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Kia Amanti 2006 and earlier

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What is this discussion about? Kia Amanti, Kia, Sedan

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#52 of 1357 by ateixeira Dec 17, 2003 (8:19 am)
Lotus Elan has been out of production for a long time. They probably bought the rights to continue building them.   Elise is the current Lotus, and Opel builds a clone of that.   -juice
#54 of 1357 Marketing and Price by xg350guy Dec 17, 2003 (9:03 pm)
Ok, I just finished, with discust, comparing the Avalon XLS and the Amanti in Canada.   There is none! The Avalon in Canadian dollars is $10,835.00 more, and it has less. It's price is $45,830.00 and the Amanti's is $34,995.00. Thats the start of a college fund!   It's interior resembles the Amanti, as previously mentioned, and yes, I do like it. But if you compare every feature and what you get versus what you don't get, the Amanti Wins! I won't go into details, cause of space limitations, however some of the major points, xenon headlights on the Amanti, 9 Speakers Amanti versus seven on the Avaalon, 8-way power seats Amanti versus 6 way (that means that the back tilt on the Avalon must be manual...please confirm), oh the Avalon has a 6 disc changer in-dash (Kia screwed up here), but the best is the 5-5-5 warranty for the Amanti and the 10 large on the price.Plus the Kia looks way better in person, and the Avalon in print. But here is my second point to this posting.   The biggest thing that I see and believe me in sales it means a big chunk especially today, is the marketing of the product. The Amanti looks cheap on paper and fantastic in real life. The opposite is true for the Toyota. It looks great on websites, marketing magazines, and their brochure, but looks wierd on asphalt, and really unimpressive when you realize that the Kia parked next to you is ten grand cheaper and looks better!   The website, and brochures of the Toyota, Nissan and Honda are way better than those of Kia and Hyundai.   Kia's product is inline and often exceeds due to content and price. However, the marketing, advertising and image, needs serious work to make it more desirable. Because, it isn't desirable until you get that previous Honda driver(like me before my 93 Sonota), or Toyota Avalon shopper into the dealership at Kia that they will start to reflect on the possibility of having Toyota quality at huge savings. So the marketing and discussion boards like this is whats slowly working. But right now it's second rate compared to Toyota's marketing campaign. Look at the reviews that you read from car mags and editors, they all like the Kias and Hyundais after their given one to drive for a day (so would you, I'm sure of it), but the lack of good solid marketing materials (professionaly executed) undervalues the product and creates question in the customers eyes and their memory and brochures is what serves them at decision making time when the vehicle will be purchased.   How many people go back and ask to test drive the same car again and again to finally make up their mind. Probably very few, because they wrestle in their mind the impression that was left on them only once and then the brochure and website will have to reinforce that impression many times over.   The $10,000 dollar difference can be creatively disguised in some type of payment/residual payment plan. Ask any Toyota sales person why you should spend that much more for their product, and I am sure for fear of losing a sale, they can upplay the value and downplay the price difference quite easily, plus reconfigure your payments so they don't ouch so much.   So drive the Avalon, drive the Amanti. Don't take a brochure and compare websites. Compare only the vehicles. And Kia/Hyundai get your marketing materials in order! Nuff Said.
#55 of 1357 xg350guy...taking a look at alpha's post he notes by iluvmysephia1 Dec 17, 2003 (9:32 pm)
that the Kia Amanti will be evaluated by Consumer Reports in the next issue(Feb. or March '04). That would be worth taking a look at but don't expect CR writer/reviewers to flip over Amanti...they WILL look for flaws and the old resale value will no doubt rear its ugly head, eh?
#56 of 1357 CR by alpha01 Dec 18, 2003 (6:36 am)
Doest take resale value into account in their monthly reviews, but they do take acceleration and fuel economy into account, and the Hyundai/Kia 3.5L 195hp engine has never excelled in these areas. With a heavy car like the Amanti, I wouldnt expect different.   Personally, I think the lame-duck Avalon is overpriced, and underfeatured, I will agree with that. However, styling is very subjective, and many people like the Avalon's "stately" appearance. XG350guy, there I'm sorry, but the the Avalon quality of materials and workmanship are excellent and are as well represented on paper in brochures as they are in real life. I am not an Avalon fan, but I'm not convinced that Kia has produced a better vehicle overall. Yes, the Kia offers a much better portfolio of features for the price, and yes, the Kia wins on available passive safety features (does it have a stability control system available?), BUT... the next, even more powerful, more luxurious, Avalon is but 10 months away, as I have said, while the Kia with its poor acceleration/economy trade off will remain for at least the next several years.   ~alpha
#57 of 1357 by ateixeira Dec 18, 2003 (11:05 am)
CR rates the Sonata pretty well, not at the top but still good. Amanti could score better. We'll see.   -juice
#58 of 1357 wait a minute! by rctennis3811 Dec 18, 2003 (3:33 pm)
"Kia and Hyundai ARE BY FAR THE BEST BODY STYLER'S ON THE PLANET RIGHT NOW. BAR NONE."   Ahh, maybe you haven't ever seen another car before! Some people have criticized the Amanti's "eggcrate" grille already, and it's not even on the market. I think it's fine, but you can't argue. Kia/Hyundai, while they do design adequately stylish cars to compete, are NOT the BEST (note the word BEST) body stylers right now. Eye-catching car that ACTUALLY ARE GOOD LOOKING would be the G35, 3-series, S60, LS430, all the Acuras, every other luxury car, AND DEFINITELY Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Maserati. Saying Kia/Hyundai are the best is WAYYYYYYYYYY too streched.
