Kia Forte Out on Street (in Korea)

Justin Berkowitz
by Justin Berkowitz

Kia sent out some press shots of its new Forte compact sedan last week. But real world pictures of cars are always a step up. Those candid photos, along with scans of the Korean brochure, are here for you to peruse, thanks to the fans at Kia-World.net. IMHO, the Forte looks quite good in the metal. The biggest improvement over the Spectra: the interior. It appears to be made from something other/better than cardboard this time (no word on whether the traditional Hyundai-Kia interior crayon smell will remain). Americans probably will not get the 1.6-liter with 124 horses; the 2.0-liter engine with some 150 horses is a lock. And we're all holding out to see if Kia decides it wants to put its money where its auto show mouth is and give us a version of that 2.0-liter with a turbocharger. Not surprisingly, the Korean brochure shows all sort of high-end kit, from keyless go to Bluetooth to navigation. How many of these doo-hickeys will make it to North America is your guess. Looks like it might be the best Kia yet, though. And that's saying something. I think.

Justin Berkowitz
Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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  • Ryan Ryan on Jul 15, 2008

    Hmm, very Civic minded (pun intended). I had a KIA rental a few months ago. Their product has improved two fold over the past decade. They can easily beat out any current Chrysler product. Is that really saying anything?

  • Shaker Shaker on Jul 15, 2008

    Well, if this design is "derivative", and the Ford Focus is "original", I'll take the Kia, thank you.

  • Geotpf Geotpf on Jul 15, 2008

    It's actually quite unclear if the Cruze replaces the Cobalt or if they actually plan on selling both vehicles at once. Both are horrible ideas. Chevy doesn't need two cars that are the exact same size, so selling both is stupid. However, GM needs to pick a name and stick with it. Part of Honda's and Toyota's success is that they get a fair amount of automatic sales from people who merely buy a new Civic/Accord/Corolla/Camry every five years without shopping around. GM keeps changing the freaking names, so these automatic sales become "maybes".

  • WildBill WildBill on Jul 15, 2008
    I am too young to remember what the Vega replaced,... Corvair?? My wife had one when we first met back in '75. Nice little car, auotmatic and A/C, until I changed the oil for her and screwed up the gasket on the filter cup and it leaked all the oil out and the engine siezed up! Oops, my bad!
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