Just got back from the dealer. Car is legal now! 
Dealer was much quieter today. I was in and out within 30mins. No issues whatsoever. Service manager said this was the 1st GT 6MT he's seen. He was shocked when he saw a manual shifter sticking up through the console. This car is an odd duck.
First "mod" (and I use the term loosely) is installing a front license plate bracket. The dealer screwed the front plate directly into the bumper. It looks terrible, so I'm ordering a proper mount.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Thanks for that. I tried to buld it on the Kia website and then have it tell me where to look, and that was rough.
Based on your link, there is one 6MT in FL, then next closest is 500 miles away in ATL or NC. Yikes.
The closest blue one is in DE 1000 miles away.
There is a nice blue one here in Kansas City.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to mr2s2000elise :
refusing test drives of some of their more expensive stuff while I was in the showroom. A guy and his wife came in to check out a Telluride
WOW easier for me to drive a Cullinan than a Telluride! Now I HAVE seen everything!
glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to ProDarwin :
Thanks for that. I tried to buld it on the Kia website and then have it tell me where to look, and that was rough.
Based on your link, there is one 6MT in FL, then next closest is 500 miles away in ATL or NC. Yikes.
The closest blue one is in DE 1000 miles away.
I just searched CarGurus again, this time for all 2020 GT cars with a manual trans in the country. I got only 41 listings. Next closest one to me is in NH, 65 miles away. There are not a lot of these out there. There are 135 DCT cars listed on the site.
As a comparison, between sedans and coupes, there are a total of 615 Civic Si's left. There are 846 Jetta GLI's on there; 199 6MT cars and 617 with the DSG.
Another thing that's confusing: Kia also offers a Forte "GT-Line" that looks like the GT but without the turbo engine.
You can tell them apart by the smaller wheels and lack of red accents in the grille. These have the N/A 2.0L instead of the 1.6L GDI Turbo. Other than that, they look the same.
If you are considering used, this powertrain was available in the Forte SX and Hyundai Elantra (sport?) as well. The Forte5 SX and Elantra GT are the 5 door variants of it. Pre 2019 is the older chassis which has a beam axle in back (even for the turbo cars).
I don't know if the sales shenanigans are related, but the service/warranty side of my dealership sucks :(. Had I known/done my research better it probably would've swayed my decision to some other brand.
Funnyish side story ... while I was in the “what do I want?” search phase, one consideration was a very slightly used Acura TLX. The Acura dealer is right next to the Hyundai dealer, in fact you drive thru the Hyundai lot and past their building front to get to Acura. I showed up right at opening time on a quiet weekday for the pre-arranged test drive, and saw all the Hyundai sales guys hanging out in front of the dealership smoking heaters, while all the Acura guys were inside at their desks doing business related looking things ... just struck me as interesting.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Yes, this drivetrain has been available since around 2017, I believe. I was looking at the 2017-18 Elantra Sport before checking this out. I think those also got the multilink setup out back as well; not sure on the older Forte SX.
The service aspect is a serious concern of mine. The car has a great warranty, but what good is it if the dealers in my area don't stand by it? We have been doing business with the dealer group's Mazda store which is literally next door to the Kia store, and they have been absolutely phenomenal. They even gave my wife some free oil changes and other services during this pandemic since she works in the healthcare industry. Oil changes were on Mazda due to a promotion (great move Mazda, BTW!), but they did some other stuff, including a set of tires. I'm hoping the experience at their Kia store is similar.
einy (Forum Supporter) said:all the Hyundai sales guys hanging out in front of the dealership smoking heaters, while all the Acura guys were inside at their desks doing business related looking things ...
I hope so for your sake.
The #1 reason for me buying a new car was to have something I didn't have to worry about at all when it came to reliability. I have one pretty annoying issue with my car (shifts like garbage). I have taken it in once and they "could not replicate the issue". That was a serious pain, but they had the shuttle service and I was still working normal schedule (pre-COVID). Right now they never have any loaners, and I can't exactly drop off/pick up my son with a shuttle service and last I checked their waiting area was closed so I couldn't hang out there either. I'm going to be so pissed when I finally manage to jump through hoops and bring this back and once again they "cannot replicate the issue".
