About 40 political and business leaders in Troup County went on a “pretty impressive” tour of the Kia Motors auto assembly plant Thursday.

The 4.2 million-square-foot plant in West Point has been open to public tours this month. No more reservations are available, but “maybe we’ll do this again next year,” said Kia spokeswoman Joanne Mabry.

The nearly 1,200 employees are making 450 to 480 cars per day - all 2011 Sorentos that go on sale next month - and those numbers may double by this time next year.

The tour begins in the stamping shop that features a 5,400-ton press from South Korea. It took 19 trucks going 5 mph to bring the press to Troup County from port at Savannah in October 2008.

The stamped body parts go to a shop where 244 robots weld them together as maintenance personnel make sure the robots do their job.

“The robots almost look human the way they move,” said Mabry, who led the tour.

Another 86 robots are in the paint shop, where employees wear special suits to maintain a lint-free environment, and deodorants and perfumes are forbidden because they can have a chemical reaction with the paint.

Even with all the robots, humans do enough of the work that “the cars are essentially handcrafted,” Mabry said.

At the end of production, the Kia nameplate goes on the vehicle and it’s cranked for the first time. It gets a workout on the test track, along with a check for any leaks and a final inspection.

“It’s pretty impressive,” LaGrange utilities director Patrick Bowie said after Thursday’s tour.

LaGrange Development authority member Tom Malone toured a GM plant in Detroit in 1980, but this is “dramatically different,” he said.

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.