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Sedans Kia Amanti 2007 Kia Amanti
103 messages, Last post on Jun 19, 2008 at 6:17 PM
You are in the Kia Amanti Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: flc2006 (Apr 09, 2007 7:52 pm) The bad side of ESC is I have seen many young drivers going too fast on corners relying on it to keep them out of trouble. |
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When I decided to trade in my 05 Amanti on an 07 model in January I had been looking at the Korean website for information and pictures on the upcoming model. What struck me especially was the elegant grille on the Amanti in Opirus form as sold everywhere except North America. I mentioned this to my dealer's sales manager at the time I bought my car and he said that he could arrange to have a Korean grille sent over through a friend. Well, it arrived last week and I had it installed and the car looks great! It's a grille with a set of fine slightly curved vertical chrome slats that really sets off the interesting headlight treatment of the Amanti. Mine is probably the only one like it in Canada and possibly North America but I wouldn't be surprised to see dealers offering this as an accessory. The grille just bolts into place and fits perfectly. I'll take some pictures of the car in the next couple of days and will post a front shot so you can see for yourselves. MagMax
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Replying to: magmax (Apr 22, 2007 11:45 pm) Bill H. |
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It's been a while since I've posted -- family crisis -- but I wanted to share that the 2008 Amanti is due to arrive at my dealer's later this week. I understand that the only difference from the 07 model that I have is the return of standard rear seat heaters. Mind you, this is for the Canadian market. Apparently we still won't see the power operated pedals, rain sensing wipers, or even the in dash 6-CD changer. It's the only vehicle in its class that doesn't have a 6-CD changer and neither the dealer nor I can understand why some jerk executive in Kia Canada would have made such a stupid decision. I'll be writing them to ask. I think it's rather strange that the 07 models didn't show up here until the last day of 2006 while now we have the 08s at the end of June. I wonder if they'll replace this body style with something based on the Azera and it's due for mid 2008 as a 2009 model. MagMax
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Replying to: magmax (Jun 17, 2007 11:44 pm)
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A friend of mine contacted all 6 Kia dealers in our area and only found one, which did not have the features he was looking for, so they are ordering him one. What's the deal? I wonder why they are holding back? Supply and demand thing or are we just testing the '07 for the '08's?? I'm still delighted with mine (except for that white Hummer that gave me my first ding at the gym) 
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Replying to: billh6 (Jun 19, 2007 6:31 am) http://www.koreanautoimports.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=440 Amanti 2007 Luxury Chrome Grill [KNOPLG1] $295.00 "Introducing the all new Amanti/Opirus Luxury Vertical OEM Mobis Grill. This upgrade is only available by Mobis in Korea and other European countries. Give your North American Amanti the Stunning style and amazing quality of this Opirus Luxury Chrome Grill. An absolute must have for every 2007 Amanti. Includes the embedded Opirus center badge. Matching Badges and rear emblems also available to complete the Opirus conversion. This Luxury grill is a direct fit to all region Amanti's using factory mounts, no modification needed." If I end up buying the Amanti, I will order one of these! I'd like to totally re-badge the car to Opirus. We need for these guys to make available a replacement steering wheel center cover with the Opirus badge, as well as the chrome license plate surround with Opirus replacing the KIA badge. Think of all the people asking "What kind of car is THAT? What's an Opirus?" |
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To follow up on my comments about obtaining the Opirus grille for the 2007 Amanti, I have, on July 3rd, purchased a pewter beige Amanti with leather package (tan interior), ESC/safety package, 17 in. wheels and sunroof. When I started out shopping for a replacement vehicel for my wrecked 2001 XG300, I had not expected to seriously consider the Amanti due to the styling issues I had with the pre-2007 car as well as the reviewers dissing its "floaty" ride and underwhelming engine power. Test driving an Amanti after seeing an article online about the redesign for 2007 was a relevation. I seriously shopped the Amanti vs. the Azera and a couple of other nice sedans, and the Amanti won. I told my wife about the pewter beige Amanti, and when she saw it and rode in it, she was convinced that I had made the right choice. How often does that happen? I paid $26,700.00 after incentives. This car is an amazing value at that price. I am continually being amazed by the quality and features. The power and smoothness of the ride are truly a delight. I'd say this car, for 2007, is the biggest hidden secret on the U.S. market, since Kia is not doing any advertising that I can see. They took a pretty good sedan and turned it into a real quality luxury cruiser. I'd love to see this car in a "sporting" trim with handling improvements and some performance tweaks. It's really that good! But, of course, I'm preaching to the choir in this forum. To get to my point, I want to totally re-badge this car to the Korean-market Opirus trim. The one objection my wife had to the car was the KIA logos on the car. Kia, regrettably, has had a reputation in the U.S. for selling cheap cars. Strange that, in Korea, the Amanti is sold as the Opirus, with no Kia nomenclature on the car at all, but here Kia wants to badge it the same as it less expensive cars. Remember that Toyota felt that its image in the U.S. required that they give a totally independent name and dealership system for their top-of-the-line sedans, and came up with the Lexus badge. Well, I want my new car to have that kind of separate identity from the Kia brand. Luckily, the folks at KoreanAutoImports.com can supply all of the exterior trim and badges to make the transformation, including the deluxe Opirus grille, and tell me that they sell a whole re-badging kit to folks like me who want a new, mysterious identity for their Amanti's. They don't, at this time, have the all the pieces necessary to completely rebadge the interior, but I'm hoping to find a solution to the steering wheel cover badge and the door sill plates. I'll be photographing the changes and will report on my progress. 
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Replying to: mikewellsesq (Jul 04, 2007 4:09 pm) http://www.carspace.com/mikewellsesq/Albums/mikewellsesq%27s%20Album/Amanti_Opirus.JPG/page/photo.html#pic Look in my CarSpace photo album under MikeWellsEsq for more photos as the project progresses.
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Replying to: mikewellsesq (Jul 14, 2007 1:05 pm) Gary
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