Kia Optima SX

“Nice car! What is it,” the waitress asked as she brought us our food. She’d seen us drive up in a Spicy Red 2011 Kia Optima SX and she was interested — in the car, of course.

“It’s a brand new Kia Optima,” I replied.

“Oh,” the waitress said, crestfallen. “My mom says those aren’t very good cars.”

I wanted to point out the French seam on the dashboard leather, pop the hood and show off the all-new turbine housing that channels air to reduce turbo lag, let her take the car and floor it on a highway offramp, all just to prove her wrong.

It’s the automaker’s curse: You’re known not by your current lineup, but by whatever now-irrelevant crap you foisted on the public 20 years ago. It explains why, for legions of car buyers, General Motors is defined by the plastic-paneled Lumina APV but Mercedes is remembered as the builder of the rock-solid E300.

Hyundai, who shares a corporate parent with Kia but entered the U.S. market eight years earlier, is already gaining legions of fans who are impressed with a good car, not just the car’s good price. Kia remains new enough that it’s unfairly still considered a budget brand also-ran in most circles. (Are you listening, Geely, BYD and Tata?)

Kia Optima SX

If Kia has any chance of lifting the curse, however, it’s with the Optima, a solid car that exceeds all the requirements of a family four-door. It’s the first, and so far only, Korean car to get perfect scores in NHTSA crash tests, and the 100,000-mile drivetrain warranty inspires even more confidence than a short test drive.

Though Kia’s Optima and the Hyundai Sonata share parents, a platform and a powertrain, the two siblings couldn’t be more different. The Sonata grew up to be a pharmaceutical salesman with a modest wine collection, while the Optima owns his own construction firm and plays flag football on the weekends. In LX and EX trim, it’s a sporty and stylish competitor to the Accord and Camry.

Check off the “SX” box, however, and you’ve got an entirely different animal, one that has no living competition.

The 18-inch brushed-aluminum wheels appear to have been pilfered from Big Ben’s innards, while the side skirts, spoiler and lower front and rear bumpers mimic a Gulfstream V on final approach. Also exclusive to the SX are HID headlights, LED tail lamps, paddle shifters and alloy pedals.