Tony, does your car throttle hang at all (meaning revs stay high for a moment even after getting off the gas pedal) or has Kia figured out how to make emissions certification work without that annoyance? Reason I ask is that the new Si noticeably hangs, and will very likely receive a tune modification shortly to eliminate that.
In reply to ProDarwin :
That sucks. Is it something as simple as a fluid change, or is it a mechanical issue? I know my Mazda shifted like crap when it was near new. I was grinding the 1st-2nd shift all the time, and I read that switching to Redline synthetic fluid would help. Did that and the problem went away. It shifted fine, even with the noises it was making at the end. I plan on doing that to this thing when the time comes.
einy (Forum Supporter) said:Tony, does your car throttle hang at all (meaning revs stay high for a moment even after getting off the gas pedal) or has Kia figured out how to make emissions certification work without that annoyance? Reason I ask is that the new Si noticeably hangs, and will very likely receive a tune modification shortly to eliminate that.
Rev hang has been a Honda issue since I brought my S2000 home brand new. Fact that new Si still does it, is no surprise. Hope your mod fixes it.
In reply to einy (Forum Supporter) :
That's something I watched out for during the test drive. I noticed zero rev hang at all. Being what it is, I fully expected it. Rev-matching and downshifting feels pretty good so far.
I did hear that the Si is bad with that. I know all about the annoyances of rev hang from owning my 2009 WRX; that thing was THE WORST with that. At least it can be fixed with a tune.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to ProDarwin :
That sucks. Is it something as simple as a fluid change, or is it a mechanical issue? I know my Mazda shifted like crap when it was near new. I was grinding the 1st-2nd shift all the time, and I read that switching to Redline synthetic fluid would help. Did that and the problem went away. It shifted fine, even with the noises it was making at the end. I plan on doing that to this thing when the time comes.
I did switch to Redline Synthetic after the first trip, no change in symptoms. Maybe slave cylinder? or something with the delay valve? Some days it shifts just like new (which is great), other days its a total bitch. It doesn't grind, so much as you have to shift slowly or its super notchy feeling. I could probably go down the rabbit hole diagnosing the issue, but part of the reason I paid 20 berkeleying grand for a new car was so I wouldn't have to do that E36 M3.
On mine there is no rev hang at lower RPMs. But wind it out to 5500+ before you shift and the hang is *very* noticeable. Hyundai does not have good throttle mapping, although I've got used to mine in "sport" mode. Normal mode is an absolute deal-breaker - its a whore to drive.
Tune can fix all that from what I understand. Not sure if a tune fixes the stability control that cannot be defeated on these cars. A tune does add an easy ~60whp though 
Ok, one future "mod" is this:
Those are the stock wheels painted black. They look berking GREAT. When mine get crusty, this will happen.
The murdered out look
It was nice out today, so I tackled something I've meant to do for years now: freshen up my GRM license plate frames.
I've had these for nearly 10 years now, and this is the 3rd car they have been on. They are still in good shape, but the lettering was faded, as you can see. My wife suggested using her acrylic hobby paint and clearcoating them afterwards.
Yeah, that's better. I chose to paint the "Motorsports" part red, just like the logos on the website and everywhere else. Plus, they look better with all the black and red trim on the car.
In other news, I'm a week into this purchase, and it still doesn't feel like it's mine yet. I've logged about 300 miles so far. Trip computer says 30mpg on the nose, but we'll see when I fill it up. It's definitely taking some getting used to. Sport mode is really fun, I must say. I wish it stayed on when you shut off the car and start it again, but I don't know of any cars that do that, so NBD. One embarrassing thing is that I keep stalling it out. The Mazda had such weird clutch engagement that getting used to anything else is a learning curve. It will take time to get used to it. Speaking of curves, I still have not found its handling limits yet. On-ramps and twisties are a blast, and I can take them a tick higher than I did in the Mazda, which is impressive, since I consider that one of the best handling cars I have ever driven. It really does handle well for what it is.
A lot of people stall these a lot at first. That's a Kia/Hyundai throttle programming thing, not the result of a Mazda 3 clutch thing.
I remember stalling mine twice in a row trying to pull out into traffic before realizing I left it in 'normal' mode.
