MY SEOUL MATE

South Korea's capital suffers from terrible traffic. Which of these two Kias will make tackling it less fraught: a buzzy little nipper or a luxury limo? Felix Page finds out

We're staging this battle in Seoul because few cities on the planet can lay claim to such a comprehensively diverse car parc and because it's one of the world's most notoriously congested. But you could just as easily substitute the backdrop for Manhattan or Rome and the cars for, say, a Range Rover and a Ford Fiesta. Because it's a simple question that we're asking: is there any point splashing out on a large, luxurious and highly specified motor if it's going to spend 97% of its working life stationary and the other 3% doing less than 20mph? This is a question that has been brought to the fore in recent years by a startlingly rapid rise in car prices and sizes, alongside the just as sudden demise of the humble city car - developments that have conspired to reduce the availability of true urban-appropriate personal transport solutions and thereby heightened traffic levels, demand for full-size parking spaces and emissions in urban areas.

You've no doubt glanced cynically at those Bentleys and Ferraris trundling around your local city centre, engines surging obnoxiously and out of step with their slowly rotating wheels, and wondered why on earth anyone would drive such fast, large and expensive cars through such a restrictive environment.

Admittedly, the incongruous luxury car we've brought along here leans a touch towards the executive end of the spectrum, and wouldn't necessarily appear all that out of place in British traffic. But measuring 5015mm long, powered by a meaty atmo 3.5-litre V6 and claiming an urban consumption rating of just 20.7mpg, it's certainly not born to be a city slicker. Meet the Kia K8: Korea's answer (or, more accurately, one of its several answers) to the Audi A6 and BMW 5 Series, and agreeable it is to make its acquaintance. Clichéd though it may be to bemoan the absence of a compelling coupé-like saloon in the UK, I reckon we can agree this is a pretty attractive forbidden fruit.