Family Saloon on a budget
The Kia Magentis is a medium sized four door saloon, produced by Kia since 2000. The Magentis is also known as the Kia Optima, the new generation Magentis will use the name Optima globally. The second generation model was available from 2005 to 2010, the new model used Kia’s global platform. It is built in South Korea and shares its 2.4 litre engine and five speed automatic gearbox with the Hyundai Sonata.
Although motoring journalists called the 2005 model an improvement on the previous model they all said it was still bland, dated and very conservative. They did all acknowledge though that the Magentis had loads to offer for a family on a tight budget. The Magentis has plenty of space in the interior and a large enough boot for family luggage.
From such a bland looking car you wouldn’t expect much from the drive, and that’s the case. There is nothing wrong with the drive, it’s just not exciting. The engines are fine under normal driving conditions but when you work them hard they do start to squeal. When I drove one a few years ago I clearly remember the amount of road noise it let in and how the ride was very sensitive to the road surface conditions.
The interior features continue the trend of being bland, boring but very practical. Every button is where you would expect it to be, and there is a lot of buttons to keep anyone entertained. If you are looking for a used Kia Magentis then you’ll be happy to know it received four stars at the Euro NCAP tests and comes with 6 airbags as standard.
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