2014 Kia Soul + on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2021 Kia K5 First Drive | Comfy, cool, but not quite king

Despite the sedan market continuing to lose market share to crossovers and SUVs every year, it’s still a segment that sells millions of units a year. ItÂ’s also one of the most hotly contested segments with strong offerings from Honda, Toyota and Mazda among others, which means itÂ’s hard to stand out. But the 2021 Kia K5 aims to do exactly that. It discards the long-running Optima nameplate for the model's Korean-market alphanumeric designation, and adopts the most dramatic styling Kia has ever used on a midsize sedan. Kia has coupled that with a stylish, quality interior, and a driving experience that is exceedingly comfortable. It's not particularly engaging to drive, which prevents it from being the segment's best, but itÂ’s a strong competitor thatÂ’s worth your consideration. Like the K5Â’s Optima predecessor, the K5 is mechanically related to the Hyundai Sonata, and shares powertrains with it. But this time, itÂ’s a bit choosier. The only engine available at launch is a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder making 180 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The Sonata's naturally aspirated four-cylinder is nowhere to be found. Fuel economy comes in at 27 mpg city, 37 mpg highway and 31 mpg combined for most trim levels, with the base LX basically getting 1 mpg better. 2021 Kia K5 GT-Line View 11 Photos The K5 will also offer all-wheel drive with this engine, again differing from the Hyundai. Later this year, a much more powerful 290-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter engine shared with the Sonata N-Line will be offered on the K5 GT. This version will be front-wheel-drive-only and get an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic instead of a traditional torque-converter unit. Kia is promising a 0-60 time of 5.8 seconds, which would be blisteringly quick for a family sedan. In the EX and GT-Line models we tested out, we found the standard engine had plenty of torque throughout the rev band, so it will comfortably haul you around, but never really excite. ItÂ’s mostly quiet, but pushing it hard will elicit some buzziness. The transmission is quite smooth and chooses gears well enough, but gear changes in manual mode are sluggish. Again, weÂ’re hoping the GT will liven things up a bit. Not being exciting is not necessarily a bad thing, though. It wonÂ’t be long before you discover that the K5Â’s advantage is its superb comfort.

Hyundai, Kia, Genesis will get chip maker NVIDIA's infotainment in deal

Chip maker NVIDIA Corp on Monday announced that Hyundai Motor Group will use the NVIDIA DRIVE in-vehicle information and entertainment system for all its Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models from 2022. NVIDIA said the luxury vehicle division of Hyundai, Genesis, already uses NVIDIA DRIVE for its GV80 and G80 models. (You can read a bit about the Genesis infotainment systems in Autoblog's recent driving reviews of the G80 sedan and the GV80 SUV, and our buying guide for the latter.)  NVIDIA declined to say how many vehicles NVIDIA DRIVE would be installed in, but said it is a large number and pointed to the fact that in 2019 Hyundai Motor Group shipped over 7 million vehicles. Hyundai Motor Co is the flagship company of Hyundai Motor Group, and Kia Motors Corp is its sister company. NVIDIA DRIVE includes hardware and software components and uses artificial intelligence to improve the user's experience. The software can be "perpetually" updated, giving vehicles the latest AI cockpit features, said NVIDIA. NVIDIA said it has also been working with Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Honda on in-car entertainment and information systems. Related Video:    

Best cheap SUVs: You don't have to pay a lot to get a lot

Here's a news flash: Everything is a lot more expensive now! And that definitely goes for new SUVs, with prices that keep nudging higher and higher. Actually "nudging" might be too soft of a description for their motion. "Skyrocketing" is probably more accurate.  While higher prices and hefty interest rates have likely knocked a lot of people out of the new car market entirely, there are still quite a few cheap SUV choices. Better still, they're not terrible! Far from it, in fact. While the lowest price SUVs used to be drab, sorry affairs best left to the lots of Avis and Budget, that is definitely not the case today. Not only are there legitimately appealing cheap SUV choices, they offer genuine differences in character, capability and design. It's not just a series of anonymous boxes with different badges. Below you won't just find a simple list of the cheapest SUVs available. We are actually pointing out the best ones. They are listed from least expensive to most expensive, with none exceeding a starting price of $30,000. Most are subcompacts, but a few of our top choices in the compact SUV segment snuck on. Finally, please excuse the crummy photo quality. We sought out representative trim levels of the prices in question rather than just reusing pretty carmaker-provided photos of the most expensive trim levels. This is what the cars will actually look like. Kia Soul Why it stands out: Ample space and abundant features for the money; unique style; strong turbo engine upgrade Could be better: All-wheel drive is not available Starting Price: $21,315 Read our most recent Kia Soul Review The Kia Soul definitely didn't start off as a small SUV, and the term "crossover" is probably better applied to it. Still, what started life as an undefinable funky tall hatchback now finds itself in its third generation with numerous vehicles of similar shape and size that are dubbed "small SUV" or "small crossover." If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... Call it what you will, but the Soul delivers the goods with tons of equipment and space for its price and size, an agreeable driving demeanor, and an even more powerful engine upgrade than the Kona's. We also think it's pretty cool. All of the above helped it win our subcompact SUV comparison test. Now, if there's one area where the Soul does not satisfy a typical SUV requirement, it's the lack of available all-wheel drive.