The interior of recently updated Kia Lotze Innovation (Optima in US) received a host of new changes and features. Updated trim materials and colour schemes, new barrel-type instrument cluster design adopting a sporty red-blue illumination, in-dash mounted navigation system with better audio system are only a few to mention (find more).
Improved Lotze Innovation interior will also feature Kia’s first steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters to enable you to manually up and down shift. The paddles are located above each side of the steering wheel and enables you to simply use your index fingers to tap the right paddle for an upshift and left paddle downshift.
Click image to enlarge!
June 11th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
padddle shifters, coming as OPTIONAL on global Kias in a year or two.
.
And other brands will getting them as standard. O well, they have to start somewhere…
June 12th, 2008 at 12:25 am
What other brands? mazda? Screw mazda, I am so *** sick of you people comparing Kia to brands that have been here since the 70s!
June 12th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hey, I just visited the Kia Korea site. Its got 15, 16 and 17″ wheels, all 5 spoke and the 17 inch wheel has got split spokes like on sportage. Its got bluetooth phone connection, covered cup-holders next to the parking brake lever and on the rear armrest, push button ignition, smart entry [like on mohave], electronic rear sun screen [like on opirus], its floor carpets are rivoted to the floor, AUX, USB, iPod jack, an electronic toll collection system called ‘hi-pass’, 320w JBL audio system, paddle shifters, red LCD screen within the meter cluster where gear selected, distance and avg. fuel cons etc. is displayed, 2.0 engine, 2.4L that avgs 11.5km/l, tiptronic trany, 5-speed manual trany, [thankfully] drive chain [not belt], 6 or 8 airbags, EBD, ABS, VDC, rear parking sensors, 6 available exterior colours including a beautiful velvety chocolate colour
And there’s some light indicator in the meter cluster that reads ‘ECO’ and with it, there’s a pic showing that the light changes colour from white to green to red. If I could read Korean, I would have understood what it was for.
.
Price: 700 000 [LX20] – 27 150 000 [LEX24] Korean won.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Greg and Boris, your post were edited because of containing inappropriate words. Please do not argue against each other. Don’t forget we are supposed to be friends! Let’s proceed with the Lotze innovation debate. Thank you!!
June 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
O thanks. I wanted to remove that.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
JBL audio? That stinks. How did you get to the Korean site. My browser says “Server not found”.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
kia.co.kr. Works for me. I can even see the mohave details and the Forte sketch on that site.
Anyway, I too am not a big fan of JBL. Atleast the infinity system is available globally and I coundnt Find anything that says INfinity nor a pic showing the Infinity logo. Its just not available in Korea. That makes me feel better about Global Kias.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I hope that the Optima doesn’t get that junk. I can’t get that site. It just says server not found.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I dont think it will. But doesnt it already get it as std? the infinity is optional. [current model]
June 13th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
You guys think the TD is going to get those paddle shifters? It’s going to really need it if it is going against a sporty model like the Lancer.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:59 am
maybe optional. I want a large trany. you can see the benefits of large tranys in cars like focus.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
OK. SInce I’ve reached my 6 p/d limit on the forums, I’ll tell you what i wanted to tell, here. Earlier on this article, I mentioned that ‘ECO’ light on the new lotze [Comment no. 3]. I found out what it is. here’s a quote from Kia BUZZ.
.
The five simple golden rules of eco-driving are as follows:
1. Avoid speeding and maintain a constant speed.
2. Change gears as soon as possible.
3. Avoid sharp acceleration and sudden braking.
4. Check tire pressure frequently.
5. Move with the traffic flow.
….
To help drivers master the five golden rules, Kia Motors included the Eco Driving System in the enhanced Lotze (known as Magentis or Optima in overseas markets), which was launched domestically on June 12th. It will be the first car in Korea to feature such a device. An eco lamp on the dashboard will guide the driver to drive in the most economical way.
.
Himi, there’s an article on Kia BUZZ that tells about ECO driving. Could you please post it on the blog?
June 16th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
This “Eco” light sounds similar to some older American vehicles that had a shift light in the manual transmission equipped vehicles. The light would illuminate when the computer felt it was optimal to upshift, this would apparently help improve fuel economy. But as you probably know, Americans for years haven’t been so worried about fuel economy. Their shifting was usually, “how close to the redline can I get it?” Similar to drag racing (shift at the very last possible moment). Now with such an increase in fuel prices, people are starting to consider fuel economy again.
