ArcaMax

Kia worked hard on this thing to downplay the minivan meme. You notice this immediately when you observe the console-mounted gear shifter. The others all have their shifters mounted on the dash, toggle-style. It's sensible and functional (frees up console space) but about as sporty as granny panties. Then there's the gauge package - pods and sport bike-like. Well, sporty crossover-like. It's a very different look, for a minivan.

The performance potential complements this. Nearly 300 hp will get almost anything going in hurry and the Kia will respond eagerly, if given the opportunity. Burnouts would be possible if the traction control didn't step in to prevent it. Regardless, this minivan is fully capable of beating several sporty cars to the next red light, especially if you get the drop on their drivers. Which is easy to do, because you're in a minivan - and no one expects you to drop the hammer.

Kia has done good work here. The six-speed transmission shifts quickly, but not harshly; the engine seems to want to run… .

Which is why it's such a shame that the typical minivan driver isn't interested in that. Hence the minivan "rep" as a left lane hog and general traffic clogger, a fact made all the more frustrating to those caught behind one because they know it's not the van's fault. It'll corner, too.

A 19-inch wheel/tire package is available (17s are are as aggressive as it gets over at Chrysler; the Odyssey's largest whees are 18s). The Sienna is the only other van that also offers such sporting enhancements and it's a close race between the two, as far as hustling through the apexes. Which is actually a lot of fun in a seven-passenger bus that weighs about 4,400 pounds empty - but keep in mind that price disparity.

The Kia also looks more the part - or rather, less the part (of a minivan) and that adds an intangible. As a parallel, the Dodge Hellcat I got to test recently felt less fast than my old muscle car, despite the Hellcat having probably twice the power. Because my old muscle car was louder, had that air bag-free steering wheel, the sound of the big four-barrel sucking air through an open hood scoop.

The Kia does the same thing, minivan-wise. Toyota and Chrysler and Honda are still building minivans that look like minivans and so feel more like minivans, even when they're comparably fun to drive (or could be, if you wanted to go that way). Which brings me to… .

AT THE CURB

Building a minivan that doesn't look like a minivan while still being a minivan in all the functional ways that matter to people who buy minivans is not unlike trying to make Rosie O'Donnell look good in a bikini. Kia has pulled it off. Coming at you, at least.

From that angle, the Sedona looks a lot like the Optima - which is a good-looking sport sedan that Kia has sold a bunch of. The other vans have front clips styled after their conservative family sedans, such as the last-generation Camry (Sienna), the pre-2015 Chrysler 200 (Town & Country) and the current generation Accord (Odyssey).

The Sedona's Optima-inspired "bull-nose" front clip is much jauntier-looking than the Plain Jane faces of its rivals.

It looks sharp from the side too - via visual effects such as the appearance of a continuous sheet of tinted side glass extending from the windshield corners to the tail-lights.

Kia used a simple but very effective trick to do this. Instead of body-colored and upright B and C pillars, there's are flush-mounted and rearward raked pieces of trim tinted exactly the same as the side glass. It makes it look as though the glass is a single unbroken panel from front to rear.

Even though the Sedona's roofline isn't the lowest of the bunch (that would be the Odyssey) and even though others sit lower to the ground (that would be the T&C) the Kia looks sleekest - the least like a minivan.

There is slightly less headroom up front (39.8 inches) than in more upright rivals like the Sienna (41 inches) but it's a very small difference that most people are not likely to notice. But most people will probably notice the Kia's significantly greater second-row legroom (40.6 inches, virtually the same as the driver and front seat passenger get) vs. the 36.5 inches in the T&C's second row and 37.6 inches in the Sienna's. Only the Honda has more - 40.6 inches - which is what you'd expect from the master of maximizing interior space.

Still, the Kia is clearly better in that respect than two of its name-brand rivals - which both cost more, remember. It's a similar story, cargo-wise. The Kia posts a very competitive 33.9 cubic feet behind its third row (with an extra-deep well) and 142 cubic feet of total capacity - vs. 33 cubic feet behind the third and 143.8 total for the T&C and 38.4 and 148.5 for the Odyssey. On this score, the Sienna is class leader, with 39.1 cubic feet of storage space behind its third row and 150 cubic feet total with the second and third row seats folded down.

As noted up above, you can select either seven or eight-passenger seating, with the option to go with a set of really swanky "lounge" chairs that look (and feel) like what you'd find inside a corporate jet. These slide and recline, which is not uncommon - but they also have fold-out leg rests (which isn't common). Add the optional DVD entertainment system and you've got a mini-me RV for road-tripping adults. Or, stick with the standard chairs - which fold up forward against the driver and front seat passenger's chairs - eliminating the need to physically remove them from the vehicle to make the most of the available interior volume.

Other neat Sedona features include outside rearview mirrors that tuck when you park and leave the vehicle and untuck automatically upon your return, an available refrigerated glovebox, rapid charge USB ports and Kia's UVO/Bluetooth/wireless interface and apps.

THE REST

There is one area where the Kia is very much a minivan: Its Safety Nazi impediments to accessing/changing many of the electronically adjustable functions while the vehicle is moving - and the glacially slow open/close rate of the higher-trim model's automatic sliding side doors and liftgate.

Here it is exactly like the Sienna and other traditional vans. God help you if you're in any kind of hurry. Push the button and then - ever so slowly - the liftgate begins its crippled-up dance. You could eat a ham sandwich in the time it take the thing to open and close - and because it is attached to electric motors, the thing fights you if you try to hurry the action along by manually slam the thing closed or pull it open.

The non-gimpy (and in a hurry) will prefer the manual opening (non-electronic) sliders and liftgate. Unfortunately, they are to be found on the lower (L and LX) trims only - which puts you in a bind if you want stuff like the "lounge" chairs or the DVD entertainment rig or the sporty enhancements that come with the SX and SX-L.

THE BOTTOM LINE

It's still a minivan, of course. But if you're interested in one that looks (and drives) like something else, the Sedona might just be the ticket.

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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for comments.