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Kia does not evoke the warm-and-fuzzy feelings Honda and Toyota do, but the South Korean manufacturer bears watching — its early efforts show a good understanding of the art and science of auto manufacturing.

The company got into deep financial woes a few years back and almost disappeared, although its facility at building good, inexpensive cars attracted potential suitors from the United States and elsewhere. In the end, homeboy Hyundai wound up acquiring it.

The two have maintained separate identities, Hyundai inching upscale, but share parts and expertise. Looks like a good marriage, even if a 12-gauge served as best man.

Kia may be best known here for its mini-ute, the Sportage, but the line also includes a subcompact sedan, Rio, a sporty five-door, Spectra, and the Sephia compact sedan.

And just now flowing into the U.S. pipeline is the new flagship midsize sedan, the Optima. It is offered as a budget-minded alternative to such family sedans as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima. I’m here to tell you, it’s not the equal of any of those fine cars . . . but it’s close — setting aside questions of long-term reliability — and it’s appreciably cheaper.

Kia wouldn’t be so rash as to target those esteemed marques directly, but it feels that the 2.4-million-a-year segment offers plenty of opportunities even after the Big Three Japanese makers have glutted themselves, as they do year after year. There’s still a million-car market to be wrested from such second-tier American players as the Chevy Malibu, Olds Intrigue or Ford Taurus, which are viewed as constituting a class distinct from the foreign nameplates.

For $15,794, including delivery, you can get a base (LX) model Optima with five-speed manual transmission and four-cylinder engine. Even the bargain-hunter series includes such desirable items as air conditioning, power windows, power door locks, power mirrors, a first-aid kit (I always thought that was an odd inclusion, even on the expensive European cars) and — shockingly — side air bags to complement the two up front. A comparable Accord is a few hundred more. The spread widens as one journeys up-market.

The fancier series of Optima is called the SE, and it gets 15-inch alloy wheels instead of steel 14-inchers, heated outside mirrors, power antenna, fog lights, power moonroof, keyless entry and alarm system, cruise control, a premium 120-watt AM-FM-CD-cassette stereo unit, leather-wrapped steering wheel, wood-mocking interior trim and a power-adjustable driver’s seat.

The SE, with the same drivetrain as above, is delivered for $18,094. Naturally they sent the country’s best-loved reviewer their finest effort, an SE with a V-6 engine, which mandates a four-speed automatic transmission. This one goes out for $20,444.

Here again a delightful surprise — the transmission is built under license from Porsche, their Tiptronic set- and-forget-or-do-it-yourself box. The V-6-equipped specimens also get disc brakes on the rear axle instead of drums.

A note of caution — the Optima is one of those cars that don’t photograph particularly well. In person, particularly with the optional pearlescent paint, it looks like anything but an econobox. Chrome is used a bit more lavishly than is the general practice these days, but, aside from the grille, it does not look particularly overdone. I thought the rear-end treatment was particularly stylistic, with the built-in-spoiler effect on the trunk lid.

The interior is a bit plastic-y, and the pseudo-wood only reinforces that impression. Sharp edges on the dash and other panels look less inviting than the more common rounded treatment, but the leather-look padded door inserts, part of the optional leather package, are a nice countervailing touch. The leather seats were comfortable and the hides looked appealing, but had o discernible aroma. The Optima is te ally a midsize car, with exactly 100 cubic feet of interior space. That’s a teensy bit smaller than an Accord, but in the ballpark. With the moonroof, I had a bare sufficiency of headroom — no whoop-de-dos this time — and sufficient legroom. The rear seating was about as bearable as what airlines concede to tourists.

Kia doesn’t explicitly call this a sports sedan (who knows what “SE” is supposed to mean?), and it certainly isn’t. Crispness in handling takes a back seat to an untroubled ride. Both springs and shocks are on the soft side, which makes for a pleasant passage over decent roads, but the car sometimes feels overwhelmed on the rough stuff when pushed rather hard.

The Optima is derived from the Hyundai Sonata platform. It’s of unibody construction, with independent double wishbone front suspension and a multi -link affair at the rear. It behaved itself reasonably well over tortured surfaces so long as the driver managed a modicum of discretion.

The transmission, when left to its own devices, felt a trifle hesitant at times, questioning the bridge`s demand for downshifts, and it was at the back of the pack in terms of initiative. First gear is quite low, for a better launch feel, which leads to some engine clamor when forcing a downshift from second. Fourth is a long-striding 0.712:1 overdrive. Neither fourth nor third offered much compression braking. The brakes per se were fairly effective and well-modulated. Kia loses points for not allowing buyers of the four-cylinder variants to add antilock brakes, which are a rather pricey option even with the V-6 machines.

That V-6 is all aluminum, a compact 2.5 liters. It has double overhead cams, 16 valves and a 10:1 compression ratio, though it still is content with regular unleaded. It produces 170 hp (@6,000 rpm) and 169 foot-pounds of torque (@4,000). It’s a bit peaky and the intake is rather raspy, but it runs to its 6,500 rpm redline with verve. The V-6 is not as compelling an upgrade as you might think, because the four-cylinder engine is something of an overachiever.

Big for a four, at 2.4 liters, it makes 149 horses and 159 foot-pounds of torque. Definitely try the four and see whether it’s adequate for your needs if you want to keep the price down, or if you desire a five-speed manual trannie. The V-6 yielded 0-60 times in the 9-second bracket, as expected with a 3,190-pound curb weight. EPA estimates for the six-plus-automatic are 19 mpg city, 25 highway. I logged 22.9 with some energetic flogging.

The Optima has not been crash-tested and of course reliability, as with any first-year car, is an unknown. At least Kia, like its owner, offers an impressive warranty — 5 years/50,000 miles on the vehicle, 10/100,000 on the powertrain and 100,000 on perforation protection. A 5-year unlimited mileage roadside protection plan is part of the deal.

In addition to the fairly heavy load of equipment with which all SE V-6 Optimas are freighted, the tester also had pearlescent white paint (hard to refuse for $100), antilock brakes ($795) and the leather package, $995. Thus gilded, the car cost $22,289 delivered.

“The Gannett News Service”