Kia Cadenza (2013)

CAR GARAGE | Kia Cadenza (2013) | The 2013 Kia Cadenza holds no surprises in the chassis department. Suspension comprises coil springs, front struts, rear multilink arrangement and a That is claimed to be more compact than Amanti's hardware to the benefit of useable rear-seat room and trunk space. U.S. models will come with almost Certainly integrated ABS and an antiskid system with traction control, safety features Kia That has been rolling out as standard across its entire North American lineup. Like Amanti, the Cadenza should have standard front and rear side airbags and curtain side airbags. With its emphasis on contemporary style, plus Likely improvements in fuel economy, performance, and readability, the 2013 Kia Cadenza should be light-years better than the Amanti, the which we've described as being like "large American cars of the 1970s ..." Indeed, the Cadenza seems a calculated to do for Kia in the near-luxury sedan Genesis what the league has done for parent Hyundai in the premium-large-car class.

Inside, the 2013 Kia Cadenza BMW-ish sports a dashboard, with separate curved cowls over the gauge cluster and center stack. Kia touts an export-model "welcome system" that activates "puddle lamps" in the door mirrors and an interior "mood-lighting strip" that runs across the dash and onto the door panels to create a "warm ambiance." This sounds like the "light-pipe" Accents available on newer GM models like the Cadillac CTS sedan and premium-midsize sporty / performance Chevrolet Camaro. Unlike the Amanti with its "Korean-Buick" look, the 2013 Kia Cadenza has an almost European aesthetic - no surprise, as the styling was supervised by company design chief Peter Schreyer, recruited a few years ago from Volkswagen and Audi.

Body sides are marked by prominent wheel arches and a high-set crease line That flows up from the front doors and through the door handles before fading away in the rear flanks. There's also a premium-class touch LED running lamps in both front and rear. If not drop-dead gorgeous, the Cadenza is real eye candy compared to the Amanti. Engines for the 2013 Kia Cadenza should involve a V6 and possibly a base 4-cylinder. Some sources believe the latter will be the familiar 200-horsepower 2.4-liter that's standard for the Kia Optima midsize sedan's current.

Kia, like Hyundai, is known for technical innovation, so do not look for any gee-whiz features or much original content in the 2013 Kia Cadenza. Of course, competitors also do these things, but with arguably the Greater style, Hence the Koreans' new focus on more-expressive design, evident in the 2011 Hyundai Sonata and the Kia Cadenza now. We Mentioned That the Cadenza is not the large rear-drive Kia sedan that's been rumored in some quarters. Some scribes even attached a name to this model: K9, a logical extension of the K7/Cadenza name.

Kia claims the V6 Cadenza will do 0-60 mph in about 7.1 seconds and return 25 mpg overall. The large-car field is fairly small and getting smaller, as the aging Buick Lucerne and Mercury Grand Marquis we recently dropped. That leaves the just-redesigned Buick LaCrosse and Ford Taurus as Cadenza's strongest opponents. As noted, that large V6-powered front-drive sedan is expected to be redesigned on the Cadenza platform - spy photographers snapped prototypes test back in mid-2008 - but the US-market timing is unclear.