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Kia Forte

PricklyPete

PricklyPete

Lifer
So I was down in FL for a week and a half on business and had the honor of driving a Kia Forte around for that time. Specifically it was the Kia Forte EX...so it is the "mid-grade" model with the 156 HP engine and 4 spd Automatic. My initial impressions were that the car looked decent for an econobox and should perform pretty well. Once I had it for a week and a half...I opinions greatly soured. My thoughts:

- Engine/Throttle response was immediate off the line...so it felt peppy in stop and go traffic...but once you had do do any real acceleration (especially on the highway), the transmission/engine combo sucked wind. The engine definitely needs more than 4 gears. In comparison to the base model 2004 Honda Civic LX that my wife used to own with it's 117 HP engine...I'd take the Civic every day. There was also a weird engine hiccup. I couldn't pin-point exactly when it would happen, but you suddenly would get a weird jolt on the highway. At first I thought it was when changing gears...but it seemed to happen just during open cruises on the highway. Maybe the fuel injection system had some issues. The car had 11K miles on it.
- Interior trim was ok...nothing outstanding...but then again this is a cheap car. I was excited it had AUX and USB inputs...but the USB input didn't work with my iPhone. The AUX did work, but to be honest, the speakers suck...like really suck.
- Suspension was not well tuned at all. The chassis seemed pretty stiff (didn't rattle), but the suspension was very "loosey-goosey". Taking exit/off ramp curves at any speed was very unnerving (even for my wife as the passenger). Driving down the highway the car almost had a weird "floating" feel and needed a decent amount of correction...which was really annoying on our trip to Key West for the weekend.
- Seats were fine for around town...not good for a long trip.
- Economy seemed pretty decent...but I didn't actually check.

So while my first impressions weren't bad...this car quickly soured on me. A Mazda 3 or Jetta are in a different league (and likely price range)...but I'd be hard pressed to justify saving the bucks on the Forte. It is possible that the nicer SX with the upgraded engine and a manual would greatly improve the car...but I wouldn't hold out hope.

I was very happy to be home driving my own car after that.
 
I was a passenger in one of the new kia fortes; I got out and closed the door in a normal fashion, and all i heard was this hollow tin can like rattle noise, not a satisfying thud. Thought it was a fluke, did it twice more, same thing, thinnest sheets of metal I've ever seen.

my 85 supra feels more solidly put together.
 
StageLeft said:
So it still sounds like it's way better than a corolla 😉
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Really? I dog on the Corolla too, but it's OK for what it is. After getting mostly Corollas, Camrys, and Impalas for rental cars when traveling, the Corolla is much better to drive vs. the Camry. The Camry really sucks wind, is floaty, and sucks overall to drive. The Corolla is a little better in the steering department, but still numb. I always ask for the Impala, but all the rental places say they are the first to get rented for the reasons I stated above.
 
Interesting side-note about Kias. I noticed that there were a large number of Kia Forte coupes and Kia Souls (both new models this year) TRADED-IN at the local Honda dealership. Albeit the dealership guy was biased, he did say they have gotten a numer of trade-ins for almost brand-new Kias to Civics and the like. That is somewhat telling.
 
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I've never been impressed with a rental car and I've always driven rentals differently than any car I own. I'm never surprised when the alignment of a rental car feels off.
 
MaxFusion16 said:
I was a passenger in one of the new kia fortes; I got out and closed the door in a normal fashion, and all i heard was this hollow tin can like rattle noise, not a satisfying thud. Thought it was a fluke, did it twice more, same thing, thinnest sheets of metal I've ever seen.

my 85 supra feels more solidly put together.
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Heh, you should hear what it sounds like when you shut the door with my windows rolled down on my 330i.

The windows rattle so hard, it sounds like they'll shatter. Makes the car feel cheap as hell, LOL.

On my wife's 05 civic, her door sounds like 500lbs of metal. A nice solid thunk which makes it sound invincible.
 
