2015 Kia K900 Review

This wasn’t the case, thankfully. The couple told me they were looking to replace their Lexus when the lease ran out later that week, and they stopped to look at the Kia because they had never seen or heard of the K900 before. Having just received the car about an hour before my grocery store run, I didn’t have much insight to offer them other than my initial impression of the interior and ride quality, but I did let them crawl around the car for a few minutes.

As the two were playing with all the buttons in the back seat, I showed them a copy of the Monroney sticker, which priced the car at $66,400. They didn’t even bat an eye at that price as the wife reclined the rear seat and the husband rubbed the suede-like headliner. And so began my week with Kia’s new luxury flagship sedan.

Before we start talking about what the 2015 Kia K900 is, let us take a moment to discuss what it isn’t. The K900 is emphatically not a luxury rehash of the Volkswagen Phaeton. Where the Phaeton had the conservative styling of a Passat, the platform and powertrain of a Bentley and the price of an Audi A8, the Kia K900 has an upscale styling to go along with a cavernous interior and pricing that all allows the new K900 to fight the luxury battle on two fronts.

On one hand, the 2015 Kia K900 is a lower-priced alternative to traditional (read: rear-drive) full-size luxury sedans primarily including cars like the Lexus LS, BMW 7 Series and Jaguar XJ, and it kicks it up a notch in terms of interior space and driver engagement than big front-drive sedans like the Cadillac XTS, Acura RLX and even Kia’s own Cadenza.

Our tester was the K900 Luxury (starting at $59,500) optioned up with the fully loaded $6.000 VIP Package for an as-tested price of $66,400 including destination. Just think how many Kia Sephias you could have purchased for this amount back in 1994! Although this is an ambitious step up for such a mainstream automaker, there is no shortage of luxury competition in the $60,000 price range these days whether you’re looking at sedans, sports cars, SUVs and even heavy-duty trucks.

Above all else, when dropping that kind of coin on any vehicle, customers demand the best, and the 2015 Kia K900 delivers especially in Luxury trim. This was backed up by my new Lexus-driving friends who couldn’t get enough of the interior. As my ice cream and frozen peas were melting, they now have the front passenger seat adjusted all the way forward and are kicking back in style testing out the power reclining rear seats, which are not only heated and cooled but also offer lumbar support.

Technically, the rear bench seats three abreast, but the K900 is best enjoyed with the rear center console down providing a split seating arrangement, and for added privacy, the K900 comes with a full detail of rear sunshades including a power-retracting sunshade for the rear window and manual shades for the rear door windows.

Eventually, the couple got back in their car, but before leaving, the wife commented one more time about how nice the interior of the K900 is – a sentiment that is hard to argue with. Being inside a K900 with the VIP Package, most passengers would probably never guess they were in a Kia. Looking around the cabin, almost every square inch is covered in some sort of soft material from the thick, plush carpet (seriously, this is kick-your-shoes-off carpet) to the Nappa leather seats to the aforementioned “premium” headliner wrapped in some sort of suede-like material. This K900’s high-lux interior also features soft-close doors, red ambient backlighting and a large panoramic sunroof.

Kia definitely did its homework to make sure all of the K900’s content was up to snuff – not only for a Kia wearing a $60,000 price tag but also fitting in with some of the higher-priced competition it was hoping to steal customers away from. For optimal comfort, this includes standard fare such as heated and cooled front seats, three-zone automatic HVAC and a 12-way adjustable driver’s seat with memory.

Stepping up to the K900 Luxury brings standard blind spot detection, lane departure warning, a heated steering wheel and genuine wood trim accents. Sweetening the deal even more is a 900-watt, 17-speaker Lexicon surround sound audio system, and if you recognize that name, it’s because Lexicon also makes audio systems for Hyundai (in the Genesis and Equus) and, oh yeah, Rolls-Royce.

