Meet Kia Motors’ take on luxury. The newly facelifeted Opirus Premium, once known as the Amanti in North America, receives a substantial redo both cosmetically and mechanically.

The Opirus Premium is no head turner but it’s Buick, Jaguar, Lincoln and Rolls Royce design cues are enough to constitute a closer inspection. The round headlamps and LED turn and rear lights look cool enough but seeing them on a Kia just looks tacky. The 18-inch alloys and large chrome moldings dont make it any classier.

The inside also screams cheap. The leather seats might be cooled but high gloss piano black trim doesn’t fool anyone. The try-hard interior’s sad because the car borrows a lot from the very cool Hyundai Equus. If the Opirus didn’t try so hard it just might have been a winner.

Mechanically, the car’s new 6-speed automatic is rock solid together with either 2.6L V6, 3.3L Lambda V6 or 3.8L V6. The engines pump out 195, 259 and 284 horsepower respectively.

The car goes on sale in South Korea with a starting price of $27,300 USD. The range topping GH380 costs $43,200 USD. Thankfully Kia has no plan to bring the car to North America.

[TheCarConnection]