KIAman said:
Heh, you should hear what it sounds like when you shut the door with my windows rolled down on my 330i.

The windows rattle so hard, it sounds like they'll shatter. Makes the car feel cheap as hell, LOL.

On my wife's 05 civic, her door sounds like 500lbs of metal. A nice solid thunk which makes it sound invincible.
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+1. They tried giving my co-worker a Kia for a rental a few months back and the doors weren't even well-fitted to the doorframe. It felt cheap as hell when closing, and the gaps were uneven. That said, the AC was broken (the car had 3000 miles) so he got a different car. Charlotte NC in July with no AC = crappy. 🙂
 
KIAman said:
Heh, you should hear what it sounds like when you shut the door with my windows rolled down on my 330i.

The windows rattle so hard, it sounds like they'll shatter. Makes the car feel cheap as hell, LOL.

On my wife's 05 civic, her door sounds like 500lbs of metal. A nice solid thunk which makes it sound invincible.
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I haven't been impressed with my E46 M3 doors either...although I don't have the glass shattering affect. There is a very noticeable difference in quality between the doors on my wife's Audi and the doors on my BMW..of course 8 years divide them and I didn't buy the M3 for the way the doors open and close.
 
PricklyPete said:
I was excited it had AUX and USB inputs...but the USB input didn't work with my iPhone.
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It probably needs a device that can work in MSC mode. Can you copy stuff off your iPhone on a computer without iTunes installed?

kornphlake said:
I've never been impressed with a rental car and I've always driven rentals differently than any car I own. I'm never surprised when the alignment of a rental car feels off.
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I also try to drive something new every time I rent a car. There were some that weren't bad. I was actually reasonably impressed with the recent Camry rental. It had quirks I didn't like, but was otherwise not bad for a mid-sized family car. I think I had a Kia Rio once and I hated it. Also got terrible gas mileage (maybe under 20MPG) because I had it floored all the time because it felt so slow, LOL. Wasn't too impressed with a Pontiac G6. Also wasn't too impressed (twice) with a rental Mazda 3. It felt nowhere near as fun to drive as my wife's Mazda 3s. Not even close!

Once I did drive a car that I ended up really liking. It was a Ford Contour, and we took it for a week long road trip. I liked it enough that I was thinking it would be really nice to own one, except for the fact that it needed mo' powah! Guess what? Half year later I bought a Ford Contour SVT. Everything I liked about the Contour, and with more power!
 
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Zap said:
Once I did drive a car that I ended up really liking. It was a Ford Contour, and we took it for a week long road trip. I liked it enough that I was thinking it would be really nice to own one, except for the fact that it needed mo' powah! Guess what? Half year later I bought a Ford Contour SVT. Everything I liked about the Contour, and with more power!
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Contour SVT was a great little car. I remember a friend of mine having one my Freshmen year of college...was a blast to drive hard.
 
I drive Fotes A LOT at work. They're not that bad. Definitely better than some of the other cars we have. Good econo-beater car. Transmission is a bit better in semi-automatic mode.

It's a cheap car so what do you expect? It's not a muscle car. It's still leagues ahead of the Chevy Cobalts we had before. The Forte looks like a Lexus compared to those junkers.
 
ExarKun333 said:
Really? I dog on the Corolla too, but it's OK for what it is. After getting mostly Corollas, Camrys, and Impalas for rental cars when traveling, the Corolla is much better to drive vs. the Camry. The Camry really sucks wind, is floaty, and sucks overall to drive. The Corolla is a little better in the steering department, but still numb. I always ask for the Impala, but all the rental places say they are the first to get rented for the reasons I stated above.
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It's reliable transportation but has almost nothing else going for it.
 
They are very cheap cars, fleet costs are far less than comparable mid sizes. I believe they run half the cost of a Civic. I tested the first batch when they came out, if you recall I got a whole bunch of defective seat belts.