The best part about the K900 is how roomy the interior is no matter where you are seated. Riding on a wheelbase that is almost as long as the stretched Lexus LS 460L, the 2015 Kia K900 offers rear passengers considerably more legroom and headroom than the Lexus. Not that many U.S. customers will get a K900 to be chauffeured around in, but the back seat is the place to be in this car. In fact, the only dimensions where the K900 loses to the Lexus are a fractional amount of headroom given up and about 2 cubic feet of trunk space.

But that’s not to say that the rear seats are the only place to appreciate the K900. The driver and front passenger also get to enjoy some of the spoils that Kia has created. On this tester, a massive 12.3-inch digital TFT gauge cluster allows some customization with different themes and even a little visual sportiness when the car is switched to Sport mode. And knowing that some buyers in this segment aren’t always the most modest people, Kia also made sure to add in a little optional flashiness including numerous leather colors like the Indigo Blue Quilted Nappa Leather.

As much of an effort that Kia tried to make the K900 feel like a $60,000 car, the devil is in the details. Perhaps the biggest problem with the K900 is its head-up display. At 6’1” tall, I hardly consider myself overly tall, but the lack of adjustability with the HUD screen meant that the top edge of the display was just barely getting cut off, and that includes the seat being adjusted as low as it could go.

Another gripe to be had with the K900’s cabin is that font type on the controls and buttons are the same as all other Kia products. This is about par to the Nissan, Honda and Toyota switchgear found in Infiniti, Acura and Lexus models, respectively, and it is nowhere near as egregious as the Volvo switches found in Aston Martin cars. Finally, the black leather on the heated and wood-trimmed steering wheel looks and feels like a Michael Jackson-style jacket.

Matching its lavish interior, Kia tuned the K900 to provide a soft, comfortable ride, and as we’ve come expect from big land yachts, the 2015 Kia K900 packs plenty of power under the hood. For now, the K900 can only come equipped with a 5.0-liter direct-injected V-8 that produces 420 hp (313 kW) and 376 lb-ft (510 Nm) of torque, but Kia will eventually introduce a direct-injected 3.8-liter V-6 rated at 311 hp (232 kW) and 293 lb-ft (397 Nm) of torque.

For those keeping track, that would make the K900 the first rear-drive, V-8 Kia since the short-lived Kia Borrego SUV was dropped from the lineup in most global markets. Regardless of engine, the K900 will send power to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission – using a BMW-like gear selector that took a little while to get used to – developed in-house by Hyundai-Kia.

Adding the V-6 engine to the lineup will help improve fuel economy and drop the starting price even more – two key selling points to help sway luxury buyers to the Kia brand. In its current state, the K900 V-8 is recommended only to run on premium gas and it returns EPA estimates of 15 mpg (15.6 l/100km) city, 23 mpg (10.2 l/100km) highway and 18 mpg (13 l/100km) in combined driving. Over a week of driving, it was a fight to get close to the city figure averaging 14.5 mpg (16.2 l/100km), but if you stay away from Sport mode, then it is easy to meet or slightly exceed the EPA numbers – I averaged 23.2 mpg (10.1 l/100km) in highway driving. This is where the V-6 model will come in handy as it will have ratings of 18 mpg (13 l/100km) city, 27 mpg (8.7 l/100km) highway and 21 mpg (11.2 l/100km) in combined driving... and it runs on regular unleaded.

That thick carpet and laminated side glass do wonders to cancel any road noises, leaving the cabin with a level of quiet you’d expect from equally sized sedans costing well over the Kia’s price tag. Even at full rev, you can barely hear the engine, which while a bad thing for us automotive enthusiasts, it is surely a welcomed trait for luxury buyers. If the whisper-quiet cabin doesn’t impress you, then the K900’s smooth and compliant ride definitely will.

