• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

2014 Kia Forte EX: Pretty good for the price.

P

Pardus

Diamond Member
Went with a friend of mine this weekend to look for cars, she couldn't decide if she should get something used or new.

The biggest issue was she didn't want monthly payments of $300+ and on the flip-side, buying a used car without knowing the history can be trouble.

So we first looked at a 2007 Subaru Legacy Limited, it had 129k on it. My other friend who is mechanic came with me and played quiet just looking at the car without saying much in front of the salesman. He noticed that car needed new head gaskets, the a/c was not working at all, needed new tires and had seemed to be in an accident. He told me the rear panel looked like it was re-painted. He figured all the repairs would easily be $1000+. So the dealership wanted $10,300, we made an offer of $8,100 figuring there would be other problems we did not immediately see.

Offer refused as the dealership's mechanic argued there was nothing wrong with the car aside from minor dings and dents.

Next car was a 2009 Nissan Altima with 35,901 miles at a different location. This one was missing part of the headlamp assembly and was really dirty inside, like someone was living in there. The car took a while to start and when it did, we smelled something bad. My mechanic friend looks at me all weird and shit. I said, what's wrong.. he says quietly, there is no oil in here. Someone must of abused the crap out this car. Notice the miles are just under 36lK, it was prob a lease. We passed on it even though it was $12k

We proceeded to look at a few more cars and kept finding Subaru's with cracked windshield's and failing head gaskets. One of the cars had a used condom in the back seat.. nasty shit. After about 4 hours of looking, we were all getting nowhere.

So I tell my friend of mine, look, I know you want used and don't want to make monthly payments, lets just take a look at Kia. We were near where i got my car. She looks at one car only, the Kia Forte Ex and gives me a big smile.

This high end EX model is loaded to the max. backup camera, leather seats, navi. push button start, uvo voice commands, traction control, stability control, side and side curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes with brake assist, bluetooth, trip computer, tire pressure monitoring system, dual-zone automatic climate control, HID headlights, LED taillights, power heated and ventilated leather seats, and a power sunroof.

I never looked at it myself. All this for 19k. It spits out 173hp @ 6,500 rpm, 24 City / 36 HWY and rode like a dream.

The dealership had the MSRP of $19.915 and would offer it to her for $16,995. However, she would have to come back in August. We all said at the same time, why August. The sales guy said he could offer her a powertrain warranty of 200,000 instead of 100,000 for the end of summer special. However, all work had to be done at this dealership and not at any local service station.

There are several rebates and incentives she doesn't qualify for..not in military, recent college grad or previous kia owner. she has a trade, but it doesn't qualify for any additional discounts.

Corrected Prices:
Kia Forte LX (no packages to add onto): MSRP: $18,400. Dealer Price: $17,600. Offered Price: $16,610.
Kia Forte EX Base: MSRP: $20,100. Dealer Price: $19,400 Offered Price: $18,300
Kia Forte EX w/Premium Package: MSRP: $23,400. Dealer Price: $22,600 Offered Price: $21,600
Kia Forte EX w/Premium and Technology Package: MSRP: $25,400. Dealer Price: $24,600 Offered Price: $23,100

0.9% Financing: 0-60 mos
1.9% Financing: 61-71 mos
2.9% Financing: 72+ mos

Head to head review:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1303_compact_sedans_the_big_test/viewall.html
5th Place: Nissan Sentra
Poor handling, poor fuel economy, and a shorter feature list outweigh a low price and big back seat.
4th Place: Honda Civic
A weak drivetrain, poor fuel economy, and frustrating nav system sank a solid entry.
3rd Place: Dodge Dart
Sport handling and a long list of features weren't enough to overcome a high price and terrible gas mileage.
2nd Place: Mazda3
An enthusiast's special and fuel-sipper to boot, weighed down by a heavy price tag and missing features.
1st Place: Kia Forte
Handles well, sips fuel, loaded with exclusive features, and priced just right. What's not to like?
Click to expand...

Video Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrv-dPaF45k

Some dealerships are offering an extra $5000 off, if you read the window sticker, there is a $5000 surcharge added next to the price, be careful.

The salesman said some local repair shops in the area have been known to use crappy parts when it comes to Kia figuring the owner won't know anyway or doesn't care as they think of Kia as a throw-away car. So the dealership is trying to change that with a better warranty.

If she put down $4-5k. At 1.9% interest over 60-72-mos, her monthly payment would be $220 or so. And with the better warranty, how could you go wrong.

Kia offered her 1-year free maintenance and loaner like I got. Damn Kia, first you impress me with the Soul and now the Forte. Hope they keep making great cars like this in the future.

Time will tell if these Kia's will make it to 200,000 miles.
 
Last edited:
If it makes you/her feel better, Kia has been making big strides in their quality department. I get to work relatively closely with several major automakers, and I can tell you Kia is doing a lot to shed their reputation as a junk auto maker. The prices are starting to catch up with the work they're doing as people realize they're for real now, so it's good to jump on them before they get any higher.
 
