Kia on the 2019 K900: “You’ll Have No Words Except … Damn”

Perhaps inspired by the success of the premium, performance-oriented Stinger, Kia is going bold with the launch of the new 2019 K900 full-size luxury sedan. Well, not exactly bold in terms of styling, but more in terms of messaging and strategy. The new K900 makes its debut with standard all-wheel drive, a twin-turbo V-6, and a fancy Maurice-Lacroix-branded clock in the dash. With the redesigned luxury sedan’s key updates and Kia’s surprising insistence that the car is “agile, nimble, and well-balanced,” I’m intrigued by the new model and its potential to perform better on sales charts than the outgoing model.

After driving a last-gen Kia K900 V-8 for a year as part of Motor Trend’s long-term fleet, I came away impressed by the car’s value but disappointed by the overly floaty suspension, excessive body roll, and the fact that some more expensive competitors were both quicker and more efficient. At the 2019 K900’s New York auto show press conference, more than one reference was made about the new car’s performance, so we’re curious to see how the AWD turbo-six-powered K900 drives.

The K900 will exhibit a level of confidence and control you’ve never seen before on a Kia (except on a Stinger), said Saad Chehab, Kia’s vice president of marketing, at the press conference, and we’re eager to see how true that claim really is.

The 2019 K900 will still offer many of the luxury features you expect, and likely with a mid- to high $50,000 base price. Keep in mind how much bigger the K900’s cabin is compared to luxury-branded competitors and the car’s value starts to become more apparent. One interior highlight that lifts the K900 above the high-quality yet slightly generic interior of the last-gen model is the refined Maurice Lacroix analog clock on the dash. The decision to go with a clock featuring Roman numerals is an interesting one for a brand that says it’s “forever fueled by youth,” but product strategy manager Eddie Rayyan tells us the Maurice Lacroix brand matches Kia and the K900 in that it’s younger than its competitors and is an up-and-comer in the luxury watch space.

Rayyan adds that Kia is working with the brand to eventually offer a special edition watch for customers.

The new 2019 K900 will still likely have value on its side once it goes on sale in the fourth quarter of this year. We’re amused by the one-liner from the press conference in the title of this story, but we’re especially eager to see if the new K900 can make a slightly bigger dent in its segment than the outgoing model ever did.

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