If you’re fortunate enough to experience the K900 from the back seat, then life is pretty good, but Kia made sure that the driver still has a little fun. When it comes to current Hyundai and Kia cars, Kia tends to be the sportier of the two South Korean brands, and that continues to be the case here. Using established luxury sedans as a gauge with the plush Lexus LS on one side and the sportier BMW 7 Series on the other, the ride quality of the Kia K900 probably skews closer to comfort cruiser rather than sport sedan.

Put just about any stretch of road in front of this big sedan, and the 2015 Kia K900 will soak up all of the imperfections whether it be potholes, expansion joints or just rough surfaces. The amazing part is that Kia accomplished this without the fancy air suspension offered by the Equus, which helps further improve reliability in the long run.

Despite tipping the scales at 4,643 pounds (2,106 kg), the K900 still gets up and moves when you need her to. Kia doesn’t provide specific acceleration numbers, but our seat-of-the-pants experience revealed a sub six-second time. Drivers who want the K900 to feel as sporty as possible can tip the drive mode into Sport, which tightens up the throttle response, damper settings, transmission shifts and steering effort, but we’re sure the majority of K900 owners will stick with the Normal and Eco modes. These two modes are where the steering is at its best.

In Sport, it can be a little too jerky, but in the other modes the electro hydraulic steering matches the persona of the car the best even if it still feels too light. Steering effort is minimal, and getting this behemoth to make a U-turn is a simple task. Again, coming from the enthusiast mindset, the steering isn’t the best, but we’re guessing that anyone buying the K900 over a BMW or Audi isn’t looking for a responsive and nimble sedan.

After the interior design and the powertrain teams ensured that the 2015 Kia K900 felt like a top-end luxury sedan, Kia design chief Peter Schreyer put the finishing touches on the car to ensure it looked the part. The K900 has a tall roofline and large window openings for optimal passenger space, but the overall styling is more similar to the sporty German competition rather than the big sedans from Japan and the U.S.

The K900 Luxury comes with full LED lighting front and rear, but the highlights are the squatted stance that is made better with the chrome, 15-spoke 19-inch wheels that do an excellent job of filling in the wheel openings and what is perhaps the largest example yet of Kia’s signature tiger nose grille with unique mesh inserts creating a three-dimensional concept car look. There aren’t really any changes between the U.S.-spec K900 and the overseas models (the K9 and Quoris) that have been on sale for a couple years in other global markets, but it still looks great in person – especially finished in this tester’s pearlescent Snow White hue.

Even better, Hyundai had already done the risky legwork proving that consumers are willing to drop Lexus-like money on an otherwise entry-level brand. Unlike the ill-fated Borrego, which went after the high-volume full-size SUV market, the K900 targets the more niche luxury sedan segment, and like a true flagship, the K900 is just as much of a status symbol for the customer as it is for the automaker. As such, Kia is likely quite pleased with the 1,237 K900 sales (through November) they’ve snaked away from the luxury big dogs so far this year.

The 2015 Kia K900 isn’t without its faults, but Kia definitely did its homework to produce a large and luxurious sedan with all of the usual benefits that customers have come to expect from Kia including the long powertrain warranty, which is in addition to the K900’s three-year/37,500-mile complimentary maintenance that includes a free loaner car (a Cadenza or K900) when the car requires service. Perhaps the biggest hurdle that the K900 faces is the Kia badge as these luxury customers are pursuing the same showrooms as those shopping for a $13,900 Kia Rio.

As for the couple looking to replace their leased Lexus RX, they said they would be heading to their neighborhood Kia dealership to check out the K900. I have no way to know which luxury vehicle they ended up choosing, but even if they didn’t end up buying or leasing the K900, the fact that these customers are already considering Kia bodes well for the future of this brand.

For those just looking for a luxury badge, Mercedes, Audi and Lexus will all sell you luxury cars right at the $30,000 price range, and if you desire a sportier, more nimble sedan at this tested K900’s price, it is impossible to overlook the BMW 550i. But if you want a large, lavish and luxurious full-size sedan, then you are going to have a hard time beating the quality and value of the 2015 Kia K900.