Yazoo said:
The sales guy said he could offer her a powertrain warranty of 200,000 instead of 100,000 for the end of summer special. However, all work had to be done at this dealership and not at any local service station.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "all the work"?

A requirement that all non-warranty work (i.e. maintenance) be performed by the dealership is not legal. Requiring that all work be done by a specified party violates the Magnusson-Moss Warranty act, which is a federal law that will supersede any state warranty law. Regardless of what the warranty says, under federal law you can have maintenance performed anywhere you like as long as it meets the manufacturer's requirements.

If the dealer just means that you have to come to them if anything needs fixed under the warranty then that's fine (they warrant it, they fix it), but the way you've said it makes me think they're trying to say they have to do all the maintenance too, which would be bullshit.

They're also full of shit about the whole "some shops have been known to use crappy parts" thing. Every dealer says that about independent shops because the dealerships want the high-margin repair and maintenance business for themselves.

Also, as far as a powertrain warranty goes, I'd be very skeptical of it covering anything that's actually likely to go wrong. The dealership's extension of the warranty is guaranteed to be worded so loosely that they'll be able to get out of just about anything. I'm also willing to bet that when you go back in August they forget about the price they offered you today.

All that said, the car itself is pretty good. Kia has been making quality products for a while now. Just beware the dealer.

ZV
 
You're getting bullshitted on the warranty thing, as noted.

But I like the Forte and associated Elantra a lot. It's not something to feel bad about- the way it feels inside and the way it drives puts both the Corolla and Civic to shame.

I will note that DAMN I'm becoming annoyed by manufacturers putting backup cameras into every little tiny thing these days. The poster who recently bought a Soul said he got one, and I remember thinking 'compact car with a flat back glass...how hard is it to see where you rear of the car is?'

Nothing personal to it, of course; I wouldn't reject the car for having it or fault the same in anyone else. I just see it eventually becoming the norm, and it's like REALLY? We need another device to encourage people to not watch where they're going?
 
phucheneh said:
You're getting bullshitted on the warranty thing, as noted.

But I like the Forte and associated Elantra a lot. It's not something to feel bad about- the way it feels inside and the way it drives puts both the Corolla and Civic to shame.

I will note that DAMN I'm becoming annoyed by manufacturers putting backup cameras into every little tiny thing these days. The poster who recently bought a Soul said he got one, and I remember thinking 'compact car with a flat back glass...how hard is it to see where you rear of the car is?'

Nothing personal to it, of course; I wouldn't reject the car for having it or fault the same in anyone else. I just see it eventually becoming the norm, and it's like REALLY? We need another device to encourage people to not watch where they're going?
Click to expand...


I will re-check the warranty thing with them, it wasn't clear to me 100% either. Don't understand why subcompacts need a backup camera, can understand it on a large suv or suburban, but not a corolla/civic, etc.

Below is a screenshot from the dealer's website.
Untitled.png
 
Yea skip the 200k BS, the factory 100k at any Kia dealer is fine.

But my guess is they want you to come back in august as there is a sales quota in august and the sales people get more money for selling a certain number of cars in August. But at 17k sounds like a decent deal and will make her happy.
 
Something isn't adding up. MSRP on a Forte with those options is over $25,000. No way are you getting that car for under $17k. A base EX, maybe. But not one with the options you listed.

Still a nice car for the $$ though.
 
phucheneh said:
I will note that I'm becoming annoyed by manufacturers putting backup cameras into every little tiny thing these days. The poster who recently bought a Soul said he got one, and I remember thinking 'compact car with a flat back glass...how hard is it to see where you rear of the car is?'
Click to expand...

Actually, the Soul has terrible blind spots - I wish I had had a backup camera in mine. Plus they're requiring all new cars from 2015 on be sold with backup cameras:

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130620/OEM11/130629981

What would have been even better would have been a live around-view system in the Soul - angled rear windows & huge C-pillars made merging more work than it needed to be 😛
 
Yazoo said:
This car is loaded to the max. backup camera, leather seats, navi. push button start, uvo voice commands, traction control, stability control, side and side curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes with brake assist, bluetooth, trip computer, tire pressure monitoring system, dual-zone automatic climate control, HID headlights, LED taillights, power heated and ventilated leather seats, and a power sunroof.
Click to expand...

Yup. It's kind of hard to beat if you're coming from crummy cars & you're in the used car market. I always had beaters until I started leasing inexpensive new cars, and then when I got the Kia Soul, I was just super impressed - very reasonable price, ridiculous amount of features, plus actually fun to drive. Even other "cheap" cars like the Versa are amazing these days - they feel like a much more expensive ride. Not insane amounts of power, but more than enough to merge safely, plus great gas mileage.

It's a great time to get into new cars!
 
It's two packages totaling $4,900 to get nav and push button start.

