Sitting in traffic when gas prices fluctuate is a strange experience. Every time it happens, without failure, you suddenly notice the increase in fuel sipping VWs, Geo Metros, and Mercedes W123 diesels. But one of the weirdest vehicle upticks I’ve seen recently is, inexplicably, the Kia Amanti.
I thought they’d all died. Seeing more than a couple of them was like being transported back to a time when Ed Hardy clothing was making it to the mainstream alongside Reality Television and other disasters. Kia’s first attempt at a larger, luxury oriented car that wasn’t a warmed-over Mazda 929 never sat quite right to me. Sure, the segment values traditional styling; but the Amanti sailed right past traditional and into dated the moment that the powers that be decided that it should look like the result of a passionate encounter between a Jaguar S-Type and a Mercedes E-Class. The interior was similar in nature to other contemporary high-trim Kias. That is, it’s impossible for me to be objective about them as they are just old enough that everything that was cutting edge looks uncomfortably dated and everything that isn’t looks disgustingly cheap.
It’s biggest indictment however, is the vehicle that replaced it. Compared to the Peter Schreyer designed Cadenza, the Amanti looks like what it is. A pastiche of luxury car cues. One that doesn’t seem to take into account why those particular cues were successful, or even if they werel. And here’s where I had to start to re-evaluate my assumptions. And yet, it’s on the Cadenza where I had to begin re-evaluating everything I’d always thought about the Amanti. You see, if Good Car Bad Car is to be believed, the Cadenza didn’t sell any better than the Amanti despite the more pleasing design, the additional 100-horsepower and an interior design from a Kia that was planning to join sister company Hyundai in a push for a true luxury car. So, as it turns out, the Amanti was as successful as a Kia could be in that segment.
How?
Well, it was a model sold in a slowly dying segment. People who wanted a vehicle like this wanted an Avalon. Except they didn’t. They wanted either a loaded Camry or the even more loaded Camry with a Lexus badge. With things like the Cadillac DTS long gone and the Avalon itself taking a bow this year in favor of the new Crown lineup, you can see why even in 2009 it wasn’t poised to set sales records. Any more than the contemporary Buick Lucerne was.
Then I forgot they tried to keep it fresh. The image on my head of a kia Amanti is of the original one with its narrow grille and hilariously misshapen light pods, but by 2007 a facelift had brought some much-needed massaging and the styling, though still clearly derivative, was at least not so bad that you’d compare it to what a game designer would come up with as a filler non-drivable vehicle. For the person who spent their days in quiet desperation as they realized that they wouldn’t be able to escape their own life, or the one that had retired from just exactly that and realized they had enough money to be okay on their golden years, it would be perfect. At least good enough to feel happy they got this and didn’t have to spend twice as much on a Mercedes E-Class.
Yes. Even when they pull up next to one.
