CAR GAZING
New Kia pumps up the volume
Forte surprisingly refined, well-equipped
By Derek Price
Normally when you're shopping for a low-priced car, you have two choices.
Option one is getting a car that has plenty of standard features but drives like a rustbucket. It may have power windows and a gazillion-watt stereo, but what does that matter when it has a suspension from a skateboard and an engine from a blender?
Option two is getting a car that feels nice but comes with zero features. It might have a refined drivetrain and silent cabin, but you'll have to pay extra for the carpet. And pretty much everything else.
The new Kia Forte tries to do both jobs, offering the refinement of a real sedan with a long list of nice features, all for a low price.
For the most part, it succeeds.
The Forte starts at just $13,695, a low price indeed. But it doesn't feel like a cheap car. You step into the cabin and quickly discover that it's a perfectly pleasant place to spend time. It's not spacious – you don't expect much head room in a compact car like this – but it's built with the kind of precision and materials you'd normally find in a more expensive vehicle.
It's also packed with standard equipment.
For that base price, which you'd normally see on a stripped-down car, you get standard satellite radio, a USB connection for your music, and even Bluetooth connectivity that lets the car communicate with your cell phone. An automatic transmission and air conditioning cost extra – $2,500 to get both – but it's still not a bad deal, especially considering how some luxury cars didn't offer Bluetooth a couple of years ago.
Even better, the Forte drives like it costs a lot more.
This isn't a car that feels like a tin can. Yes, the doors sound light and cheap when you shut them, but once you're actually on the road the Forte takes on a much more refined, poised personality. It's quiet and smooth like a nice mid-size sedan. It accelerates with confidence and is fun to drive with a manual transmission.
The base engine, a 2.0-liter four-cylinder that makes 156 horsepower, is among the best in its class. And if you step up to the 173-horsepower, 2.4-liter version ($17,195), it's downright quick.
It's also a handsome car, with smartly designed lines that look fantastic. Unlike the Kia Rio, with its plastic body cladding, the Forte has a clean simplicity that would be fitting on an expensive European car.
There is a downside, though, because you're still driving a Kia economy car at the end of the day. And because it's a Kia economy car – even a refined and well-equipped one – its resale value isn't likely to be that great when it comes time to sell it.
Still, a bargain is a bargain.
And the new Forte is one of the best deals on wheels.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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