If we take the discounted EX price of $17K shown above, we end up around $22K.
 
LTC8K6 said:
It's two packages totaling $4,900 to get nav and push button start.

If we take the discounted EX price of $17K shown above, we end up around $22K.
Click to expand...

Even at $22K, that would be pretty good. I'm getting $23,664 for a loaded EX from the USAA car-buying service, which normally has huuuuuge discounts on Hyundai/Kia cars. Even the base EX is in the high-18s for me.
 
A5 said:
Even at $22K, that would be pretty good. I'm getting $23,664 for a loaded EX from the USAA car-buying service, which normally has huuuuuge discounts on Hyundai/Kia cars. Even the base EX is in the high-18s for me.
Click to expand...

Okay, but he's claiming $16,995.00 for it in the first post...
 
LTC8K6 said:
Okay, but he's claiming $16,995.00 for it in the first post...
Click to expand...

Well yeah, that's just silly for a loaded EX. This sounds like a shitty dealer beyond the initial pricing, IMO.

$17K for a base EX would be a good deal though.
 
Strange that there seems to be this discount on that vehicle, but not on 2013 Forte models.

The discount is probably several rebates that you don't qualify for.

Discounts include dealer discount and must qualify for all manufacturer rebates.
Click to expand...
 
I was at a Kia dealership this weekend and test drove a Optima and i was quite impressed. Its was a nice vehicle. One of my interns just bought a forte and i rode it in and again i was quite impressed. The were added to the list for replacing my wifes car in the fall.
 
I don't want a camera
I like the backup beeps in my Flex tho, however I find I come to rely on them and they are gone when I go to our car
 
I like the Forte, it's a massive step up for Kia. It's not perfect, but I have a '12 TC 6MT, and to be honest, the Forte is probably just as good in most ways, and better in a few. Toyota doesn't impress me at all.
 
Just for a minute, lets stop and consider that she was considering used cars around $10k. Now she's looking at a new car double that amount. Alarm bells should be ringing in the finance dept. I would suggest that before she does anything with the KIA, she should check out the used market in that price range. Assuming she can really afford it.
 
Midwayman said:
Just for a minute, lets stop and consider that she was considering used cars around $10k. Now she's looking at a new car double that amount. Alarm bells should be ringing in the finance dept. I would suggest that before she does anything with the KIA, she should check out the used market in that price range. Assuming she can really afford it.
Click to expand...

She is still looking at used, hard to find something decent. Every car online seems to be white or gold, very odd. Were going to check out a 2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i wit 86k on it for 10k and a few more. Problem is i don't know the car's history, records are never available. Until it goes up on a lift and everything is checked out, its hit or miss.

We couldn't find a new car for 16k made by anyone else. Even though the Forte is going to be $17-$18k, its the best we're seeing right now.

We're looking at price, warranty and overall reliability. Besides, she plans on keeping the car for 8-10 years at minimum, so its going to be a long term investment.

We did look at at 2008 Altima, but it had over 120k it, someone drove that hard.
 
Last edited:
Yazoo said:
She is still looking at used, hard to find something decent. Every car online seems to be white or gold, very odd. Were going to check out a 2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i wit 86k on it for 10k and a few more. Problem is i don't know the car's history, records are never available. Until it goes up on a lift and everything is checked out, its hit or miss.

We couldn't find a new car for 16k made by anyone else. Even though the Forte is going to be $17-$18k, its the best we're seeing right now.

We're looking at price, warranty and overall reliability. Besides, she plans on keeping the car for 8-10 years at minimum, so its going to be a long term investment.

We did look at at 2008 Altima, but it had over 120k it, someone drove that hard.
Click to expand...

You can get a CPO accord around that price. You should be able to pick up a pretty nice used car for that kind of money. Just saying you might want to explore some more options before buying new.
 
Midwayman said:
You can get a CPO accord around that price. You should be able to pick up a pretty nice used car for that kind of money. Just saying you might want to explore some more options before buying new.
Click to expand...

Now she will consider a CPO , but only AWD, makes it that much harder to find something. We'll keep looking, there is no rush.

Saw this on craigslist, but it was sold already.
http://reading.craigslist.org/ctd/3953896306.html

Someone on craigslist is selling a 2005 Acura TL for $2k, when i sent an email with the details, i got back the typical b.s i'm out of town visiting so and so, but you can make payment right now via western union and i'll ship you the car.. lol, gotta love Craigslist.
 
Last edited:
I am very pleased with the ride and solidity of my new-to-me 2005 camry bought last Oct. with 100k miles...I got it at a dealer for $7k out the door, (down from $8500 on the window), and many others are out there under $10k with under 100k miles...I'd recommend taking one of the 05/06 year models for a look/drive...

I expect to drive 10k/yr and am confident it will go 15 years...which is a good thing I like the I4/manual tranny...it has plenty of pep and MPG is 24 in town/34 @ 70-77mph...and with the stick it's fun to drive...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top