Tom ~ Is your main issue with the V6 specifically the additional price?
Everything else is "OK"?  As mentioned before, wife's 01 Optima is the V6
for which we are extremely pleased with.  My rationale at the time for
getting it as opposed to the 4-cyl was an assumption on my part it would be
much more dependable.  Wife was still working at the time (now retired) and
commuted a 3:00am so I naturally wanted a car we could trust.  Her car now
has 111,000 on the clock, as well as mine (not a KIA).  We are vaguely
thinkg of replacing one car and will target getting another Optima.  We, or
I, have never owned a more dependable, cost effective automobile.  Other
than preventative maintenance, the only money, we have ever put in the car
was replacing both the input & the output transmission sensors at 106,000 &
107,000 miles respectively.  That's it - not another dime.  So, why mess
with success!

All this is leading up to:  are there any issues I should be aware of about
the V6 other than the original cost outlay?  I have nothing against the
4-cyl, just have no experience with it.  Thanks.

Rich

Thanx for writing!  While one may quibble with Consumer Reports methods,
politics, or criteria by which they test cars, at least you can say that the
Sonata vs. Optima is testing apples vs. apples.

The re-designed Sonata, while testing far better than the previous model,
its '09 4-cylnder still is not quite as highly rated as the '08 Optima
4-cylinder.  And I would expect the score of the '09 Optima to improve at
least a point or two.

And this is one case where I agree with CR.  To make a long answer short -
YES, I think the Kia is a bit better than the Hyundai and in several
niggling little areas.  For one, the new Kia's are being tuned a little more
for sport performance than the Hyundais.

I also like how the Kias are packaged into their option groups a little
better than the Hyundais.  That is particularly true with the Sedona vs.
Entourage minivan.

But maybe that's just me.  What it probably really comes down to is nothing
more complicated than, "Which brand (in your area) has the better dealer?"
I have noticed that Hyundai or Kia dealers rate among the very best or the
very worst, with little in between.

It's easy in my area, because all four dealers within a 75-mile radius are
one and the same, selling both Hyundais and Kias.  And of those, two
dealerships are excellent, two I don't have the time of day for.