Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Test drive Kia's K3 gets sportier on grand touring
Reporters drive Kia Motors' K3 GT fastback during a test session near Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. / Courtesy of Kia Motors
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
PAJU, Gyeonggi Province ― Kia Motors' new K3 GT fastback is expected to challenge rivals in similar segments strongly with its sporty performance and driving pleasure.
Released in October, the five-seater is the latest and the sportiest variation of the carmaker's best-selling K3 compact sedan.
It is not as fast as high-performance cars costing around 100 million won, but provides as much thrill and the joy of driving at 25 percent of their prices, which will be appealing to young drivers with lighter purses.
Kia Motors released the K3 GT in two versions, a four-door sedan type and a five-door fastback type, which looks like a stretched hatchback. Both types are powered by a 1.6-liter gasoline turbo engine coupled with seven-speed dual clutch transmission, yielding up to 204 horsepower and 27 kilogram force per meter torque.
During a test drive on Thursday, reporters were given the five-door fastback to drive a 160 kilometer course between Paju and Namyangju, both in Gyeonggi Province.
To highlight the GT model's sportiness, Kia Motors set the car to produce its maximum torque around 1,500 to 4,000 rpm, to allow drivers to feel the most power in the widely used range. The GT also has “overboost” technology, which increases torque in rapid acceleration.
The car's transmission also quickly responded in lower gears to enable agile acceleration at low speed. When the transmission goes higher than fourth, the car pushes rpm to nearly its maximum of 6,000, allowing the driver to feel the thrill of acceleration by using the maximum revolutions even though the actual speed is not that high.
Completing the trick was the sound generator, which creates artificial engine sounds, and its stable steering wheel, which gives the driver reliability at high speeds and bouncy handling at corners.
“In releasing the K3 GT, we tried to focus on the sportiness of the vehicle,” a Kia Motors official said. “Along with its actual performance, the car also embraces other design and interior features, including its own GT emblem, alloy wheel and sports seats, which are all aimed at highlighting that the car is ready to provide fun for drivers.”
The K3 GT five-door model comes in two trims and is priced at 22.24 million won and 24.64 million won, respectively. The K3 GT four-door model has three trims and is priced between 19.93 million won and 24.25 million won.