2019 Kia K900

MSRP: $50,900

Engine: Twin Turbo V6

Horsepower/Torque: 365/376

0-60: 5.3 seconds

Text: Yousef Alvi // Photography: Geoff Dennis

This is the 2019 Lexus LS….wait hold on a sec.  Nope.  Sorry my mistake.  This is the 2019 Kia K900.  Honestly you would be forgiven to mistake the two.  One is clearly influenced by the older generation of the other.  So much in fact….I may actually prefer the Kia over the Lexus.  

Let me explain.  In this day and age…all luxury car manufacturers are doing one thing and one thing only.  Looking for lap times and speed.  Which is fine…I like a fast car like no one else (psst a McLaren review is coming up) but a luxury car is one thing to me.  It’s meant to get you from point A to point B in absolute comfort with minimal drama.  That paradigm shift has radically altered the Lexus LS from a stoic beacon of comfort into a BMW slayer.  

The K900 on the other hand, picks up the ball where the Lexus dropped it.  It is the beacon of luxury and comfort that people are looking for.  Sometimes people just want to drown out the outside world and get them home quietly and comfortably.  The K900 does just that AND with a price tag that is $20,000 less!  It’s not like you are skimping on features either.  The K900 has it all. 

You want semi autonomous driving?  It’s got it.  You want soft and creamy leather?  It’s got in spades.  You want a quiet interior at ANY speed?  Yup! How about heated and cooled seats front and rear? Oh yeah. You want massaging seats?  Okay it doesn’t have that.  But it has everything else including a bleeding excellent twin turbo V6 pumping out 365 and 376 ft/lbs of torque.  It’s actually more responsive than the LS500 turbo mill and has a fantastic shove in the midrange.  

The only thing it is really giving up is the all precious badge but if the Kia badge scares you off from a legitimately excellent car you need to get over yourself.  The K900, Stinger and the new Telluride are genuine players in their respective categories.  So what do I think of the 2019 Kia K900?  Call me crazy…but I’d get it over the Lexus LS500.