In reply to ProDarwin :
I have noticed that throttle response is better in Sport mode, and I stall less. I just have to get used to it. The Mazda did have odd clutch engagement since day one compared to just about every other car I've driven; this one seems more normal to be honest.
One of the things I was really skeptical about with buying this or any other small sedan was the lack of cargo space. The Mazda was a hatch, so I used it as a "truck" a lot, carrying everything from my drum kit to large car parts. Right now, I'm changing some things up in my "retro room", which is a small room in the house where my old video games, PC, guitars, and record collection reside. I'm basically turning it back into an office, since working from home at the kitchen table since March has been less than ideal. Part of doing that involved going to Walmart and grabbing another bookcase to put in the room. Last time I bought one, I had to fold the seats down in the Mazda to get it to fit. I could have taken the Power Wagon, but I wanted to see if the GT could also do "truck stuff".
I could have fit at least 2 more of these in the trunk alone. Impressive.
I can tell you the beam rear axle cars had hugenormously deep trunks. All the suspension is compact and outside the trunck area and the beam sits low making an idiotic amount of trunk space for such a small car.
Still getting used to the car; it's so much different than the Mazda in many ways. Some random observations:
-Cargo and interior space is still impressing me. After my bookcase purchase, I went out and bought an entertainment center with it. Yup, fit in the trunk. Had to bring a large boxed desk back to a store yesterday and it almost fit in the trunk without folding the seats down. Crazy.
-People have zero clue WTF it is. I don't blame them, because I had zero clue WTF this was until they popped up in my car search a few weeks ago. I've gotten some weird looks so far. Kia/Hyundai drivers seem the most interested. I've "caught" two guys checking it out in parking lots while getting into an older Forte and an older Elantra respectively. Both were especially interested in the wheels. The Elantra guy audibly said "Whoa!".
-I haven't fully laid into it yet, but highway maneuvers (on-ramps, passing, etc) are brisk compared to the Mazda. I really missed that! On the highway, it's just a tick slower than my last WRX, but not by much.
-I've been challenged to highway pulls by Nissan Altimas a few times so far. That happened in the Mazda all the time, so that's nothing new. Not sure what's up with that. Furthermore, I'm not sure what's up with Altima drivers around here; they really need to stop that.
-Kia's UVO Services are not worth signing up for. I tried out the free trial and it's bad. The phone app is clunky and wants to stay on all the time, and it really doesn't do anything you can't do with an OBDII reader and some phone apps. People pay actual money for this?
-I've used Android Auto in some other cars, and I have to say this is the cleanest, easiest, and fastest iteration of it that I've used so far. Integration with Google Assistant is fantastic; telling it to navigate somewhere, message someone, or dial a number works great with no fuss. Audio quality for music over the connection is really great as well. Only knock I could give it, and it's minor, is that it has to be plugged into the USB to work. I wish it would work wirelessly, so I can slap the phone on the wireless charger and have full Android Auto action, but this is a $24k car, so I totally understand.
Overall, so far, so good. It's a really fun car.
Funny about altimas racing you
given the ownership demographics of Altimas, and especially Nissans of late, that is especially hilarious
Tony Sestito said:
-I've used Android Auto in some other cars, and I have to say this is the cleanest, easiest, and fastest iteration of it that I've used so far. Integration with Google Assistant is fantastic; telling it to navigate somewhere, message someone, or dial a number works great with no fuss. Audio quality for music over the connection is really great as well. Only knock I could give it, and it's minor, is that it has to be plugged into the USB to work.
Yikes. I haven't tried it in many others cars. In general the interface is good. The rest of the experience is inconsistent, flaky, slow, etc.
What governs the speed, the infotainment setup, or the phone itself? Because mine is slow as berk. Also flaky as hell. Sometimes it wont connect for some reason. And if you try and do too many things too quickly... like you know, switching apps, it will lockup/have a meltdown.
Also a super annoying gripe, If you press in on the volume button on the steering wheel:
There is no discrete pause button when using AA, you have to touch the touchscreen. I hate this.
I don't know how much of any of this is Hyundai/Kia, Android (os), or phone.
Altima related: Any of the V6 or turbo altimas should be faster (barely) :P
You'll need to log in to post.