#59 of 1357 by a_l_hubcaps Dec 18, 2003 (5:22 pm)
I think Hyundai and ex-Daewoo have very nice styling, but I'm not so fond of Kia looks. The Amanti is nice but looks a bit awkward to me. On the other hand, I think the Hyundai XG 350 is a beautiful car. I also think the much-maligned Daewoo Leganza is one of the best looking sedans of the last 10 years. The Koreans seem to be experts at making faux-luxury cars, though the Amanti is not one of their better styling efforts IMHO.   -Andrew L
#60 of 1357 Poor acceleration, quality and economy? by xg350guy Dec 18, 2003 (6:34 pm)
You have forgotten, that I own an XG350. For the last 44,000 klms. Slightly more than my years worth of driving. So in the last 12.5 months, I could probably be one of your best info sources as to the quality, acceleration, features and economy for the 3.5 throttle by wire, 5 speed fuzzy logic combination offered by Hyundai/Kia.   Quality - First rate, better than Nissan's cheaper hard plastic look and feel. Better because of price than Toyota. Yes the Avalons materials are on par with the Amantis and the XG350's interior quality, not better, but on par. Better than a Lincoln LS because of price. You would have to be sitting in a Lexus 300 or perhaps an Acura TL/RL to have better quality materials than those found in the Amanti or XG. However, price is the point. Why can't a Toyota Avalon be priced at $34,995 with the same quality as the Kia Amanti? They have to bring up the Camry or Accord, but they only compare in Dollars, not sense! So my point is the Amanti and XG are better because they offer the same quality and content at $10,000 dollars less than an Avalon, and the XG/Amanti offer what others charge $10,000 more in features than the Accord and Camry have to offer. Including electronic stability control (Amanti)and 8 airbags for protection.   Acceleration - The XG350 accelerates 0-100klm in an impressive 7.7 seconds. Comparibly an Acura TL is 6.2 and an Infiniti G35 is 6.4, Nissan Altima is 7.3, not at a price though. But the XG350 weighs the most at an impressive 3651 lbs. I say impressive because these other cars feel look and drive albiet more nimble and tighter handling, but lighter and less solid, but for highway driving, the XG is better, and road irregularites don't make their way through to the cabin as much as the others. The trade off is a less road hugging and less of a noisy ride for a more atheletic ride offered by others. For a solid feel and less road noise the XG is better, and the Amanti is better still.   Around town the others can zip in and out of traffic better because their suspensions and unsprung weight is designed for this type of action, but I didn't but this car to do that, if so, I wouldn't pick a four door sedan for these moves, I would choose a coup or a two seater. I bought it for its majestic prowness so people could stop and stare! After a 2-3 hour drive and then another hour in front of the customer, the XG is my comfortable leather recliner that I can melt into and feel safe, and pop in a CD and cruise down the highway very comfortably very briskly. I have never found the XG to be out gunned and it accelerates beyond 100klms to 180klms quite easily and fast, easily for overtaking. I drive in the fast lane, and go around most, unless someone is really in a hurry. I'm still not comfortable driving beyond this on highways even though the XG's top speed is 222 klm per hour! Yikes! My comfortable cruise is 120-140 klms.   So if you want quicker, yeah you probably have to pay more, and certainly a lot more, were talking hot tub prices more, and I mean HotSprings not Home Depot. The Toyota Avalon is actually on par or slower, but it is also designed for more leasure and comfort as well, and it delivers. And it should for the price their asking. Heck I would be pissed if a $10,000 dollar cheaper car like the XG and the Amanti did it just as good or better, with the unique style they offer versus what I just paid for in buying an Avalon! I then I couldn't afford the Hotspring! Even when the top heavy Avalon gets a redesign, there will probably be 15,000 smarter Amanti owners out there not bothered too much buy Toyotas latest answer to their price increase!   Economy - The trip computor on the XG sets itself back to read 600klms till empty and constantly recalculates itself based on the type of driving your doing and what your expecting of the car. Anotherwards, if you push it, the number counts down faster, if you keep it with the traffic it counts a lot slower. Interesting though, I always push both trip meters (computor and LCD on the dash when I start my week and then fill up the 70 ltr tank). On the highway I get more than the 600 klms, closer to 700 klms, and in the city I get 600 klms. My four cylinder Honda got 800 klms to its 60 ltr tank, great, but in intersections when it was my turn to go, I used to cringe, and that high mileage was only attained at slower than XG speeds, like 105 klms. And the ride, noisy, buzzy dodging road irregularities, and no power etc.   So at my young age, I've come to like driving the XG and all of it's niceties. It's far from my fathers Grand Marquis, and yes it probably doesn't scare a fired up Altima or 300M driver too much, but it does make 'em look twice. And it so far has avoided the side of the road that's too occupied by VW's.   Drive the Amanti/XG and the HotSpring to boot!
#61 of 1357 xg350 by alpha01 Dec 18, 2003 (6:41 pm)
Pressed for time, I stopped reading your redundant post halfway through. Please show me proof of the XG350s 0-60MPH (0-100kmh) time of 7.7. I have not seen any reputable publications come close to that.   regards, alpha

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