (OTR). The car comes with 4 colour options, Aurora Black, Smokey Blue, Satin Metal and Snow White Pearl.
Encik Roshdy Hassan, General Manager of Operations of Naza Kia Malaysia says, “The New Kia Optima K5 has been one of the most anticipated model launches in Malaysia and will play a pivotal part in growing Naza Kia Malaysia’s sales volume this year.
The changes in the car include the front and rear bumpers, headlight design offset and the striking front LED positioning and fog lamps. The interior is filled with dazzling high tech gadgetry that you would normally find on the Starship Enterprise. What caught my eye was the 4.3” TFT LCD screen instrument cluster which I felt that it was a tad bit too small for my own liking. I doubt you can change any sort of game with that small of a screen.
The Kia Optima also comes with both front seats which are air ventilated where a ventilation fan blows air through the seat surface for a cooler and more comfy ride. Besides that, I love the flat bottom steering wheel equipped on the car, it looks and feels awesome. The steering wheel does look mighty familiar, especially if you considered who the designer is at Kia.
Other premium features include electric seats with memory settings, 4 way power passenger seats, a panoramic sun-roof, 8-speaker Infinity sound system, Bluetooth hands free functionality, a rear view camera and iPod connectivity. Any more buttons on the center console and the Optima would be waging a war against other manufacturers who focuses on putting as many buttons at the center console.
As expected, the Optima K5 is still just a facelift. This means that the 25 changes are only cosmetic and there aren’t any changes to the drivetrain or engine. The car though is still fully imported from Korea (CBU) and the difference in terms of pricing is RM6,000 more compared to the previous version.
Naza Kia Malaysia aims to sell around 150-180 units a month and targets a future network of dealerships to hit 60 by 2017. The first batch of Optima K5 were completely sold out and by next week, we should see the new car on the road. With a price such as RM149,888 and a 5 year warranty, its no wonder why the units were picked up so quickly.