Also, about Kia’s Korean site, I tried both “kia.co.kr” and “www.kia.co.kr” and the computer I’m using (with Windows XP and Internet Explorer) loaded the site with no trouble. The first time it was a picture of a cee’d, the second time the Opirus/ Amanti. Perhaps you guys having trouble have your brower settings to where it won’t allow foreign language text? The site comes up with English text, but I know if you go exploring in the Korean site it’s mostly Hangul (Korean alphabet).
June 16th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Now that I think about it, could this “Eco-driving” be the engine computer controlling some different parts of engine control and the transmission? I think some high end cars in America have different “modes” that the driver can select which affect acceleration and possibly suspension settings to go between “sport” and “economy”. Sport will wait longer to shift and have a quicker throttle response, economy shifting at the best moment for fuel economy, and will no downshift until absolutely necessary (automatic transmissions usually downshift when you push the pedal down deep, or when you’re going up a hill and it feels the need to downshift to assist in getting up the hill).
June 16th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I just read the entire article. Here’s what it says at the end about availability: “The system is expected to be included in overseas models, as well. Kia Motors will continue to hold campaigns to promote economical and eco-friendly driving habits to help drivers better cope with surging oil prices.” It also mentions there being 3 different colored lamps: A green one (high fuel efficiency), red one (low fuel efficiency) and a white one (normal driving/ standby). It says that other than the United Kingdom (where eco-driving is part of the driver’s license test) most people don’t understand how to “eco-drive”. They say this will allow 10-30% increase in fuel efficiency. The paddle shifters could be helpful in allowing people to shift when recommended, but I don’t think the Eco light will be telling you when to shift. I guess you’ll have to read the owner’s manual and see what is the recommended shifting RPM for each gear. And the automatic will probably do that for you?
June 16th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
No. eco driving tells when you are driving to get the most economy. did you read the article on Kia BUZZ.com?
June 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
O so you finished reading the article? so, You think this tech is cool or what!!! For once Kia has done something innovative and are the first to do it.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Those who cant access the Kia Korea site. You can see the ‘ECO’ light in the above main pic of the meter cluster in the article. Its the white light in the [centre] sppedo meter.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Boris: I think the technology is interesting. I don’t think they’re the first to do this technically, but they are the first in Korea to do this. Perhaps no one has had the light change color to alert you to your habits, but I’ve seen fuel economy gauges (miles per gallon/ mpg in America) in some vehicles (I recall an Acura SUV, and an older model BMW/ Volvo/ Saab, I forget which), The gauge was similar to an analog speedometer or tachometer (rev-meter in some places), it would go up and down dependent on your driving. Also, as you mentioned, you can see the white light in the main picture, but also, in the first picture under it (the one on the left) it’s got a persons hands in it, and they’re touching the paddle shifters. The green light in the center close to the 220 mark is the same light, only green (to simulate fuel efficient driving).
June 16th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
The white ECO light is also in the last picture (on the right) just beside the speedometer center (you can see that the center of the needle is a black circle, and raised up slightly, in this picture from a side angle- it’s not really apparent in the straight on view with the green ECO light).
June 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Aw man! I thought Kia had done something that is ‘First-Ever’ for the first time since they made knee airbags. Ah well. never mind.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
My ’08 Mitsu Lancer GTS has driver’s knee airbags as did my ’01 Kia Sportage 4X4. Nice equipment to have, just in case. But that and all of this other new tech stuff Kia is working on is great! They’re moving right along at the speed of light, man. And those worldwide sales numbers are indicative of people’s ability to think for themselves, not just listen to slop on the streets, know what I mean? And buy Kia’s, yeesssiiireee Bob-ster!
June 19th, 2008 at 6:43 am
speed of light…
I tried to convince someone about borrego… he said it looks like tahoe!!!!!
” ” ” ” ” ” optima. It looks like civic and accord.
is he right?
January 24th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
kia not car vrey good its bad
December 15th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours these days, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth sufficient for me. Personally, if all web owners and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.