2010-03-12

Against all odds...

Kia has made a car that's not a complete yawn or completely offensive to look at. The Forte Koup (no points for stupid spelling, marketing) looks to have "borrowed" heavily from the Honda Civic Coupe design, and I think they've made a good go at it. The 4 cylinder mills driving the front wheels should be sewing machine reliable if Kia's recent track record has anything to say about it. The cars are well appointed, even the base model has cruise, 4 discs (which is becoming more common these days, but surprisingly is not standard on all cars yet), AirCon, tilt steering, more airbags than you can shake a stick at, what appears to be a sane driver/center console setup... On paper, it looks like a steal for the base of under $18k.

Seeing one in person in the racing red was quite the shock. If I hadn't caught the badge on the front, I'd have thought it was a Honda.

I'd LOVE to hear some other opinions about this car. Preferably from someone who's driven one. I suspect that it probably shows its econobox roots when driving, with a noisy interior, cheap, plastic that creaks, and so forth. From what I can see, it looks like there's potentially some significant blind spots in the back, so proper mirror adjustment would be very important.

Hats off to Kia, trying to get a little further away from their econobox mold.