A Look at the 2019 Kia K900

The 2019 Kia K900 has to clear a pretty low bar to surpass its predecessor. From 2014 to 2018, the Korean brand's pillowy first-generation flagship sedan managed to seduce fewer than 5500 buyers into a relationship with its floppy ride and generic luxury aura (there were only about 350 takers last year).

Count us among that group, what with the 40,000 miles we racked up on a 2015 K900 V-8 model. While the new version, much like the original, still leaves us scratching our heads as to its sedate poshness and how well it works on a Kia, it is, hands down, a better-driving and more sweetly realized vehicle.

The general ease with which the Kia manages its straight-line performance extends to how it goes around corners. This is not a car that asks to be driven aggressively, but a higher degree of body control results in substantially better composure at speed and little of the nautical pitch and dive motions that characterized the first-gen K900.

There's also an impressive level of customization to the driving experience. Drivers can select various color themes for the instrument cluster display or set them to change depending on the driving mode; these include Comfort, Smart, Sport, Eco, and Custom.

Standing on the brakes from 70 mph brought things to a stop in a trim 165 feet. For comparison, the far lighter and sportier Stinger GT with all-wheel drive needs sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires to approach those results.

It's all rather excessive for a car that offers little driving reward regardless of which of its buttons are pushed.

The new K900 is a far cry from the bargain Kia Souls and Rios that this car will share space with on dealer lots. Consider that the next most expensive Kia, the Optima hybrid, sells for more than $20,000 less.

And within that Custom menu are multiple settings to adjust the weight of the steering, the responsiveness of the engine and drivetrain, the firmness of the three-stage adjustable dampers, and how much engine sound is piped through the cabin speakers.

The fake-wood material on the K900's steering wheel looks particularly chintzy.

Comfort, however, is strong, with Barcalounger-like front seats (20-way power adjustable for the driver, 16-way for the passenger), highly accommodating rear quarters, and a boatload of standard amenities, including all of Kia's active-safety tech, a 12.3-inch central touchscreen, a surround-view camera system, a head-up display, a 900-watt Lexicon stereo, nappa leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats, and heated outboard rear seats.

Also included is a bright 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, which replaces the standard 7.0-inch unit and the analog speedometer and tach. It can superimpose camera images from the car's blind-spot monitors whenever the turn signals are activated.

Although the new K900's EPA-rated combined estimate of 21 mpg is a 3-mpg improvement over the old car, we only matched its 18-mpg city rating over more than 1000 miles of mixed driving. However, it did post 27 mpg on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy loop, bettering its highway estimate by 2 mpg.

Materials and overall quality are generally satisfactory for a $60K luxury sedan, although some of the switchgear and trim pieces are a step below what you'd find in a Genesis, let alone a Mercedes-Benz.

The corporate Hyundai ingredients for the new K900 are as familiar as they are effective.

Its chassis is derived from that of the larger and loftier Genesis G90, offering significantly improved structural rigidity as well as a nicely composed yet isolated ride.

The K900 sits roughly between the mid-size Genesis G80 and the full-size G90 in silhouette and is angled for attack against premium sedans such as the Lincoln Continental and the Volvo S90.

Our test car's $60,895 base price was inflated further by the only major option, the $4000 VIP package, which brings power adjustability for the rear seats, ventilated outboard rear seats, and three-zone automatic climate control in place of the standard dual-zone setup.

Despite the car's bedazzled grille treatment, updated LED lighting elements, and fresh surface sculpting, this new K900 looks as anonymous as its predecessor, and the Kia badge will still prompt valets to park it behind a Range Rover.

If, however, you do push the K900 to its limits, modern tire and chassis technologies have made it impressively capable. With all-season tires-Michelin Primacy MXM4s sized 245/45R-19 in front and 275/40R-19 out back-the Kia orbited the skidpad with a stout 0.93 g of lateral grip and a surprisingly neutral balance that made it easy to control with the throttle. The previous K900, with its meager 0.83-g effort, wasn't even close to being this capable.

While the Smart driving mode works well to automatically manage the systems based on driver inputs and vehicle sensors, switching the dampers to their stiffest setting did nicely tamp down body motions without significantly degrading ride comfort.

The quarter-mile calmly passes in a respectable 13.6 seconds at 105 mph, with the Kia's powertrain producing only 72 decibels of six-cylinder growl at wide-open throttle.

The K900 is a big car; it weighed a substantial 4738 pounds on our scales. Yet, the V-6 and all-wheel-drive system muster enough gusto to launch Kia's limo to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds flat-a half-second quicker than the old, rear-drive-only K900 equipped with its 420-hp V-8.

While impressively executed, especially versus its predecessor, Kia's updated flagship remains an outlier amidst the rest of its far less expensive lineup.