Don't think I shared this with y'all.
As some of you know the wife and I are car shopping for a car to replace our very good but slowly dying 99 Toyota Camry as our daily driver.
Anyway, we went out and drove the new Kia Forte and we both really liked it. I think unless we can find a Mazda speed 3 cheaper it's the car I'm going to push for purchase.
Wife says...
Quote:
i liked it
there felt like quite a bit of roll on the really tight turns, but it handled it well, and the seats held me in place. pickup was good, but not overpowering. i wouldn't confuse it for a big engine car, but it had enough to handle its own
The overall style/shape of the car is nice. Nothing too wild or mild. Doesn't quite remind me of any one other car and it looks kinda sporty, but it's a 4 door so I have no delusions about it.
The car we drove had the 2.4L engine in it with a 5 speed automatic. The engine felt real smooth and the transmission shifted nicely. It's got like 173HP and 160 something lbft of torque. So I could feel it pulling, but could tell it was a bit slower than the Camry (the camry's a V6 and has another 20HP). Gas mileage is 22/32 which is good.
I tried doing the manual shift thing with the shift leaver over in the +/- slot. The transmission seemed to quickly respond to my inputs. Not as quick as a manual, but way faster than my brother's old Buick GN. I guess it's about like my old C4 was.
Gauges in the car were a little flashy with red pointers swinging past glowing soft white numbers and scales. I like the look and figure they would be really easy to read at night. I would have liked to seen gauges for oil, electric/battery, and temperature though.
The cloth interior was not bad at all. The front seats were comfortable and seemed to hold me in place well. They were pretty cushy and I think they'd be great for our long road trips. The rear seats were comfortable and I really liked that there was an armrest for rear passengers to use. Leg room, and head room was great. Plenty of room for us to wear our helmets during autocross sessions.
I liked the way the car handled. We took it into a parking lot and my wife and I took turns driving crazy around the light poles. There was a bit of body roll, but the car seemed very responsive to my steering inputs. When my wife was driving I could feel the weight of the car transition from left to right, but at no point did it feel like the car was out of shape. I did feel when she past the limits of adhesion for the front tires. There was understeer, but it didn't feel bad when I drove the car mildly aggressively.
Over the bumpy Lubbock roads the ride felt firm, but not jarring. I was hoping to find a few shallow potholes, but there weren't any on our route.
Yeah it was a nice car. Of course I'd like to have more power, but what was there was good enough to make me feel confident that I could merge into traffic on the loop without dying. I also would like to see what the seats would feel like in leather. Course that adds another 1600 dollars to the car's base price (18,000 or so for the base 2.4L).
Kia Cars, SUV, Minivans, & Future Vehicles - Kia Motors America
We also drove a Ford Fusion 2.5L SEL. Great seats, smooth steering, about the same power. Nice car, but, I felt like I was driving my mom's old Mercury Grand Marque. Not at all sporty feeling. The room in the rear was incredible, more roomy and comfortable than any other car we've driven to this point. The Fusion is a really nicely built and impressive car, but it just is not what we are looking for. Too practical. Too much like a 4 door family car for my tastes.
(I'll be waiting for a while...)
