Kia's Flagship 2014 Cadenza Hits The Road - But Does It Look The Part Of A True Luxury Brand?

At least at that price it will get sold. Anything above that and KIA would have a lot full of these things.

What?

It's sold as a KIA, not a completely new/separate brand and is 'effectively' a replacement for the (gawd awful) Kia Amanti.

Taking that into consideration... It's a Very Nice Addition to the Kia Lineup.

Why should it look any part of a true luxury brand? It's a freaking Kia? Are you seriously on Hyundai/Kia's payroll or something? The Cadenza appears to compete well with the Avalon, Impala, Taurus, assorted Buicks, and its sister Azera. But its not a luxury car, and it's certainly not part of any luxury brand. Put down the pipe. Or the kickbacks.

Now poor people can try and rebadge this into a BMW.

Why pay close to $50K for a base 5 series when you can pay 41K for a loaded KIA? Probably with a free tv and smartphone in the trunk) Americans lost their dignity long ago so there will be a few people trading in their Honda Accords to pretend to step up to luxury.

The true test would be how many of my Korean friends would drive this. Answer is 0.

Poor people? The base price costs around 75% of the average American's income. I don't think poor people are going to be driving this.

The Korean government will cover the cost of taking $10K off the sticker just to get people interested, then throw in 0%/29year financing, gas cards and cashback and you've got yourself a poor person's wet dream.

Hell, KIA might offer an option package that replaces the KIA badge with blue and white rondelles, oval instead of circular.

Um....first of all, they might want to redesign their brand badging on the car....that all in itself ruins and overtakes a lot of the design element of a "luxury" car lol

It looks like a ... giant Kia.

Having driven one of these and the Avalon recently. I wouldn't put the Avalon in the same class. This KIA is quieter, more comfortable as well as more ballsy than the Avalon. I'd take it over the Avalon any day of the week. You plainly get more for your money with the Cadenza. I dare anyone to test drive both. You'd feel the same I'm certain.

"Look the part of a true luxury brand"? It barely looks the part of a flagship for a mainstream brand.

Nothing about it says premium, with maybe the exception of the Saab-like headrests and white leather seating surfaces. The exterior design, overall, reminds me of an Oldsmobile. I never, ever, thought I'd say this, but I'd take a Buick Lacrosse over this without blinking. I love the Optima both inside and out, actually, and it just seems like there is zero familial relation here. And those godawful colors for this intro, can you say dull, duller, and dullest?

That's because the Optima is an Audi clone, the Cadenza is a BMW clone. Hence no family resemblance. Come to think of it, none of KIA's cars look related. Forte = Civic, Sorrento = Lexus RX, Soul = pile of steaming dog doodoo.

Some of you need a Asian luxury brand history lesson. Lexus began somewhere as did Infiniti & Acura. Their parent brands chose to go upscale with new name branding and separate stores with added brand cachet for the upper crust target audience.

Kia is trying to take their entire brand more upscale without the added cost of new stores and added overhead. The reality is that this is a VERY good car. I've actually driven one. It's quiet, responsive and very appealing in person. Some certainly will let the fact that it says Kia send them in a different direction. If you are open minded and want luxury while being value conscious this car is worthy of your consideration.

I would much prefer this Kia flagship to a Buick or yes even a boring Toyota. There are Ford Fusion's and Buick Regal's and Lacrosse's that are more expensive than this Kia with shorter warranty backing and comparable options. Do I really hate those 3 little letters KIA enough to go buy a lesser vehicle with a shorter warranty and probably lower quality? Let's also not forget that Kia ranked #9 ahead of luxury icons like Cadillac & Mercedes in the last Consumer Reports quality rankings. Samsung was once fighting to be recognized along side the Sony's of the world. They did it and I think Kia can as well if people actually take time to look at the product and leave their biases behind.

Except Kia stands for Killed in action, aka piece of sh*t. Their initial quality and long-term reliability have been consistently below the industry average year after year after year as per various JD Power surveys. When the Japanese big three started their respective luxury brands, their initial quality and subsequent long-term reliability were home runs.

Kopied in Asia.
Kloned in Asia?

Take the entire brand upscale? Yeah, I can see Bentley customers cross shopping with a Rio.

This Kia is has so many copied elements from other cars, it lacks an identity of its own. There is no theme, it is a hodgepodge, a motley assortment of styling elements from all the majors. The name "Cadenza" also lacks all verve or beauty. It sounds like a piece of furniture that goes in your den.

I know you can't always tell how a vehicle looks from a picture, but it looks like a bigger Optima. As much as I thought the Amati looked like pretend luxury, at least it was distinctive (distinctively hideous, but distinctive nonetheless).

This Cadenza...looks kinds 'meh.'

By the way, didn't Kia have an actually logo as some point? It looked a little like a bird in flight.

Kia going upscale? Oh yeah, they still need to catch up with the Japan's bottom feeders (Suzuki and Mitsubishi). Kias may be really good cars, but the badges still say "Kia".