A note for ExarKun333, those are guaranteed trades, with a fixed price. Meaning, there is very little depreciation loss since Kia takes the hit.
 
mmntech said:
It's a cheap car so what do you expect? It's not a muscle car. It's still leagues ahead of the Chevy Cobalts we had before. The Forte looks like a Lexus compared to those junkers.
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I wasn't expecting a lot. I'll give you that it is better than a Chevy Cobalt and past Kia subcompacts...but compared to a lot of cars in its segment...it sucks. You probably can get it cheaper than most other rivals in the segment...but I don't think saving the money here is worth it.
 
PricklyPete said:
I wasn't expecting a lot. I'll give you that it is better than a Chevy Cobalt and past Kia subcompacts...but compared to a lot of cars in its segment...it sucks. You probably can get it cheaper than most other rivals in the segment...but I don't think saving the money here is worth it.
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They don't last long, that's for sure. Once they hit 50,000km, they're done. Most of its rivals start at around the same price, so you can definitely get a better deal.

Mind you, as a bumming around town car, they're fine. Decent stock features. Good performance off the line, though you're right, four gears isn't enough. The Civic is still the best car in that price range though, closely followed by the Focus.
 
mmntech said:
They don't last long, that's for sure. Once they hit 50,000km, they're done. Most of its rivals start at around the same price, so you can definitely get a better deal.

Mind you, as a bumming around town car, they're fine. Decent stock features. Good performance off the line, though you're right, four gears isn't enough. The Civic is still the best car in that price range though, closely followed by the Focus.
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I've driven both the Rhondo and the Forte recently. The Rhondo was a disaster. The rear seatbelt housing and mechanism were all shattered because if incredibly poor design where they got crunched by the lay-down seat mechanism. The stereo and speakers sounded abysmal: I haven't heard speakers sound in... well... forever. They sounded like someone had put headphones in the door. The car tracked down the freeway: it tracked everywhere but STRAIGHT. It actually felt dangerous to drive the way it floated around the lane and required constant and considerable correction to keep it going straight. Mileage sucked too. The only good thing I had to say about either car was that first gear acceleration was excellent. I'm not even going to bother looking up its safety record. I'll never drive one again.
 
Interesting review PP, it's great to see more perpsectives emerging on this car. Sounds like the base model is just not very good. I sat in a 6-speed SX 2.4L model and was very impressed with the interior, and the doors felt like they were filled with concrete they were so heavy (wonder why they would be different between base and SX?). Sadly, looking at the Edmunds review :

http://www.insideline.com/kia/forte/2010/2010-kia-forte-sx-first-drive.html

it looks like the SX 2.4L is disappointing in the real world as well.

Given the price, good looks (the SX looks nice with the trim and wheels upgrade), and good specs, I *really* wanted to like this car. What a disappointment.
 
I don't know if the Forte uses lean-burn, but that might explain the hiccup you felt in the engine.
 
Arkaign said:
Interesting review PP, it's great to see more perpsectives emerging on this car. Sounds like the base model is just not very good. I sat in a 6-speed SX 2.4L model and was very impressed with the interior, and the doors felt like they were filled with concrete they were so heavy (wonder why they would be different between base and SX?). Sadly, looking at the Edmunds review :

http://www.insideline.com/kia/forte/2010/2010-kia-forte-sx-first-drive.html

it looks like the SX 2.4L is disappointing in the real world as well.

Given the price, good looks (the SX looks nice with the trim and wheels upgrade), and good specs, I *really* wanted to like this car. What a disappointment.
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I honestly don't remember the doors being as bad as some others in the thread said. The car wasn't a complete disaster...I just wouldn't put my money into it if I were buying a car.

I have to say the coupe version of the Forte with upgraded wheels looks pretty fantastic...and I was really wanting to like this car as well. I remember having a Hyundai Elantra a couple of years ago as a rental and thought it was pretty good for what it did. I also had a Santa Fe about a year ago and while far from perfect...I thought it drove pretty well for a small CUV. This thing did not measure up to either Hyundai's in any way.
 
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