Los Angeles doesn't really do corners, which is why bikers take to the sinuous road along the top of the San Gabriel mountains to get their Sunday morning kicks.
That wasn't an option in the new Kia Optima, the Korean maker's tilt at the mid-sized, Mondeo-style market. Instead we grabbed the opportunity of a 10-mile run from the recent LA Auto Show back to the hotel, ahead of the car's UK launch next July.
The Optima looks good, with taut lines and a sharp European-style nose thanks to design chief Peter Schreyer, formerly of Audi.
Four-door saloons aren't a big market in Europe, but this wouldn't look out of place in a car park filled with hatchbacks or, indeed, German saloons. The build quality is good and the shut lines precise and narrow.
The doors open with a serious weightiness and the cabin is spacious and welcoming, upholstered with that peculiar Far Eastern leather that looks and feels like plastic. The dashboard is angled around the driver and the instruments are mostly attractive, but the layout can be a bit confusing.
There are also places where you get the feeling a different set of engineers worked on the car, such as the spectacularly nasty steering column adjustment lever, or some ghastly plastic facia inserts.
There's plenty of space in the front and a six-foot tall colleague sat in the back with plenty of space for his legs and just enough headroom. The standard specification on this US car was fairly loaded, with heated-and-cooled electric seats and twin sunroofs, as well as dual-zone climate control and line-in/iPod sockets.
When the Optima arrives in the UK next July, the range will start with a 140bhp 1.7-litre turbodiesel from the Sportage.
It's not yet clear whether the 2.0-litre petrol engine will be imported, but it should be - it is light, unobtrusive and packs a mean, low-down punch.
The ride is highly respectable, softening out LA's concrete road seams (albeit rather noisily). There wasn't much chance to test the handling, but the steering was horribly vague, with lots of lost movement and an unpleasant build-up of torque as you turned from dead ahead.
The brakes would need attention for European markets, too, as they felt ineffective and weak.
Kia reckons it can sell up to 5,000 a year in Blighty, which is going some considering its predecessor sold about 1,250.
It will need to sort the handling, steering and brakes before anyone would consider the Optima, but on the evidence of this all too brief drive it certainly has potential.
