Remember the Kia Cadenza? The automaker launched the upscale full-sized sedan as the K7 in its South Korea home market in 2009, bringing it to the U.S. in 2013 with a new name and a mission to take on stalwarts like the Toyota Avalon and Nissan Maxima. It lasted into its second-generation here, retreating from our shores at the end of the 2020 model year. In 2021, Kia debuted the successor K8 with a fastback rear and a much plusher interior.
The climate controls hold onto their buttons and knobs, the panel part of a flatter IP with more leather and bolder swathes of color. Along the tunnel, the former pocket beneath the HVAC controls is now a wireless charging pad for two phones. Behind that, the knurled rotary controller sits on a flat panel instead of one canted up toward the driver, next to a fingerprint authentication sensor, and the cupholders are now hidden under a cover.