With the Amanti, Kia will be targeting the wallets of buyers aged in their mid-forties to late-fifties, and holding managerial or professional jobs. The Korean brand expects this demographic to be heavily populated with baby-boomers who have previously owned international brands and appreciate a good deal when they see one.

The Kia design team adopted a European styling theme that has resulted in an exterior appearing to be a compilation of cues borrowed from Mercedes, Jaguar, Lincoln, Chrysler and Lancia. (Photo: Rob Rothwell, Canadian Auto Press)

Not wanting to produce a "cookie-cutter" sedan, the Kia design team adopted a European styling theme that has resulted in an exterior appearing to be a compilation of cues borrowed from Mercedes, Jaguar, Lincoln, Chrysler and Lancia (Europe only). Depending on the angle viewed, hints of these prestigious marques come to mind the way an old flame might when you see a look-alike in a crowd.

Showing more creativity than the exterior, I found the interior of the Amanti to be fairly attractive and unique. (Photo: Rob Rothwell, Canadian Auto Press)

So does the Amanti styling work? Well, I for one have a little trouble with it. Even though I am at the leading edge of the target demographic, I find the styling a little too grey-haired for me. Chrysler will soon introduce its 300C, which from the photos I have seen is exactly how I would want my full-size, 4-door sedan to look if I was in that market. The 300C styling is sharper and more aggressive than that of the Amanti. Even the outgoing Chrysler 300M, which is very close in size to Kia's new sedan, is in my view a few rungs higher up the style ladder. That being said, the Amanti is not the Edsel of the 21st century, a styling flop. It definitely delivers an aura of sophistication and success, but at the cost of sport and athleticism.

When it came time to design the interior, the design team relied more on their own creativity, rather than copying the mentoring marques. I found the interior to be fairly attractive and unique. The long, flat overhanging top surface of the dash that extends from driver to passenger side evoked a sense of American dashboards from the 1960s. I got a kick out of it, a welcome alternative in an age when many dashboards have taken on a Heinz-57, curvaceous moulded appearance.