We admit it – we're genetically preprogrammed to be shallow creatures. Despite our moms' best efforts, recognizing inner beauty is all well and good, but it's physical beauty that first puts both people and consumables on our radar.

Exhibit A? The 2011 Kia Optima. You see, while exactly nobody was paying attention, the outgoing Optima actually became a reasonably competitive mid-size sedan. But with the lackluster reputation of its predecessor compounded by styling so banal that it might as well have had "John Doe" as a model designation, the Optima was seemingly forgotten by everyone but fleet managers.

That's not going to be a problem any more.

If someone had told us even five years ago that Kia would be brassy enough to provide any of its products to test at Road 'Hallowed-Be-Thy-Name' Atlanta, we'd have had a good laugh. If that same person told us we'd be looking at the segment's style leader and possibly the best model in the sector, we'd take their temperature before damning them to a year behind the wheel of a marshmallow white Amanti. And yet, after an all-too-brief first taste, there's good reason to believe the Optima may finally live up to its name.

To begin with, this is a seriously attractive automobile. Penned under the tutelage of lead designer Peter Schreyer, Kia has resisted the urge to apply the shopworn 'four-door coupe' descriptor to its latest creation, but it certainly fits. Compared to its starch-and-suspenders predecessor, the new model has leggier proportions – at 190.7 inches long, it shadows its predecessor by nearly two inches, and it's 72.1 inches wide, an increase of nearly two inches – yet it's also lower. Within its larger footprint, the hood is longer by 2.4 inches, yet the rear deck is shorter by 4.3 inches. Those changes in proportion are well-resolved by the aggressive angles used for the windshield and backlight, the latter of which gives one the false impression that rear seat room might be tight.

The Optima's face combines Kia's now-trademark 'tabbed' grille, bookended by a pair of angry-looking headlamps and aggressive lower fascia. One particularly nice detail that doesn't immediate present itself is the subtle indentation at the top of the windshield glass that echoes the grille's form. The rear is almost Jaguar XF-esque in execution, with narrow taillamps and dual exhausts for all models.

Predictably, the overall aesthetic is somewhat less assertive on LX and EX models than it is on the big daddy SX (we particularly wish that the latter's LED taillamps were standard across the range), but this is still a hard-hitting, handsome bit of design that's likely to draw fewer sideways glances than its slick but more controversially styled Hyundai Sonata counterpart.

Inside, the Optima makes no less of a leap forward. The center stack is angled ten degrees towards the driver and the vents are nicely integrated around the gauge binnacle in a way that suggests you've stumbled into a Saab. You can play a game of 'Spot the Parts Sharing,' with the Sonata, but as the two have unique approaches to nearly everything from steering wheel design to HVAC and navigation controls, common bits aren't immediately obvious. Material choices are unlikely to have the Germans seeking therapy, but they're wholly class-appropriate. Observed ergonomics were first-rate, as was fit-and-finish (despite our car's prototype status).

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