July2
Kia today revealed the the Korean market version of its new Forte sedan, which should be almost identical to the North American version. Designed as a replacement for the aging Spectra, sales of the new car will begin in Kia’s home country in late August, making it a 2009 model. However, U.S. sales aren’t expected to begin until some time in 2009, so it might be badged as a 2010 depending on the timeline involved.
The base powertrain is a 1.6-liter I4, but a more powerful 2.0-liter I4 is planned for the North American market. If the production car uses the same DOHC inline-four as the Koup Concept, it could deliver up to 290 horsepower.
The Spectra is Kia’s top selling model, and was first introduced in 2000, originally sold only as a hatchback. It’s not known if a hatch version of the new Forte will be produced, or if the model lines will diverge.
It looks like an Elantra made love to a TSX
If you don’t like the current Acura TSX design, here’s a cheaper alternative.. I will reserve judgment on this until I see the engine specs, interior, price, gas mileage, etc.. So far Kia gets a nod for design, let’s see if quality can keep up.. and which brand do you feel more comfortable with Kia or Hyundai?!? It’s like the Honda and Toyota battle in Korea..
Well……. not quite.
Acura is a luxury brand and Kia, for the most part is an economy brand. People that are in the market for this cant afford the Acura, These people would be looking at a Civic, Fit, Corolla, Yaris etc
The design is nice albeit stolen from Acura especially the headlights but great nonetheless
Kia and Hyundai’s quality is up and they got a bump in resale.
Kia is also owned by Hyundai so there is not battle maybe a sibling rivalry but not a battle lol
I’m still confused as to what Hyundai is supposed to be and what Kia is supposed to be.
Hyundai Luxury and Kia Sporty and economical?
Looks like they copied the honda civic. What a pos company kia is.
I do see some Civic in this. Then again, current Civic did set world on fire upon introduction. Toyota canceled Corolla intro and went to the drawing board (in Italy!) to compete. Not a bad looking sedan. Considering state of affairs in auto industry (high fuel cost) Kia might as well bring both engines to US: I bet that 1.6L will sell well.
come on guys…this car look way better than Hondas…!
Not bad. A lot less ackward looking than most previous Kias. Yet somehow the front end says current gen Honda Civic to me.
Ahh.. so it’s the Acura-Honda, Lexus-Toyota in Korean version then.. Well with the new Hyundai Genesis (sedan and coupe) and this new offering from Kia along with the Koup concept I think both brands are slowly defining who they are.. Hyundai will eventually become that luxury segment and Kia will become econimocal.. I like that both brands are listening to people out there (in terms of stying and performance- numbers look good on paper) I know it’s another thing for that to translate on the road though.. Both brands are definitely getting people’s attention, and that’s a great start considering some people are turning away from the Big 3.. (Don’t tell me you’re gonna bite on that $2.99 gas deal..)
I wonder if those headlights would swap directly to a Civic.
If this thing has a digital speedo on top of the dash cluster Honda should sue.
looks a little like a Subaru.
i can see all the different stylings to- hell i think the rear can go either way, Civic or Lexux IS-250(350) not the taillights just the shape of the trunk and rear
This car looks really nice. It looks like a design that no one can really hate. People might hate it because they say it looks like Kia copied other brands like Honda/Acura/Lexus. It looks good and I think it looks a lot better than the Civic Sedan. I never did like what Honda did to the current Civic. The Civic’s side profile reminds me of the Pontiac Trans Sport’s Dustbuster front end shape. This car looks better than the Corolla or Sentra. Good job Kia.
It’s okay… Nothing soul-capturing as such but not bad looking… I respect Kia for their efforts - they’re doing great and coming on in leaps and bounds… Give them time…
It’s a derivative design for sure, but the pieces come together than the “originals”, especially the spacey Civic and the now-blistered TSX. Looks nice for a car in it’s class.
It does look like a mash of other designs. But the package as a whole, looks VERY nice. It’s nice to see some decent stuff finally coming out of this automaker. They’ll probably slowly turn around their underdog status, to full fledged competition. Time will tell.
This does seem to have a lot of Acura/Honda design influence. I’ll take it over the dowdy Spectra any day, though.
It could develop up to 290HP? Gimme a break. Kia’s FORTE has never been the number of ponies under the hood.
2nd best looking econo-box out there behind the Mazda3.
Nah… they’ll either overprice it or totally ruin the looks by slapping that lame plastic cladding on the side like they do the Rio.
looks decent, Kia engines are surprisingly tough engines. I tortured the hell out of a rental Kia for almost a month while in Italy and the thing never died. And I mean really tortured it. I’ve done less to a Ford focus rental and I blew the engine. Kia needs to get rid of all its 4spd auto’s and start putting in 5spd autos. 4spd is very outdated these days.
Looks a little like a honda, little like a subura, but COMPLETELY like $H!T.
I love it. I was impressed with the design. Even i was shocked to know it would come out of a kia design studio. But Kia is also much better than they used to be so it didn’t shock me too bad.
I prefer this look over the Civic which seems to be what everyone thinks its a copy of. We could say that of anything. The ‘new’ focus looks like a Suzuki SX4 to me. So does anyone bitch about that? Ford’s bigger POS than Kia now-days.
Headlights are from Civic, taillights are from ‘fancy Toyota’ IS.
I love that Kia has adopted a grille that looks like a photo-negative of Honda’s “H”.. shouldn’t Hyundai have the H grille?
Despite the grille, this looks TONS better than the new Corolla and Cobalt/Optra. Can’t wait to see the coupe!
It really does look like an Acura, but this was in the works around the same time as the new Acura design, so can’t say much for that.
Otherwise, it looks good, but they really toned it down from the concept. I think Kia could use one or two major products, as they currently have none.
The “H” grille on the new Kias is in honor to the “H” for Hyundai, Kia’s obvious parent company…
I dont think the concept was very much more radical than the production forte. take a look @ the Koup & this side by side, the lights have the same shapes its just that the Koup has that interesting iridescent look & this doesn’t. otherwise its very similar. Hence all the commentary on the Koup’s “too-ready-for-production look to be a concept”.
JoshyLofty… But you forget the Focus is actually a very good car as well, regardless of what you may think of its looks…
Some people may be able to detroy the Focus engines, but I would rag my fathers and it was fine.
Duratec engines are actually durable… Ask Noble.
Oh BTW, I’m from the UK… not sure how the US focus is… :p
kias run amazing and their body styling is getting better. the mazda tribute is identical to the ford explorer, same with the spectra5 with the new golf (for the most part) but no one slams on those
shït
I really like the design of that car and it is already in showroom in Korea http: // www .kia-world . net / index.php / 2008/07/05/ early-look-at-2010-kia- forte/ . Very nice replacement for my aging Elantra.